Not many people have been living in Eagle Rock as long as Scott Wilson. The founder of an environmental non-profit group called North East Trees, Wilson recalls the days when Eagle Rock's main thoroughfare, Colorado Boulevard, had street cars and a fraction of the motor vehicle traffic that it has today. For Wilson, one of the joys of living in Eagle Rock was the ability to drive leisurely and with almost complete safety on Colorado—which he did almost daily for 58 years.

Until six months ago. In May, Wilson stopped driving totally after he failed a DMV eyesight test. "My five and a half years in the army convinced me that walking is not a very efficient method of getting from point A to point B," he says, adding that he has been thinking about getting a motorized adult tricycle to get around in the neighborhood.

Riding a tricycle in L.A. can be a scary prospect for anyone, especially on a road that serves as a bypass between Glendale and Pasadena, and which was the subject of a recent story on Eagle Rock Patch. As many as 286 traffic accidents have occurred on Eagle Rock's section of Colorado from 1994 to 2006, according to an analysis of California Highway Patrol data published by the Los Angeles Times in 2008. Nearly 40 percent of those accidents, the data showed, were the result of speeding, which is one reason why Wilson wants the entire Eagle Rock stretch of Colorado Boulevard to have two lanes instead of three—just like Pasadena and Glendale. Knocking off a third lane "would allow us to widen the sidewalk for pedestrians and provide greater safety for bikers and drivers," Wilson says.

This being Eagle Rock, Wilson is hardly alone in his vision. For years, a growing number of residents and activists have been discussing ways to make Colorado Boulevard safer and more friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians. To make Colorado Boulevard more attractive, Wilson proposes that parts of the concrete thoroughfare be replaced with dry streambeds, which are not only aesthetically appealing but also channel rainwater runoff for future use. He also wants medians on the boulevard to have "stately trees, shrubs and grasses—preferably native."

Jane Tsong is another Eagle Rock resident who wants to see a calmer Colorado Boulevard. Just this month, she and Eagle Rock community activist Mike Woodward, who edits TERA's thrice-a-year newsletter, launched Bipediality, a blog dedicated to "eccentric and radical simplicity in Northeast Los Angeles"—evidently code for promoting walking and biking in Los Angeles. "I just happen to be a mom who wants to be able to walk to the store with my kids, without feeling like I'm taking needless physical risks," Tsong says. "One day, I want for my children to be able to bike to the library, school or to get frozen yogurt, without having to worry about them." 

On her blog, Tsong has posted plans drawn up by SALT Landscape Architects, a Los Angeles firm, which detail just how Colorado Boulevard can be beautified and made more of a community resource instead of a mere traffic corridor. Tsong calls for the community's views about what could be done to improve Colorado Boulevard. (E-mail her at myriadsmallthings AT gmail DOT com.)

Members of Eagle Rock's business community are ready for some changes to Colorado Boulevard, too. "We would love to have the lanes cut down—that would be awesome," says Michael Nogueira Jr., president of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce. But fewer lanes could clog up traffic, and Nogueira concedes he's "not sure what this would mean for the highway and traffic."

In a recent interview with Eagle Rock Patch, City of Los Angeles 14th District Councilmember José Huizar said that the Department of Transportation is opposed to slowing down traffic on Colorado.

Still, a bike lane—with right of way— two lanes instead of three, and more trees on Colorado Boulevard's medians are recurrent themes in the visions that many Eagle Rockers have for their neighborhood's most vital traffic artery.

It may be years before their dreams are realized. "Colorado Boulevard, as it currently stands, does not have enough width for the installation of Class II bicycle lanes without some reconfiguration of the roadway," says Jane Choi, an official in the transportation section of the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning. "A study about various configurations of the roadway will need to occur before the best option for fitting lanes into Colorado can be determined."

Although Los Angeles' Five-Year Bike Plan—a $71-million city project aimed at creating and improving 200 miles of bicycle-friendly streets every five years starting with the 2010-2015 phase—does include Eagle Rock's stretch of Colorado Boulevard, a dedicated bike lane on Colorado is not yet a certainty.

"The Bike Plan envisions a bike lane on Colorado Boulevard, but complete plans for Colorado Boulevard have not been completed," says Jordann Turner, another official in the Department of City Planning. The Colorado Boulevard portion of the Bike Plan is scheduled to be tentatively implemented in 2015, says Turner, adding that "as with everything else, implementation depends on funding, staff resources, and community involvement."