Residents lose traffic light battle (UPDATED)

So apparently a highly-contested traffic light at Bonita Avenue and E Street in La Verne is going in.

The City Council approved the signal — which will be constructed just a few short miles of an elementary school and Bonita High School — on Monday night.

City Clerk Evelyn Clark told me this morning several residents spoke out at Monday’s meeting against the light. Those opponents fear a signal would increase congestion in their area.

But more than a dozen accidents have occurred at the intersection, including one fatal. Sources tell me that was enough to sway the council into going with the light anyway.

****I just got off the phone with a nearby resident who told me the real issue here is not with the light itself, but with mitigation that's actually going to make the intersection safer. Resident Karen Huigens said nobody is necessarily opposed to the signal, but they just don't feel it will slow drivers down. In fact, Huigens said a traffic light might make drivers go faster in order to beat red lights.