RESIDENTS LOOKING TO STOP THE BUS NOISE, FUMES ANGER NEIGHBORS.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Residents in a northwest Glendale neighborhood, concerned about noise, safety and pollution, want the city's Beeline bus to stop traveling along the residential Allen Avenue.

A majority of the residents on Allen Avenue between Kenneth Road and Glenwood Avenue signed a petition asking that the Beeline service be removed from the street. Route 7 travels up Western Avenue, left on San Fernando Road, right on Allen Avenue up to Kenneth Road.

``The Beeline here runs the neighborhood down,'' said Carl Padilla, one of the residents on the block who signed the petition. ``It's noisy and not desirable. It's dangerous. It's already a busy street, and it just makes it worse.''

Alternatives include moving the route to Western Avenue and eliminating some of the early morning and late-evening bus trips on the route - an option that would force riders to wait up to 50 minutes for a bus during those hours.

``They believe the bus shouldn't run on Allen, and they don't believe there are enough riders on the service in order to justify operating at all,'' said planner Gary Hewitt. ``They don't see it as a necessity.''

The city already eliminated three stops along Allen Avenue in March in response to resident complaints, but those eliminations did not meet with the approval of all those who use the service.

The city has mailed a survey to 4,316 residents in the area to determine what kinds of changes they would like to see to the Beeline service.

``The survey is an attempt to find out what the residents want in that entire area, not just on Allen,'' Hewitt said. ``When we removed stops on Allen, we received calls and letters from passengers that were inconvenienced.''

The city will accept survey responses through the middle of next week. City staffers plan to make a recommendation to the transportation and parking commission on Sept. 22.

Beeline, which costs 25 cents to ride, has 35 buses and seven fixed routes to provide service throughout Glendale. According to Hewitt, the bus carries 2.5 million riders per year.

The Beeline buses in northwest Glendale are used heavily by Hoover High School, Toll Middle School and Glendale College students, Hewitt said.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com