Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council › UPDATES from Councilwoman Rodriguez regarding Sunland-Tujunga Traffic Safety Improvements

Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council

UPDATES from Councilwoman Rodriguez regarding Sunland-Tujunga Traffic Safety Improvements

Posted on 04/02/21

Hello, there. As you may know, traffic safety is of paramount importance to both the Councilwoman and to myself, and I am happy to share the latest update on some of the Councilwoman's recent work on traffic safety projects here in Sunland-Tujunga. We have partnered closely with the LA Department of Transportation to improve traffic safety through engineering improvements here in Sunland-Tujunga, as engineering improvements are critical to improve traffic safety, along with enforcement and education:

Installed/completed:

January 2019 - restriped signalized 4-way intersections along Foothill Blvd with higher-visibility continental crosswalks
January 2019 - installed bollards at the curve near Foothill and Mt Gleason/Summitrose to prevent the illegal left-turn that drivers were continually making at that location
Early 2019 - secured $4 million in federal earmark grant funding to address traffic issues at dangerous intersections throughout our district, including several projects along Foothill Blvd in Sunland-Tujunga (see below)
May, and September 2019 - added a stop sign at Grove/Oro Vista, and implemented a restriping plan where Big Tujunga Canyon joins Oro Vista Avenue, to slow speeders coming out of the Angeles Forest before entering this residential Sunland neighborhood
October 2019 - implemented an entire restriping plan along Apperson between Mountair and Tujunga Canyon Blvd to address speeding and other unsafe behavior by drivers near the sensitive sites of the school and church located on that block
February 2020 - implemented restriping plan at area of Tujunga Canyon Blvd and St. Esteban to address conditions of speeding at this curve
March 2020 - restriped crosswalks at Foothill/Valmont as continental crosswalks, repainted staggered limit lines on the northbound lanes of Foothill as a straight line to tighten up the intersection, and added 'no right turn on red' signage for vehicles turning right onto Foothill from the westbound direction of Valmont. Also approved a left-turn phasing signal at this intersection and currently working to try to identify funding for implementation
October 2020 - installed left-turn phasing signal at Foothill/Apperson

Upcoming engineering improvements:

Installation of left-turn phasing signal at Foothill/Tujunga Canyon - anticipated completion April 2021
Earmark grant projects located in Sunland-Tujunga: left turn phasing signal at Foothill/Mt Gleason, an emergency hybrid beacon at Foothill/Machrea in front of our LAFD station, a pedestrian hybrid beacon (also known as a HAWK beacon) at Foothill/Wyngate, and four speed feedback signs to be installed along Foothill Blvd. - traffic designs are complete, nearing completion of civil ramp designs, then the project will go out to bid. After 6 month bidding period, this grant will be awarded and projects will be implemented immediately after
Installation of left-turn phasing signal at Foothill/Oro Vista - traffic signal design completed, civil designs for this intersection currently underway through Task Order Solicitation by DOT

In addition to larger safety projects, we also provide casework for individual requests, such as stop sign requests or speed hump requests, for instance. We will continue to partner with LADOT to bring more engineering changes and better design to problem areas throughout our communities. For more information on some of our other traffic safety projects in adjacent communities, such as the La Tuna Canyon road safety project completed in 2018, the upcoming Foothill Blvd road safety project scheduled in Lake View Terrace, as well as improvements implemented and underway along Wentworth in Shadow Hills, please feel free to reach out to me and I can share more information.

The Councilwoman has also worked to bring increased speeding and traffic enforcement to Foothill Blvd and all of Sunland-Tujunga. The traffic survey for Foothill Blvd had expired all the way back in 2010, which means that LAPD had not been able to use radar/laser enforcement to issue speeding tickets along Foothill Blvd since then. Once the Councilwoman took office in 2017, she worked with the LADOT to prioritize getting a new traffic survey done on Foothill Blvd to allow speeding enforcement by our traffic officers to recommence, and this survey happened in January of 2018. Speeding enforcement began shortly thereafter and we have worked closely with the Valley Traffic division to ensure that we have regular speeding and traffic enforcement throughout Sunland-Tujunga. In last year's fiscal budget, the City approved an additional $1.5 million in overtime funding for additional traffic enforcement on our High-Injury Network streets, which includes Foothill Blvd in Sunland-Tujunga. The Councilwoman also sponsored a resolution to request the State's support in increasing funding through the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant, which provides overtime funding for traffic officers throughout the City of Los Angeles; you can read this resolution at https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=20-0002-S21. In 2020, LAPD received $5.5 million from the California Office of Traffic Safety, an increase over the $5 million received in 2019. LAPD's Volunteer Community Patrol also introduced a new opportunity last year, in which local volunteers in uniforms and with LAPD-issued cars began shooting radar/laser on main corridors like Foothill Blvd, and identified speeders are issued a warning letter by the LAPD. We anticipate that the very presence of these patrol members shooting radar will catch the attention of many drivers and help to slow speeds on these busy corridors.

In addition, we are continuing to partner with our local schools to work on traffic safety issues on and around their campuses through crossing guard, restriping, and other environmental requests, such as the new sidewalks that will be installed along Oro Vista as part of the upcoming $10 million Oro Vista Urban Flow Management project. We are also working with them on traffic safety education, through Walk-to-School Days, and by connecting them with the DOT’s Safe Routes to School program, which provides free on-campus traffic safety education for students, parents, and staff. We also provided over 100 large traffic safety banners last year to the elementary and middle schools throughout our district, and also have installed these banners on several main corridors, like Foothill, Wentworth, and La Tuna Canyon.

Our district has had inconstant, lacking, and even absent Council representation over the decade prior to the Councilwoman's election to this office, and there is a great deal of pent-up need in our communities that she is working very hard to remedy. It takes all of us working together to identify issues, and to leverage the resources to address them. I would also like to encourage you to sign up for our weekly email newsletter, which details legislation, events and accomplishments in our district, at monicarodriguez.org. Thank you again for your partnership, and we look forward to continuing our work together to improve our communities.