So if you remember, last week I wrote about how Glendale is listed in the Worst Drivers in America as number 3. I asked what can we do to make our city a safer place for driving? Here are some of my thoughts.
1. Make Driver Education a mandatory class. Glendale Unified School District can apply for defense department grants and claim the need for money to pay for this under National Security.
2. GDMV (Glendale Department of Motor Vehicle) – Lets start our own GDMV and issue driver license. Lets make it safer by making it tougher.
3. Civil Suits – I’m no lawyer but I say that the city sues the car dealers and manufactures. Lets not sell over powered cars to people who can’t drive them safely. If the car companies and dealers learn that they will be held responsible for the people who buy them then they might think twice about selling them to anyone.
4. Raise the driving age to 21 in Glendale. – Why not? If you can make it illegal to purchase alcohol until you are 21 why not make it illegal to drive a car until you are 21?
5. Improve Public Transportation – Glendale (and everywhere else in Los Angeles) needs better Public Transportation. If people could get around town easier without a car they wouldn’t drive so much. Less driving equals safer roads.
6. Crossing Guards at all Schools! – Yes I know it’s crazy but really. How much do crossing guards cost? I’m thinking they can’t be a really big ticket item but yet they can save lives every day! So come on, lets
7. Sidewalks – Do you know that there are some neighborhoods near schools that don’t have sidewalks? This requires children to walk in the road on their way to school and home again? Let’s make sure that every neighborhood within 5 miles of every public school has a sidewalk!
8. Car Tax! – Lets make a crazy high tax for everyone who owns a car and stores it within the city of Glendale. The city can own a huge parking lot on the edge of town and with all that money from the car tax they can pay for a public transportation system to get people to the public lot. Maybe the Car Tax can help pay for the sidewalks, the crossing guards, etc.
Here Here! I could really get behind holding car dealerships responsible for selling powerful cars to people who don’t know how to handle it properly and responsibly.
Let’s go a step further and only allow road ready golf carts (Catalina style) within our city limits! Our city isn’t so big that you can’t get there in a golf cart. Speeding will be obsolete. Just like the old westerners had to check their guns before coming into town – check your car. Walk, bike, use public transportation. Only certain roads at certain times of day will be available for truck deliveries and they will have to pay a HUGE toll for the privilege.
Here’s another idea: Bring back school buses to GUSD, and discourage high school students from driving to school by not providing parking spaces for them on campus. Make the residential streets around the high schools permit parking for residents only. That might make it less appealing for teenagers to have their own cars. Maybe then we’d see less of them speeding around town in their Beemers and Benzes like they own the place.
I agree. The buses need to come back. If budget is a concern (as it always is) then just bring them back for the elementary schools. Make it next to impossible to park or drop your kid off with your own car in front of the school. Middle and high school kids can take city buses. Also, make more SAFE bike lanes and SAFE walking patterns to the school. Right now our city is totally geared towards driving everywhere. Biking and walking routes are barely even an afterthought.