Bicycle Advocates to Hear New City Safety Initiatives Today

After months of waiting, bicyclists this afternoon will hear newly revised city plans to make bike riding in Pasadena safer after the original proposal was rejected by a City Council committee.

The updated City Bicycle Plan will be delivered publicly during the Municipal Services Committee meeting at 4:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249.

During its July 9 meeting the Municipal Services Committee declined to accept the city staff’s plans and directed development of a more ambitious Bicycle Transportation Plan.

That meeting heard from members of the Complete Street Coalition, who said they were shocked and angry after the death of a 25-year-old bicyclist along Del Mar Blvd. just north of Caltech last June as well as a fatal head-to-head two-bicyclist collision on July 14 that killed a 20-year-old man.

Coalition representatives complained the city’s plan was too weak to properly protect bicyclists. The Committee’s members agreed.

Since then city staff held a meeting gathering several representatives from the cycling community to find how to best address community needs.

“What the Municipal Services Committee members said in July is exactly what’s needed to be said and with exactly the right force. We’re eager to see that continue and not back away from the idea,” Jonathon Edewards of the Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association said.

At that meeting Councilmember Terry Tornek said he did not feel safe when he was riding in the “sharrows,” the painted white line with a bicycle in the lane.

Councilmember Margaret McAustin expressed that she was “over incremental change” and wanted to see a big and progressive plan, possibly even a protected bikeway.

“The Municipal Services Committee called for a transformative project. Something that would make people who we have met in the past that felt unsafe or didn’t feel comfortable riding on Pasadena streets would make them take a second look and give it another try. And then some community input on actually shaping the plan,” Edewards said.

Through analyzing a Bicycle Stress Level Map city staff and cyclists identified street corridors that could be recommended for new protected bicycle routes.

Streets running north and south that could integrate protected bicycle lanes include El Molino, Wilson, Sierra Bonita, and Craig. East to west corridors include Washington, Orange Grove, Villa, Union, Green, Colorado and Del Mar.

The association noted that the Bicycle Advisory Committee has met only one time since the July meeting.

Members of the Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association and other avid bicyclists plan to attend the Municipal Services Committee meeting.

“We want to make Pasadena’s streets safer for everybody and I think the key, the core items are we need a protected network of bicycle lanes, not just shared roads, but protection lanes on the ground, to actually make people safer in reality,” Edewards said. “We’re eager to get community input and feedback too into the plan.”

 

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See:  City Council Unable to Review Bike Transportation Plan, Local Group Galled