Hermosa Beach Hopes to Fence In Jaywalking Joggers With Shrubs

First it was the dogs that were running amok on the Hermosa Valley Greenbelt. Now it’s the joggers, authorities say.

Scarcely a year after Hermosa Beach began forcing dog owners to leash their pets along the former railroad right of way, the City Council this week authorized a program to prevent runners from jaywalking across streets that bisect the long, narrow park.

In a pilot program aimed at routing joggers onto crosswalks and preventing them from crossing streets at mid-block, the city will plant jagged shrubs and short bushes across the running path at 8th Street. If it works there, the council decided, similar landscaping will be installed at Pier Avenue, Gould Avenue and other trouble spots.

“Most of our joggers are very responsible, but some are like those 50-mile-an-hour bicyclists we get on the Strand,” said Councilman Roger Creighton. “People need to know in advance that in any competition between them and a car, the car is going to win.”

Public Works Director Anthony Antich said the verdant strip, which once was part of the Santa Fe Railroad system and runs from just inside the Redondo Beach city limits through Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach, became a jogging course after the railroad tracks were removed. Hermosa Beach made its stretch of the strip a public park last year after buying the right of way from the railroad.

Shortly after the city bought the strip, voters decided to end the longtime practice by dog owners of allowing their pets to run unleashed along the path. Then this summer, city traffic engineers warned the council that canines weren’t the only park users who needed to be reined in.

“The joggers run out into the intersection (at mid-block) and a lot of them think that by holding up their hands, it’ll be all right,” Antich said.

The program will be accompanied by public education spots on the local cable television channel and with signs instructing joggers that they must walk, not run, in the crosswalk.

Landscaping for the project is due to begin in February or March.