Yesterday, Kim Tachiki from US Representative Lucille Royball Allard's office arranged to have Little Tokyo Community Council members participate in a safety walk-through at the Metro Gold Line Little Tokyo / Arts District Station with Metro staff.
About five MTA representatives and engineers were on hand to field questions from a couple dozen community members about pedestrian safety and access around the Gold Line light rail station, which is slated for full operation sometime in August.
The other questions that came up time and again were the lack of language-appropriate signage (some of the signs that were up did have Spanish translations). Many in the group expressed concerns over how local Japanese and Korean residents, most especially seniors, would be able to read the warnings. The MTA is also going to take into account the timing of pedestrian lights to enable seniors sufficient time to cross sidewalks.
Members in the group pointed out a lot of confusing designs and safety systems, so the walk-through was informative for both community members and the MTA staff. At the request of the participants, Metro representatives will be making presentations to the Little Tokyo Community Council and other groups, and will incorporate the comments and feedback from yesterday's meeting to the station's overall safety plan.