April 2, 2009

Freshly Baked Donuts at New, Improved Intersection

OH WELL. Within days of the City's installation of a $110,000 curb improvement to the large 5-way intersection where Glenfeliz, Dover and Valleybrink meet (you know, the one intended to prevent vehicles from dangerously spinning tire marks) today's new photo shows how someone came along just after 11:30am and dangerously spun tire marks. As if it were a personal challenge.

See this AVNC forum thread about compromises that may or may not have been made in the intersection redesign

And another photo shows before-after donuts.

7 comments:

Hyperion Volunteers said...

I'm saddened by the recent thread of bad news in our neighborhood. There's a lot of good that happens here too, but thank you, Newbie, for staying on top of it all and keeping us informed -- the good, the bad and the ugly.

I hate to say I told you so, but it didn't take an engineering degree to figure out that there was still enough space for the donuts, PLUS a newly created public safety hazard of the donut-making-truck hitting the curb of the new triangle and flipping. I don't understand why they didn't put a roundabout in. Do you think the city will do anything to revise the plan? Should we call Garcetti's office?

rusty said...

I've always thought a traffic circle would be good there....and even at the next stop sign down.

Unknown said...

I wonder what the workers there this morning thought...

Sparky said...

something about this really pisses me off. how did you find out what your improvements cost the city?

my street in east LA (used to live in Atwater and, frankly, when i read freshly baked donuts, had to click it.

Sparky said...

Sorry, got distracted. My street in Monterey Hills just was repaved. No curb work, but it did take more than a month to complete work that literally took three days to do once they were here and focused on it.

Now people are peeling down the street to the stop sign three houses away.

SStanard said...

We had originally proposed a calming circle/traffic circle/roundabout to the city. They actually drew up plans for one, along with plans for this bump-out. Here's why we didn't get a traffic circle.

1) It cost over $300K.

2) All the stop signs would have been changed to yield signs. City rules.

3) All the manhole covers in the intersect raised sewer-access issues.

4) The curbs leading into the intersection would have lost a lot of parking, since they would have had to have been painted red deep into the block. Again, city rules. Neighbors who depend on street parking would not have been pleased.

The original design for this bump-out came out into the intersection 3-4 feet farther. While this extra intrusion into the intersection may not have made much difference, it would have been nice to have it. Still, at least the city responded with something. It will look nicer once the landscaping is in.

Hopefully this is phase one. We still need a solution to this from the city. Simple ideas such as bumps and raised dots have been floated. We are part of a neighborhood group that's addressing this issue. This isn't the end of it.

SStanard said...

"3) All the manhole covers in the intersect raised sewer-access issues."

I meant "intersection".