Last night I attended a meeting for the Atwater Village Streetscape Study and Masterplan. Those of you who care not for such matters, please, I beg and beseech of you, skip to the next entries. They're really good.

Those who dare, click "MORE."

As previously alluded, despite not ever being a resident of Atwater Village, I am a stakeholder in any sense of the word, having single-handedly pumped literally thousands of dollars into their local economy, all of which was like getting type AB- blood out of a turnip.

The Streetscape Study seeks to determine what to do about the section of Glendale Blvd. between the bridge and the railroad overcrossing. (I told you, skip to the next entries if you aren't interested. Don't click away, just skip please.) They have three plans: keeping Glendale as 6 lanes is the first, and the other two are variants on reducing Glendale to 4 lanes.

Apparently, no traffic study has yet been done. I think that's asking for trouble. Here are my actions points:

- If you're standing on the corner of Glenfeliz and Glendale looking up at the bridge, there are actually 4 lanes of traffic heading towards you: 2 lanes coming down the bridge on Hyperion, and two lanes on Glendale coming from the direction of the freeway. Those 4 lanes are reduced to 3 lanes before Glenfeliz. That already creates a bit of a jam up during rush hour, especially for those who wish to turn left at Glenfeliz. Under two of the proposals, those 3 lanes would then be reduced to 2.

I think that's going to cause a problem. You're going to need precise traffic control to prevent the bridge or Glendale around the freeway from getting clogged. Remember that the last light before the bridge is way at the top at Rowena, and that the freeway traffic is currently basically uncontrolled. That is to say, the freeway traffic can arrive at any time, and it's only restrained by whether someone can turn right or not. Which is to a certain extent controlled by the light at Glendale and Riverside, but then again right turners headed north on Riverside can turn right at any time, likewise controlled by the traffic coming down the Glendale hill.

- A somewhat heretical proposal I might make would be to tear out or reduce the width of the center divider. That would let the traffic lanes take up the center portion of the street, allowing for more space on either side for, say, wider sidewalks or bike lanes or planters. I don't know how much that would cost however; in addition to the traffic disruption, it would probably require a lot of labor to remove the divider and then resurface the street.

- I don't know anything about traffic studies, but a cheap way to conduct such a study would be to block off one of the lanes on Glendale using traffic cones during a few rush hours. Then, observe whether people are backed up.

- If Glendale gets backed up, that might force traffic onto the already clogged Los Feliz, or onto Fletcher which isn't that clogged. But, when the Fletcher traffic gets to San Fernando, it will contribute to that highly clogged street, and might require a left turn signal at the intersection.

- As with Dennis (see, I'm even starting to know these people's names!), I agree that ads on the bus benches are a very bad idea and would detract from the hoped-for village feel.

- If they add a bike lane, what will happen to the lane going towards Silverlake after Glenfeliz? There is no space for the lane either going up the hill or going over the River. That's just a question, I'm sure the answer would be something like a "Bike Lane Ends" sign.

Thus ends today's Atwater Village report.