Street decals bring safety messages for Glendale pedestrians
Residents and visitors walking along Brand Boulevard in Glendale may notice a series of large yellow circles that now dot the downtown area.
The street decals are part of a new outreach campaign from the city encouraging pedestrians to cross the street safely. Roughly 60 decals were installed last week and can be found on a stretch of the boulevard from Colorado Street to the 134 Freeway.
The decals can be found near major intersections and at the beginnings of midblock street crossings.
Juan Gonzalez, project manager for the city’s road-safety campaign called Be Street Smart Glendale, said the decals cycle through four different safety messages for walkers. One message asks pedestrians to make eye contact with a driver before going through a crosswalk, while another tells people to wait for the walk signal before crossing.
Previous campaigns targeted drivers and bicyclists, according to Gonzalez.
“It’s a pilot program and, if this takes off, it could be replicated in other parts of the city,” Gonzalez said.
According to 2015 statistics from the California Office of Traffic Safety, 151 pedestrians were killed or injured in Glendale as a result of traffic collisions that year.
A spokesperson with the office said those figures are the most up-to-date numbers it has because it relies on data provided by other government agencies.
Among 57 cities of similar size, Glendale ranked second in the number of pedestrian-involved collisions in 2015.
The city ranked eighth for collisions involving pedestrians under 15 years old, and it was first for collisions involving people 65 and older.
Twitter: @Andy_Truc
