Pasadena’s Transportation Advisory Commission did not vote on the proposed Roadsign Memorial Sign Program, which seeks to memorialize the victim of a fatal crash while at the same time raising the awareness of traffic safety to motorists, during its meeting on Thursday, April 28.
Instead, it voted to send the proposal back to the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) for some modifications.
The City of Pasadena currently has a Public Monument Policy, which is primarily for the purpose of installing monuments, memorial plaques and the like to commemorate individuals or groups.
But according to Pasadena’s DOT, the Public Monument policy is not well-suited for a pedestrian roadside memorial program because the existing policy requires the request to be approved by the Parks and Recreation Commission, and requires the person memorialized to be deceased for at least five years.
Using the existing Public Monument Policy, a memorial sign was installed in September 2021 as a pilot for Aidan Tam, who was killed in a collision at the intersection of Colorado Blvd. and Hill St. in May 2014.
The proposed Roadsign Memorial Sign Program requires that signs be requested by the family of a victim of a fatal crash through their local Council District office. The request can be made six months after the collision.
The TAC is proposed to be the approval body for placement of memorial signs under the program. Once the proposed installation of a memorial sign is approved by TAC, DOT will determine the specifics of the sign design and location, and work with public works to install the sign.
The city will pay for the cost of the installation. Should the sign require replacement, the cost shall be paid by the requesting family.
Specifically, commissioners requested that the DOT replace TAC as the approving body.
“I would like to change that TAC would be responsible for the signing – who would be getting these signs or not. I just don’t feel that that is something that we should be deciding,” said Commission Chair Adriana Lim.
While the commissioners deferred the voting on DOT’s recommendation, the majority expressed support for the Roadsign Memorial Sign Program.
“It is an important program to recognize these incidents and to honor the memory of these individuals who lost their lives to street violence here in Pasadena,” Commissioner Nick Saponara said. “I think the visual reminder is important.”
“It’s important to have these signs to remind people of the fundamental danger that is there and to honor the lives,” said Commissioner Jessica Bowles-Martinez.
Commissioner Kevin Litwin meanwhile registered his opposition to the project.
“The way to respect the person who lost their life in my opinion is to fix whatever the problem was,” he said.
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One thought on “Transportation Advisory Commission Defers Voting on Proposed Roadside Memorial Sign Program”
Thank you, Kevin Litwin, for being an adult member of the TAC and not pandering to those elements who have been promoting unsafe pedestrian improvements. The same folks pushing this “memorial” to a fallen pedestrian have been supporting the re-installation of an unsafe non signalized crosswalk at the location of Hudson and Washington which was removed due to a number of accidents and fatalities in the 80’s. Staff have acknowledged that the Federal Highways pedestrian safety training shows that non-signal protected crossing on streets with these volumes will result in more fatalities than not having a crossing at all (we finally had a pedestrian jay walking fatality here after nearly 30 years, which prompted this call). Staff, under pressure, included a passive warning device (which are very ineffective) as a “mitigation”, as this location did not meet the standards. The only truly safe pedestrian protection a on streets with traffic volumes is a full traffic signal. The City could expose itself to millions in potential liability with this scheme for re-installing a knowingly unsafe non signal protected pedestrian crossing at the location of Hudson and Washington, and no one on staff either knew of, nor were willing to tell staff about the history, and staff issues with this location, or raise them at the TAC. The TAC needs to start doing its job, by being advised of these kinds of facts and raising these kind of safety issues, and the City staff need to be free to offer their expertise, and not be ‘muzzled” by managers from doing so for reasons of “new urbanist” political correctness by the City management. And maybe, more scrutiny of these kinds of issues by our local media might help, instead of just “cheer leading” every “hip and cool” scheme, like the unbelievably expensive, utterly ineffective and useless, bus lanes in Eagle Rock. Ignorance of these transportation issues, as we’ve witnessed in recent years at the TAC, is not just wasteful and ineffective, it can also, as in the case of re-installing unsafe pedestrian crossings, be fatal.