By Mary O’KEEFE

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This is a proverb that can trace its origins to the 12th century. I think it means that intentions are great but do not lead to good results if there is no thought behind them. 

I feel we see this all the time with the environment, like the La Crescenta Avenue Project now under construction. So, if you look at it purely as a way to get people out of their cars and onto bikes, I am not sure it actually meets all the criteria. The bike path created, after all, is short compared to the city roadways. I am not sure this will be the impetus that will get people out of their autos; however, making the city safer for those who do ride their bikes, or e-bikes, like kids going to school – that’s great. But one of the reasons to get people out of their cars is to lower the carbon footprint, right? So if the City of Glendale is spending so much money on this project, including black topping everything and painting some areas green, why are it not going that step further to help the environment? 

Lighter colors are more reflective and stay cooler than darker ones. That’s just a fact that has been studied by several researchers. The included the City of Phoenix, which asked a team from Arizona State University (ASU) to research this phenomenon to see if roadways would be affected. 

“A yearlong joint study by the city and ASU applied a reflective gray treatment called CoolSeal to 36 miles of neighborhood roads and a parking lot. After months of measurements, sometimes on days as hot as 116 F, the team has some answers,” according to ASU. 

What it found was at all times of the day surface temperatures of the roads with the reflective CoolSeal layer stayed cooler than non-treated streets, as much as 10 to 12 degrees cooler at noon and almost two and a half degrees cooler at sunrise. 

Regular black asphalt can be a foot thick and absorb up to 90% of the sun’s energy that shines on it creating a heat sink; however, a light-colored coating only 100 microns thick can reflect as much as 40% of that energy so that it isn’t absorbed in the first place, according to Greg Spotts, the chief sustainability officer for Los Angeles’ Bureau of Street Services in an article in the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

  “All of our hardscape, our transportation infrastructure, is radiating heat into our neighborhoods even at 4 in the morning,” Spotts said. “In the summer, it’s detectable from space.” 

Thermal imaging taken from satellites confirms this phenomenon. This issue is one that is expected to get worse when considering the current trends in climate change, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

According to research out of UCLA, the average annual number of days that will exceed 95 degrees in downtown Los Angeles is expected to triple in the next 20 years, said Spotts.

However, cooling temperatures result in fewer people using air conditioning, which also reduces our bills. 

So if you are going to raise the ecological flag for bike lanes, see it through to help neighbors and reduce electric costs and keep it cooler. 

Then there is SB79, which focuses on housing needs. No one disputes the fact that California and much of the nation is in a bit of a housing drought and we all need affordable housing … but once again good intentions …

SB79 is in the middle of the lawsuit saga between the City of Burbank and LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro). 

Metro filed a lawsuit against the City of Burbank because the city refused to issue construction permits for the North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project. City staff shared concerns about how a new state housing law – SB79 – could affect the zoning around the newly planned bus stops along Olive Avenue. 

So here is a situation where we really need mass transit in Los Angeles County – another way to get people out of their cars. Though a wonderful intention it will no doubt trigger another effect. SB79 forces development regardless of neighborhood concerns. 

This is building for building’s sake without concerns for a number of issues, including the rapid disappearance of local neighborhoods. Those who are in favor of SB79 often sight those who are against it as NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). I do take offense at this simplistic explanation of why people want to protect their neighborhoods; however, that rant will be for another day. 

The real issues for many who do not like the overreaching, paint-all-with-one brush attitude of SB79 include evacuations resulting from wildfires, lack of infrastructure to fight the fires including water flow, and traffic. Metro’s proposal to  create one lane dedicated only for buses will take that lane away from the flow of traffic. Now, I am sure that lane will be opened if evacuations are ordered; however, that’s not a given. So we have a law to promote affordable housing resulting in a backlash against supporting mass transit. Like I said – good intentions. 

June Gloom will be with us for awhile. Our temperatures will be in the mid to high 80s today but the marine layer will be deep and will continue into next week, which will cool us down a little – to the upper to mid 70s. The gloomy clouds will be higher in the next few days, which means the sun will not break through until later in the mornings.