RESIDENTS SEE DANGER AT EVERY TURN.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

To Manny Rivas, the missing links at the 134-5 freeway interchange do more than disrupt his daily driving: They turn his Glendale neighborhood into a speedway.

``It's dangerous. You have kids riding around on bikes at the same time there's all these people coming off the freeway rushing down the street to get to the other freeway,'' said Rivas, who lives on Victory Boulevard. ``I don't understand what the logic is to taking people off the freeway and putting them on city streets.''

Since there is no freeway link between the 5 south and the 134 west or between the 134 east and the 5 north, motorists head for surface streets, invading residential neighborhoods in Burbank and along the borders of Glendale and Los Angeles.

Scott Innocenti, owner of the Aero Market on Victory Boulevard, said his store doubles as an information center for all the motorists trying to navigate the confusing detour.

``I wish we could charge a dollar for all the people who stop and ask for directions,'' Innocenti said.

Simply put, it is bad transportation policy.

``It's incompatible to have regional freeway traffic traversing city streets,'' said David Grannis, a planning consultant who has worked with both the city of Burbank and the local studios. ``This is an imperative in terms of regional access and neighborhood protection.''

Burbank officials claim the result is that drivers who could have stayed on the freeway for most of their trip into Burbank are instead using city streets, creating local gridlock on Victory Boulevard, Hollywood Way, Pass Avenue, Alameda Street, Western Avenue, Riverside Drive and Buena Vista Street.

LaVerne Thomas, an active member of the Rancho Providencia Homeowners Association, said the missing links at the 5-134 interchange affect all of Burbank, but especially neighborhoods like hers that are located in the shadow of NBC, Warner Bros. and Disney.

``They cut through our streets. We can't even safely pull out onto Alameda Street unless we go to a street with a traffic signal,'' Thomas said.

Motorists coming off the freeway to link up on city streets also drive faster.

``They are trying to get around a bad situation,'' Thomas said.

The situation is so bad that residents have demanded speed bumps and chokers on streets near the studios to discourage studio employees from using city streets for their commute.

A residential section of Riverside Drive was recently narrowed as a way to encourage commuters to get on the freeway, rather than using the street as a thoroughfare.

``That's why there are so many speed bumps in Burbank. Most neighborhoods feel they can't survive without them,'' said Carolyn Berlin, vice chairwoman of the Burbank Planning Commission.

Berlin said the freeway drivers who are using Burbank streets are not always in a patient mood as they try to go from freeway to freeway.

``They get furious coming through here,'' Berlin said. ``There's an incredible amount of road rage going on.''