Aug 9, 2008 2:22 pm US/Pacific
100s Of Parents Protest Jefferson Park Trains
LOS ANGELES
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Community activists point to more than 85 people killed in the past two decades since the Blue Line began shuttling trains between Long Beach and downtown L.A., and say that pedestrian deaths are inevitable in Jefferson Park unless walkways are created.
Courtesy Los Angeles Country Metropolitan Authority
More than a hundred parents and students marched between two large public schools in the city's Jefferson Park district Saturday, unhappy that a light-rail line now under construction could endanger the safety of thousands of pedestrians.
The new trains will pass down the middle of Exposition Boulevard where the artery passes two large high schools and five smaller campuses, but does not include any pedestrian or train grade separations at nearby busy intersections.
Community activists point to more than 85 people killed in the past two decades since the Blue Line began shuttling trains between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles, and say that pedestrian deaths are inevitable in Jefferson Park unless underpasses or overpasses are added.
But the Metropolitan Transportation Agency says safety lessons have been learned since the Blue Line was built, and point to fences and improved traffic gates along the Gold Line through crowded Highland Park and Pasadena, which has suffered one fatality.
The pedestrian-management gates and fences planned for the Expo Line do no satisfy neighborhood activist Damien Goodmon, who organized today's march.
He said there is no way trains can zip past Dorsey High and Foshay Middle schools, which can each release 700 kids at once.
"Their solution to this is a holding pen, an area with fencing where they think they can herd kids into and have them wait until the train passes by," Goodmon said after today's rally. "There is just no way that can be done safely."
The state Public Utilities Commission on Monday starts a public hearing, at which safety experts from both sides will try to convince the commission of their cause. A decision is expected in November.
Construction has already begun on the $640 million project that will eventually link the Convention Center to Culver City, and pass within site of at least five public schools.
The only grade separations along the route will be at the University of Southern California, where USC is chipping in for an underpass at the complicated intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Figueroa and Flower streets.
The train line may eventually be extended west from Culver City to Santa Monica using an old Southern Pacific freight right of way that last saw trains in 1989. Residents in the Cheviot Hills area are opposed to that alignment, and want the trains to zig-zag via Sepulveda and Venice boulevards to avoid passing through their neighborhood.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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