Pedestrians

After reading Herbert Thrift's letter regarding the two kids on bikes who were ticketed for not wearing helmets, I am compelled to add my own comments. ("Active Policing is Burbank's pride," April 15). Mr. Thrift states "the intersection in question (Olive and Pass avenue) is definitely not the place for 11-year-olds to be riding bicycles." I understand he means well, but he is wrong! Generally speaking, bikes are prohibited from freeways and sidewalks.

HOME DEPOT APPEAL WHAT HAPPENED City Council postponed the public hearing regarding the appeal filed by two Burbank residents of the proposed Home Depot project and day-labor center. WHAT IT MEANS The hearing will continue on April 27, since Councilman Dave Golonski and appellants Howard Rothenbach and Mike Nolan were absent. On March 16, the council approved a conditional-use permit for Home Depot, with an agreement that the store build a day-labor facility and pay $94,000 in yearly operational costs.

Bands of bicyclists descended upon the Chandler Bikeway at California Street on Saturday for the third annual self-guided bike tour of the Magnolia Park business district. Hundreds of bicyclists, after registering at a tent on the Chandler Bikeway, got their “passports” stamped at participating shops along Magnolia Boulevard in what organizers said has become an increasingly important marketing tool for the district, especially given the unfolding recession. As opposed to the Be-Boppin in the Park car show event, which typically draws thousands of people from throughout the region, Saturday’s “Egg-Cellent” Magnolia Bicycle Tour was conceived to take aim at the more immediate area, said Robin Faulk, marketing director for the Magnolia Park Partnership.

Teens need to think of consequences Speeding vehicles in Glendale and Burbank have grown dramatically in recent months due to more and more teenagers getting behind the wheels. Their parents buy them new and expensive vehicles after they get their driver licenses. Those teenagers take having a new vehicle for granted and begin driving fast on Glendale-Burbank streets without thinking of having a horrible accident or running over a pedestrian. In recent years, Glendale has been placed on the 15th most dangerous cities in California for pedestrians and motorcyclists.

Ben Godar Despite sharp criticism this week from City Council members, Burbank-Glendale-Pas- adena Airport officials maintain that foot traffic from a privately owned parking lot creates safety and liability problems, and say they have no plans to accommodate pedestrians in the area. Since Star Park opened in January, airport officials have closed a crosswalk leading from the lot to Terminal B and have put up no-crossing signs. In March, airport police began issuing $90 tickets to violators, but stopped doing so after a judge ruled June 9 that the airport did not have the authority to enforce the regulation.

Warning: Pay attention and avoid grief Place: Sunset Canyon Avenue, south bound from Olive Avenue. Problem: Pedestrian vs. car accident bound to happen. Reason 1 -- Pedestrians and vehicles both share use of the roadway because there are no sidewalks. Reason 2 -- Pedestrians seem oblivious to fact that they are hard to see, especially during the evening hours, and some seem to think they enjoy the same rights to the road as the vehicles. Reason 3 -- Drivers ignore posted 30 mph speed limit.

In his Nov. 5 Community Commentary about the Chandler Bikeway (“Bike speed limit not required”), John Gaskill makes a number of assertions, most of which are wrong. Instead of a long fact-versus-fiction list, I’ll say this: The Chandler Bikeway is a dangerous place. Its very design and creation guaranteed that. There are two primary reasons: One, it invites and encourages a diverse and concentrated group of users, some of whom are traveling much faster than the others, and this creates an inevitable intermixing and colliding of the groups.

Ben Godar The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, walking that line is illegal. Since the opening in January of Star Park, a private parking lot just south of the airport's property, airport officials have restricted its sidewalk access to the airport. The airport installed a chain-link fence, cutting off a crosswalk from the sidewalk to Terminal B, and used a sandblaster to remove the paint marking the crosswalk.