Speak Now before the deadline

Speak Now: Glendale’s Mobility Element Could Redefine Our Streets and Our Neighborhoods. The City of Glendale is asking residents to weigh in on its Draft Mobility Element, the plan that shapes how we move around the city by car, bike, bus, or foot. On the surface, it sounds like progress. Who doesn’t want safer sidewalks, better bus stops, or improved crosswalks? But look closer, and the same plan also proposes the elimination of traffic lanes on major corridors like Verdugo Road, La Crescenta Avenue, Honolulu Avenue, Glendale Avenue, and more. If you care about how you commute, how your kids get to school, or how emergency vehicles reach your neighborhood, this is the moment to speak up.

The public comment window has been extended.

Submit your comment on the Mobility Plan – Click Here

Glendale is putting forward a vision we can all support in part—safer crossings, bump outs, landscaped sidewalks, and transit improvements are meaningful upgrades that should move forward.

At the same time, the plan expands bicycle networks and introduces bus-only lanes and other transit-priority changes. On paper, it sounds progressive. But when the foundation is built on numbers that are decades old, the direction of the plan becomes questionable.

The numbers are outdated—many dating back 10, 15, even 20 years—and that is why concerns about data and timing matter.

The last comprehensive Mobility Element was adopted in 1998. The City references newer concepts like Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), which became law under Senate Bill 743 in 2020, but has not shown which year of corridor-specific traffic counts are anchoring its recommendations. The Bicycle Transportation Plan that guides the network was adopted in 2012 and has not yet been fully updated. Even the maps included in this draft are stamped April 2020—before the pandemic reshaped travel patterns, before delivery traffic surged, and before we saw how freeway congestion continues to spill over onto our arterials. Building permanent lane reductions on data this old is not good planning.

Lane reductions may look good on paper, but these are evacuation routes—and in a major disaster, permanent bike lanes and fewer travel lanes could become life-threatening bottlenecks.

On La Crescenta Avenue or Verdugo Road, traffic will not disappear—it will cut through neighborhoods, bringing congestion and safety risks to the very streets the plan says it wants to protect. More importantly, these arterials are critical evacuation routes during wildfires, earthquakes, and freeway shutdowns. Reducing lanes or dedicating space to permanent Class I bike lanes could impede emergency response when our community needs it most.

Mobility ties directly into housing—and this plan may be laying the groundwork for more multi-family density in single-family neighborhoods.

Mobility, housing, and the General Plan are interconnected. Without transparency and public input, decisions made in one area can reshape land use and neighborhood character across Glendale.

The City extended the General Plan comment period after pushback—why not do the same here?

The public comment window opened on September 3, 2025, and will close on October 3, 2025. No Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been released. How can residents provide informed feedback without seeing the impacts? Dedicated public meetings, like those held for the General Plan, are needed before irreversible changes are made.

If the deadline isn’t extended, residents must act now.

This is the time to tell Glendale what works and what doesn’t. Do we want safer sidewalks and better crosswalks? Yes. Do we want fewer travel lanes on evacuation routes and major arterials without updated counts? No. You only have until October 3, 2025 to speak up. Please take a few minutes to log on, review the draft, and submit your input: Glendale Mobility Element Comment Portal.

Robbyn Battles La Crescenta Realtor, Glendale Mobility Element, Verdugo Road lane reduction, La Crescenta Avenue traffic, Honolulu Avenue bike lanes, Brand Boulevard congestion, SB 79 housing density Glendale, SB 743 Vehicle Miles Traveled Glendale, Glendale evacuation routes, Montrose community planning, Crescenta Valley real estate, Glendale General Plan update, Glendale bike plan 2012, Glendale transportation planning, Foothills real estate insights.