SENIORS FACE PERILOUS CROSSING AT CITY LIGHTS.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

Walking with his cane, 64-year-old Bill Schneider made it only halfway across a West Hills crosswalk before the signal changed and a line of cars lunged forward.

Every day it's the same perilous crossing, even though eight months ago, he and other residents petitioned the city to extend the timing on the crosswalk signal.

For Schneider, out of breath and visibly shaken from his brush with traffic, eight months is just too long to wait for a decision.

``I think they should give people like me a little more time,'' Schneider said, reaching the safety of the curb. ``It's dangerous.''

City officials said the intersection at Sherman Way and Shoup Avenue is one crossing named in a flood of 100 complaints citywide, spurred by the death of an elderly woman who was hit in October as she struggled to cross a North Hollywood street before the light changed.

City officials said there simply isn't enough manpower to make a dent in the backlog of crosswalk signal complaints on top of their other duties. A response to complaints can run anywhere from three to eight months.

``Our backlog is at an all-time high,'' said Brian Gallagher, the city engineer in charge of handling the complaints.

The Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Design has 17 engineers whose duties include timing the city's 4,200 signals, and they are too busy to study crosswalks any sooner, Gallagher said. The agency's request for an additional engineer in last fiscal year's budget beginning July 1 was rejected, he said.

City Councilman Joel Wachs, a member of the Public Safety Committee, said the crosswalk problem must take first priority - even if it means taking engineers off other jobs temporarily to handle pedestrian complaints.

``There are less-priority jobs being done right now that we could borrow people from if necessary,'' he said.

He said he would push for funding additional DOT manpower if necessary.

It took a death

The crosswalk problem was tragically underscored in November, when 76-year-old Soltan Netan-Eli was killed in a hit-and-run incident as she was crossing the street in a marked crosswalk on Ventura Boulevard at Newcastle Avenue in Tarzana.

As a result, the city set up a blue-ribbon Pedestrian Advisory Committee to tackle safety issues.

``In Southern California, we've chosen to prioritize cars over pedestrians, and it's sad,'' said Gloria Ohland, a committee member. She said society should recognize the importance of pedestrian safety.

The city also recently set up a citizen Task Force on Senior Issues, which is scheduled to make recommendations to the City Council in October on ways to improve senior safety.

The National Council of Senior Citizens recognizes that the Los Angeles problem reflects a national one. ``They don't give enough time for seniors,'' said Betty Cooper, a spokeswoman for the council. ``They often have walkers or wheelchairs and find themselves running for their lives just to cross the street.''

While Los Angeles pedestrian fatalities are declining, the city is losing the battle to keep pedestrian seniors out of harm's way, a recent study found.

Traffic collisions involving pedestrians dropped from 3,937 to 2,752 annually since 1990, a city report said. But seniors - who represent one-seventh of the population - account for one-third of collision fatalities.

On average last year, nearly one senior pedestrian a day was injured or killed in a traffic incident, city records show. And in the 108 fatal incidents involving pedestrians in Los Angeles in 1997, 35 of the victims were seniors.

Nationwide, the Los Angeles metropolitan area was ranked as the most likely region for pedestrians to be fatally or seriously injured in traffic collisions in 1996, according to a recent transportation study.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, those statistics are reflected on a national level, with pedestrians 55 and over accounting for about one-third of the 5,307 traffic fatalities in 1997.

Timing signal lights

State and federal laws require that crosswalks be timed to give pedestrians at least one second for every four feet, plus extra time to step off the curb.

On an 80-foot-wide street, a pedestrian should have about 20 to 25 seconds to cross, which local governments can increase if a special need is determined.

Seniors typically need more time.

A study published in the March 1997 issue of the American Journal of Public Health showed that out of 1,249 people over the age of 72, nearly half walked at only two feet per second, and 11 percent reported having reservations about crossing major streets.

One safety option suggested in a report by the IIHS is to modify traffic signals to give pedestrians a three-second head start while crossing the street by keeping intersection lights red in both directions. That would theoretically delay drivers making right turns into crosswalks.

But some believe that technological improvements are not the entire solution.

Arthur Kassan, a 40-year veteran of traffic engineering who has done consulting work with the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, said more training for seniors would make a big difference.

``The walking speed for which signals are timed has to take into account that seniors generally walk more slowly,'' he said. ``But the other side is that most seniors don't pay attention to signals. They just walk, sometimes when the light is already yellow.''

He said most of the general public probably doesn't understand how traffic safety devices work.

``The bottom line is motorists have to slow down. We have to give up something to make things safer.''

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Photo: (color) Traffic engineer Shirley Lee records how long it takes Bill Schneider to walk across the intersection of Shoup Avenue and Sherman Way.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer