Altadena mourned the deaths of two community members, Tarnie Fulloon Israelsson and Kent Pulver, who were both killed in traffic collisions last month. To make the city’s streets safer in 2023, LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger introduced a motion to review pedestrian and traffic safety in Altadena.
“The motion truly is focused on keeping pedestrians safe in Altadena,” Barger said. “When I met with the Altadena Town Council, I let them know that we were going to initiate a traffic study to find out what is going on and see if there are things that we need to do as it relates to protecting the safety of people that are walking. Especially in a community like Altadena that does not have sidewalks, it’s important for us to look at the speed limit and just other factors that may come into play.”
The motion, which was passed with unanimous approval, will give public works’ traffic safety professionals 45 days to analyze traffic conditions on two particular roadway corridors, with one lying on Holliston Avenue between Altadena and New York drives, and the other on Fair Oaks Avenue between Loma Alta and Altadena drives.
The resulting report, which will be evaluated by public works and the Altadena Town Council, will be used to inform the actions of local government in creating and implementing effective traffic solutions.
“I let the experts take a look and actually tell me if there’s really nothing, if it was just an accident, that, quite frankly, people are not following the speed limit, … then we talk about enforcement,” Barger explained. “I think we need to then really go out into the community and educate them about the fact that pedestrians, while you have the right of way, you have a responsibility and a role in keeping yourself safe.”
As someone who enjoys frequent morning walks, Barger explained that pedestrians, especially those walking in darkness, can help protect themselves with lighting and gear that makes them more visible to traffic. The supervisor’s hope for the future, alongside using education and communication to lessen the amount of traffic collisions, is that more transit systems will be built in Altadena to reduce the number of cars on the road.
“I think the great thing about the county and I, and I’m really honored to work with a great town council, is that we can do things in real time,” Barger said. “I’ve got great staff that understands how public works operates as it relates to looking at studies like this, and so we put the motion together in real time. But understand that this is only one piece of what this county’s doing. We’ve got the Vision Zero project, which really focuses on the high concentration of accidents that are taking place in all parts of the county. … The title for Vision Zero, the vision is having zero fatalities based on this traffic mitigation that we can do throughout the county.”
According to reports, 9,560 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the first quarter of 2022 in the United States, a 7% increase from the same quarter of the previous year. It’s the highest number of first quarter fatalities in the country since 2002.
“My hope for the future of Altadena and the traffic ecosystem is that we continue to reinforce the fact that people need to slow down,” Barger said. “Whether you’re going to get there five minutes faster is not worth the dangers that are created by people that are speeding.
“All my colleagues and I are focused on always trying to keep up to date, especially given the fact that more people are riding their bikes, more people are walking. I think it’s important for us to always reevaluate. … We felt it was an opportune time for us to take the initiative to begin to look at this traffic study.”
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