The City Council on Monday will consider adopting Pasadena’s Focused Local Roadway Safety Action Plan and a resolution committing the city to eliminate all traffic deaths and significantly reduce serious injuries by the year 2035.
The plan, developed by the Department of Transportation under the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, identifies high-collision corridors and prioritizes 15 transportation safety projects citywide. If approved, Pasadena will join a growing list of U.S. cities pledging to achieve “Vision Zero” — the goal of no roadway fatalities.
The plan’s adoption has no immediate cost to the General Fund, but positions Pasadena to compete for future state and federal safety funds. City staff said the activities needed to pursue grants and maintain a public collision dashboard are already budgeted.
“This commitment reflects Pasadena’s longstanding priority of public safety and our determination to protect everyone who lives, works, and travels in our city,” said Transportation Director Joaquin Siques in the staff report.
The Focused LRSAP was funded through a $200,000 federal grant established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2022. The plan consolidates recommendations from the City’s Local Roadway Safety Plan, Pedestrian Transportation Action Plan, Greenways Feasibility Study, and Capital Improvement Program to create a unified roadmap for future safety investments.
City staff and consultants analyzed five years of collision data from 2020 to 2024 and identified 13 percent of Pasadena’s roadways — dubbed Safety Corridors — where 80 percent of fatal and serious injury collisions occur. These corridors include stretches of Lake Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Orange Grove Boulevard, and Colorado Boulevard, among others. The designation allows Pasadena to reduce speed limits along those corridors under Assembly Bill 43, which gives cities greater authority to set limits based on safety, not just driver behavior.
Development of the plan included two rounds of community engagement and the formation of a Community Advisory Committee made up of residents, business and advocacy representatives, and members of the City’s Accessibility and Disability Commission.
Public workshops and online surveys drew input from hundreds of residents, leading to the identification of 15 priority projects — 11 previously planned and four new community-generated corridors, such as Sunset Avenue, East Colorado Boulevard, and Allen Avenue. Projects include new pedestrian hybrid beacons, high-visibility crosswalks, emergency vehicle signal preemption, corridor-wide traffic calming, and bicycle and pedestrian improvements on key streets.
Under the proposed resolution, Pasadena would establish an official city goal of zero roadway fatalities and a major reduction in serious injuries by 2035 — a requirement for eligibility under the federal SS4A program. City officials say achieving the goal will require collaboration among departments responsible for infrastructure, law enforcement, education, and community development.
“The Focused LRSAP gives us the tools and data to make meaningful progress toward a safer transportation system,” Siques said. “It’s both a policy commitment and a funding strategy.”
The Municipal Services Committee reviewed the draft plan on Oct. 14 and recommended adoption with minor changes — including renaming it “Focused” LRSAP to clarify that it complements, rather than replaces, other citywide priorities. The Transportation Advisory Commission also unanimously endorsed the plan.
With Council approval, Pasadena will become eligible to apply for multimillion-dollar SS4A implementation grants ranging from $2.5 million to $25 million to build safety projects identified in the plan. According to the report, the Focused LRSAP is exempt from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act’s “common sense” exemption because it does not, by itself, cause physical changes to the environment.
The plan builds on Pasadena’s ongoing safety improvements, including new traffic signals at Orange Grove and Craig avenues, pedestrian upgrades on South Lake Avenue, the Union Street protected bikeway, and the Cordova Street corridor enhancements. Upcoming projects include the Greenways bicycle network and multimodal improvements on Columbia Street and Pasadena Avenue.
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