Council Green-Lights Improved Bus Service

A rail line for the San Fernando Valley may be a far-off hope, but buses are getting their own green light.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to spend $52,000 to go with a $703,000 Metropolitan Transportation Authority grant designed to improve the efficiency of Valley buses. Nearly all the money will be spent on “queue jumpers,” separate green lights mounted near existing traffic signals that allow buses to enter intersections several seconds before other traffic.

The city’s first queue jumper was recently installed at 8th and Figueroa avenues downtown.

With a queue jumper, “the signal that the automobile driver sees is the red,” said principal transportation engineer Richard Jaramillo. “Only the bus driver can see [the special green].”

An undetermined number of special signals are planned for an area bounded by Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the west, Ventura Boulevard to the south, Vineland Avenue to the east and the Simi Valley and Golden State freeways to the north, city transportation officials said.

Valley intersections under consideration for the signals include Victory Boulevard and Balboa and De Soto avenues as well as several along Van Nuys Boulevard, according to traffic engineer Kang Hu. In addition, some green lights will be extended on Ventura Boulevard between Lankershim and Topanga Canyon boulevards to speed the flow of all traffic, Hu said.

The Department of Transportation hopes to install the signals before the end of 1997, said Jaramillo.

“It’s obviously not very glamorous,” said Ken Bernstein, a planning deputy in Valley Councilwoman Laura Chick’s office. “But it’s a small step the city is taking to make bus trips faster and more effective.”

Jaramillo said the new signal would not add to confusion at intersections, and that the downtown device has improved traffic flow there.