Over the past 10 years, the City of Glendale has consistently ranked high on the list of California cities with the most dangerous drivers. They routinely violate vehicle and traffic laws and threaten the safety of other drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, children and pets. This is a public safety issue as well as a quality of life issue.
Despite the commendable job by the Glendale Police Department (GPD), and excellent initiatives such as “Be Street Smart Glendale,” the following problems persist:
- Speeding, dangerous, reckless, and aggressive driving.
- Street racing in residential neighborhoods and on major streets.
- Loud, illegally modified vehicles.
- Vehicles without license plates and/or vehicles with illegally tinted windows that make it virtually impossible to identify violators.
The signers of this petition are asking the Mayor, the current and future City Council Members, the City Manager, and the Glendale Traffic Commission to provide the GPD, the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD), and the Glendale Public Works the resources required to tackle and solve this problem. We suggest the following measures be considered as part of a city-wide plan as soon as possible:
- Increase funding of the GPD to specifically target these issues.
- Increase funding of the GPD every year so the GPD can have the number of officers and staff proportionate to population increases because of new residential, commercial, and hotel developments and the revenue they generate for the city.
- Expand vehicle check points and speed and traffic enforcement around the city in conjunction with the current Be Street Smart Glendale Initiative launched Nov. 1, 2016, with a grant from Caltrans.
- Increase traffic enforcement immediately by authorizing the use of overtime to compensate off-duty officers to work traffic enforcement details, and seeking grant funds for doing this, and/or paying overtime for on-duty officers and/or hiring retired or reserve officers.
- Increase the use of traffic calming measures in neighborhoods with a history of traffic collisions and citizen complaints, as well as around schools and parks.
- Provide funding to GUSD to conduct “Every Fifteen Minutes,” a two-day presentation at high schools that dramatizes the loss of classmates to traffic accidents, to teach traffic safety, starting in elementary school, so children can influence their parents to drive safely, not to text and drive, not to speed, etc., and to return drivers education back to the schools.
- Increase enforcement of California Laws, Sections 27151 VC , 27150 VC and 27201-27206 VC, that prohibit the modification of the exhaust system to amplify or increase the noise emitted by the vehicle. And increase enforcement directed toward businesses in Glendale that illegally modify vehicle engines or exhaust systems.
- Increase development impact fees to go for more traffic enforcement, and to establish a percentage of development impact fees charged for new developments to include the cost of adding police, fire, and supporting city services proportionate to the increase in population.
Instructions^ Top
Please sign and pass on this petition if you live in the City of Glendale, CA, and would like to have safer streets for your children, your family, and yourself. Sign this petition if you would like to improve the quality of life in your neighborhood and reduce noise pollution. If you would like to feel safe walking or biking in your neighborhood and for your kids to be able to walk and bike safely around their schools and in the parks, we ask that you support this petition by signing it and passing it on to neighbors, parents, co-workers, and friends who live in the City of Glendale for the benefit of all who live in our beautiful city.
Drive Safe Glendale welcomes all residents and homeowners to join us in the coalition, and we don’t discriminate against any race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.
Thank you in advance for your time and cooperation. We also thank the City of Glendale officials in advance for listening to their constituents.
Drive Safe Glendale, A Coalition of Glendale Residents Concerned About Traffic Safety