General Plan Update - City of Inglewood

3.8 Circulation
• Arbor Vitae Street, from the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad tracks, just
west of Aviation Boulevard, to Van Ness Avenue. This alignment could function as
an east/west “trunk” route from which future branch routes could originate. A
future connection could be made to the existing bicycle route located along 96 th
Street, near Jesse Owens Park, in the City of Los Angeles.
The class or type of bicycle facility has not been determined for any of these proposed
alignments since this decision is based upon the availability of adequate right-of-way
either within or adjacent to the existing roadways.
• Railroads
The former Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) rail corridor, paralleling
Florence Avenue, is the only existing railroad facility still in operation in the City of
Inglewood. This right-of-way was purchased by Metro for possible future use as a light
rail or busway facility. It is currently utilized by oil refineries and other industrial uses
located in the South Bay region. At this time, there are twelve at-grade rail crossings along
this corridor regulated by gate arms, lights and warning bells.
Traffic operations at many of the rail crossings require queued vehicles to extend across
the rail tracks while waiting for traffic signals to change. Due to physical limitations
associated with moving either the rail line or Florence Avenue, this issue will continue
until this rail corridor is no longer utilized. The only viable solution would be to construct
grade-separate rail crossings which would be extremely costly.
• Truck Routes
As stated in Chapter 3, Article 3 of the Inglewood Municipal Code, certain streets in the
city are designated as truck routes, as shown in Figure 3.8-5. These designated routes are
determined by the City Council and identified with street signs to guide truck traffic
through the city. Vehicles exceeding three tons may only travel on these facilities and are
restricted from using all other streets in the city unless they are picking up or delivering
merchandise at businesses or sites located on these restricted streets.
The City has generally utilized arterial streets as designated truck routes in an attempt to
restrict heavy- weight vehicles to streets constructed to carry such weight. These routes
were also selected to keep large vehicles away from residential neighborhoods to decrease
the amount of air and noise pollution to which city residents may be exposed. Two
exceptions currently exist: (1) East Hyde Park Boulevard and Hyde Park Place, which
have street widths too narrow to be classified an arterial route but which serve various
small light manufacturing and heavy commercial businesses located in northeast
Inglewood, and (2) 102nd Street (between Prairie Avenue and Yukon Avenue) which
serves the new manufacturing and air freight businesses being developed in the Century
Redevelopment Project area.
City of Inglewood General Plan Update Technical Background Report
3.8-19