Pasadena Will Put Five Years of Collision Counts Before Residents at Tonight’s Greenways Meeting

Over five years, the four Pasadena residential streets where the city wants traffic to slow down have recorded 288 crashes — nine causing serious injuries, one of them fatal.

Those counts, covering 2021 through 2025 and drawn from the city’s own open collision data, sit behind the Greenways Project, and residents get a second in-person opportunity to shape it tonight at Caltech.

The Department of Transportation says no final decisions have been locked in yet. Speed humps, tables and cushions, curb extensions, traffic circles, chicanes, raised median islands, high-visibility crosswalks and traffic diverters all appear on the city’s published list of possible treatments for El Molino, Wilson, Sierra Bonita and Craig Aavenues.

Greenways, as the city defines them, are neighborhood streets designed to moderate vehicle speeds and improve safety for people walking, biking, rolling and driving.

The city measured speeds, too. Across ten locations on the four streets in April, 85th percentile speeds — the speed at or below which 85 percent of drivers travel — ranged from 24 mph to 33 mph, according to a city presentation delivered at the project’s June 10 community-wide meeting. The remaining 15 percent drove faster.

The corridors were not picked this year. Pasadena identified them in its 2015 Bicycle Transportation Action Plan and the Mobility Element of the General Plan, and a 2021 Greenways Feasibility Study analyzed traffic patterns, safety issues, parking and bike route connections, according to the city. El Molino Avenue runs approximately 3.8 miles from Atchison Street to Bonita Drive; Wilson Avenue approximately 2.3 miles from Washington Boulevard to California Boulevard; Sierra Bonita Avenue approximately 1.6 miles from Washington Boulevard to Colorado Boulevard; and Craig Avenue approximately 1.2 miles from Paloma Street to Del Mar Boulevard.

The city says traffic diverters carry important benefits but also important trade-offs, to be evaluated with significant community input.

Pasadena secured $12 million in Measure R Mobility Improvement Project funding from LA Metro in 2022, according to the city’s project page. A State of California Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities award funds a temporary “quick-build” demonstration on Craig Avenue, and the city reports a federal Safe Streets and Roads for All agreement for a similar deployment on El Molino Avenue was executed this spring. Quick-build treatments are temporary paint and plastic features, the city says, and all treatments will be refined through community input during the demonstration period.

Phase 1 — concept development, preliminary engineering, traffic data and outreach — is expected to take up to 24 months, with Phase 2 up to 18 additional months before construction is advertised, according to the city. Other input channels include a Community Advisory Committee and feedback at key design milestones, and a second round of meetings is planned for the fall.

Tonight’s meeting runs from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Caltech Hameetman Center, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125. Spanish interpretation, refreshments and children’s activities will be available. Bike racks are adjacent to the building, the campus is served by Pasadena Transit Route 10 and Route 53 and Metro Route 267, and parking is free after 5:00 p.m. in the garage at 370 South Holliston Avenue.

A virtual meeting follows Wednesday, July 29, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Zoom at bit.ly/GreenwaysVirtualCommunityMeeting, Meeting ID 829 6196 1505, call-in (669) 900-6833, also with Spanish interpretation. Project information, including a video interview with Director of Transportation Joaquin Siques, is at bit.ly/GreenwaysPasadena; comments go to Greenways@CityofPasadena.net.