Greenways: Safe Neighborhood Streets
Ride leader and his assistant!
In order to create safe neighborhood streets for people on foot, on a bike, or in a car, the Pasadena Department of Transportation (DOT) is currently reviewing four North/South streets that have been dubbed “Greenways”.
The Greenways as proposed will add safety enhancements to several residential streets: El Molino Ave, Wilson Ave, Sierra Bonita Ave and Craig Ave. The selected streets were identified in the 2015 Bicycle Transportation Action Plan (BTAP) and are important because these streets connect the neighborhoods north and south of the 210 freeway.
No one wants dangerous driving or high speed traffic in their neighborhood! The Greenways are a simple, common sense approach to traffic management that will benefit all road users, making our neighborhood streets safer, healthier and environmentally sustainable.
Group photo at one of our community bike rides.
Recently, PasadenaCSC studied the City’s current proposals and our volunteers organized two community bike rides along the four proposed Greenways where we collected feedback on the proposed designs. Our community bike rides attracted families with children, people with different levels of comfort for city riding, and we even had a couple of dogs join us!
Safety first!
Here’s what we found.
The Greenways have many safety benefits and we hope they will be completed soon. Overall, the proposals provide a number of important safety enhancements along these neighborhood streets. The concept allows ALL road users to travel safely and conveniently. The proposal preserves access for driving and parking for residents along the streets. A number of safety features, including traffic circles, chicanes and short bike lanes will calm traffic. The addition of new traffic signals are necessary and will provide critical safety improvements at dangerous intersections.
Collecting feedback.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
The City’s current Greenways proposal does not go far enough.
Our study found the current proposal is missing some key safety elements that were included in the 2015 Bicycle Action Plan but have since been removed. If added back, these features would improve neighborhood safety. Along with adding back these essential safety features there are several others that we recommend.
Based on our study ride and community feedback, we have 8 recommendations:
Traffic Diverters or Partial Closures: The use of traffic diverters or partial closures is critical to making the neighborhood 'Greenways' comfortable, quiet, and safe. Traffic diverters and partial closures allow residents to drive to and from their homes and preserve parking, but limit “cut-through” traffic in neighborhoods. The City's 2015 Plan included them on all four Greenways, and they have been successfully deployed on other streets in the City, including El Molino and Marengo.
Roundabouts: We support the inclusion of roundabouts in the current proposal. We request that you add additional roundabouts to the plan. Not only have roundabouts proven to reduce severe traffic collisions and slow down motor vehicle drivers, but they also help reduce emissions.
210 Freeway Crossings: Near these crossings the roads widen, and drivers often move at fast, unsafe speeds. Strong traffic calming (e.g., speed tables, raised crosswalks, neckdowns) should be added near the dangerous freeway crossings to manage existing issues with unsafe speeding. We also recommend that the proposed bike lanes be upgraded with bollards or flex posts to make them protected bike lanes and to prevent drivers from using them as a passing lane.
Speed Humps or Tables: The inclusion of speed humps with cut-throughs (similar to what is found on Holliston St in Altadena) or speed tables (such as the one on El Molino in front of the Playhouse) in combination with the other recommended traffic calming measures greatly reduces unsafe speeding. Speed humps with cut-throughs also allow fire trucks to move at speed, as the cut-throughs are set at the proper width for larger trucks.
Signage: The current concept uses green “Bike Route” signs. These signs are vague and convey no information about how to behave on the road. Instead, they should be coupled with more effective “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” signs. These signs provide clear guidance to road users and improve safety.
Use Paint to Increase Visibility: The Greenways can be upgraded with green paint! The City’s current proposal includes standard white painted sharrows, but the City can easily upgrade to greenbacked “super” sharrows increasing the visibility of the road markings.
Upgrade Existing Bike Lanes: Wilson Ave near Caltech and Villa St at the Sierra Bonita Ave transition already have bike lanes. We recommend upgrading the existing bike lanes on Wilson to buffered bike lanes and extending them to Cordova St and adding bike boxes where appropriate. Green conflict paint and a bike intersection crossing and way-findings should be added to help prevent collisions and keep people on bikes on the route.
Bike Intersection Crossings: Most of the City’s existing bike lanes end before the intersection. It is critical for both drivers and cyclists to know where and how to move through the intersection safely. We recommend that this plan include bike intersection crossings at major intersections along the Greenways corridors.
CALL TO ACTION
The city needs to strengthen the Greenways not weaken them! If you want to support safer streets please, click the button below and tell our elected representative and Pasadena DOT that you support stronger traffic calming measures for the Greenways.
