T.O. STOPS, LOOKS AT AMGEN CROSSWALK LIGHTS; BLINKING WALKWAY COULD HELP CITY'S PEDESTRIANS.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Daily News Staff Writer

A line of quarter-inch-high blinking lights embedded into the pavement could be just what's needed to ensure pedestrians safe passage on city crosswalks.

The firm Amgen has installed such a crosswalk on Ventu Park Road for its more than 3,000 employees, and now the city is looking at the new walkway with interest.

``Obviously we are eager to find some solution to some of the crosswalk problems in the community,'' said Don Nelson, city public works director. ``This looks very attractive, but we are not in the position yet where we would recommend this other than on a trial basis.''

Varieties of this crosswalk system have been around for about five years, but they are all still considered experimental until approval by the California Department of Transportation. The crosswalk is now going through that approval process but it could take years to complete, officials said.

The city could proceed anyway with implementing the systems but from a liability standpoint, it would likely wait until those crosswalk systems are approved and considered standard, Nelson said.

``What we want to do is get some experience with that type of crosswalk system,'' he said. ``With any new system, the longer amount of time you look at its performance, the better off you would be.''

If the crosswalks are approved, the most likely spot for the electronic gadgets are on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, he said.

``There've been a number of incidents down there where . . . there have been pedestrian and car conflicts,'' he said. ``Crosswalks is an issue that resurfaces all the time.''

The lights on the crosswalk are activated when a pedestrian breaks a beam that runs across it. A well-placed, permanently lit sign a couple of hundred feet away flashes a warning to drivers that there are pedestrians in the roadway.

Mayor Linda Parks was gung-ho for the blinking crosswalks.

``It has been successful and I would like to see that opportunity apply elsewhere,'' Parks said. ``Nationwide, traffic engineers have been discouraging crosswalks unless there were traffic signals, and as a result of that our traffic engineer department has attempted not to allow for crosswalks that don't have stop signs or traffic signals.''

Amgen paid $30,000 to have the system installed in July when its new facility opened up that required workers to cross back and forth between buildings, said Dan Strange, Amgen project manager. That system was much cheaper than the $100,000 price tag for a traffic signal, he said.

``We did it as a safety precaution,'' Strange said.

With the anticipated foot traffic, the crosswalk in place there was not sufficient because it's located at a crest on a hill, and would not have given adequate warning to cars coming over the hill, Strange said.

``We were finding that people in our facility who had to cross the street were jay walking up and down the street, and now once we put (the system) in, everyone goes straight to that,'' he said. ``No one is jay walking. It's been very well received.''

In just a six-month period, 50,000 people have used the crosswalk, Strange said.

``There are a lot of them going in where there is high pedestrian demands,'' he said.

He said Los Angeles has a system called Smart Crosswalks and Santa Monica is in the process of awarding a contract for similar systems to be installed.

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PHOTO (Color) Amgen employees use the lighted crosswalk at Ventu Park Road.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Daily News