Pasadena Council to Hear New Rose Bowl Plan 2/22

[MTBMaven]

"[Pasadena] city planners are proposing to expand the existing 8-foot walking lane of the Rose Bowl loop into a 13-foot lane that will be more visibly marked with bright paint. The plan will come before the City Council on February 22." Pasadena Star News

Biker/Walker issues have been a hot button issue have been on the rise in Pasadena culminating in a ban on the famous peloton in the summer of 2007.

If this issue is important to you, please come out to the City Council meeting on Monday, February 22nd to express your views on safety issues at the Rose Bowl.

The meeting is in Council Chamber located on the second floor in the southeast corner of City Hall (100 N. Garfield Ave). Council meetings start at 6:30 PM. The agenda will be posted here so you can read the agenda report and staff recommendations prior to the meeting. Additionally get an idea when the agenda items will come before Council. If you think you might want to speak make sure to fill out a speaker card at the beginning of the meeting (you can always decline to speak later)!

[Rossage]

Great. Then the Runners will jump about 3 feet further into the bike lane. How about some education about the lane use and maybe a little enforcement?
I think everything worked better when the walkers/runners went the same way as the bicycle riders. That way they knew that if they strayed into the bike lanes...Right now it is a free-for-all and strollers and runners and walkers are all over the place, going in both directions.
I won't even take my wife there for rec riding-its too unpredictable

[MTBMaven]

One of the proposals is to reduce traffic flow to way in the outer traffic lane and make the inside traffic lane a bike lane. Council needs to hear that this proposal is heavily supported by users of the Rose Bowl if it ever has a chance of passing. The very vocal neighborhood residents will lobby against this idea.

As for pedestrians moving with the flow of traffic there is no way that is safer. I'm not trying to be argumentative but in my opinion (and the what appears to be the collective opinion of those at a City meeting on the subject last week) that pedestrians going the wrong way is one of the single biggest problems in the Rose Bowl.

[MTBMaven]

The proposed staff plan (pdf) and attachments A-C and D (all PDFs) were approved by Council tonight. What does this mean?

In short:

• The current 8' counter-clockwise pedestrian walkway with 4' buffer will be widened to a 13' bi-directional pedestrian zone with a painted 1' stripe with raised barrier. The proposed barrier shown to Council are 30" plastic tube with reflective top (not sure the spacing).
• All streets will be re-surfaced.
• The Washington Blvd and Park Dr. intersection (north west corner will be re-engineered to remove the raised median.
• The intersection of Rose Bowl Dr and Rosemont (by club house) will be re-engineered.
• The intersection of Seco and Arroyo Dr (near river) will be re-engineered.
• Parking lot K will get either a gate or raised curb.
• Parking around the club house will be reduced, U Turns will no longer be allowed, and no parking during peak periods.

Councilman Haderlein (District 7) objected stating that the plan does too little for recreational users given the cost and does not meet the vision of the South Arroyo Seco Master Plan - which calls for a larger pedestrian area and designated bike lane as well as bi-directional traffic, but required around 52' of roadway where only around 40' exists.

As I understood it the plan will come back before Council 6 or so months after completion to review the effectiveness of the changes and review the possibility of reducing traffic to one way. Additionally I understand that at some point the necessary studies to review making traffic one way will be added as an unfunded capital improvement project and reviewed for funding during the next fiscal budget cycle.

[davidB]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

• The current 8' counter-clockwise pedestrian walkway with 4' buffer will be widened to a 13' bi-directional pedestrian zone with a painted 1' stripe with raised barrier. The proposed barrier shown to Council are 30" plastic tube with reflective top (not sure the spacing).

Interesting. I find this to be what sticks out to me the most. With the signs that are up now, it still seems that half of the joggers/walkers are going the wrong way. Pretty frustrating to be hugging the far right of the traffic lane, only to have someone going your direction cut out in front of you to get out of the way of someone going the right way. I'm optimistic that the new plans will make things safer for everyone, but I still foresee someone causing problems. Is there any enforcement going on?

<--had a couple close calls yesterday making loops around the RB

[Diamondback]

Good report Maven, though I don't live in Pas or ride there, I've seen the amount of ppl using the Bowl area and its huge (even 1/2 hr after a downpour)
My belief is that you should STHU with your opinions if your didn't attend the City Council meeting.

A few years ago, I attended 90% of the Save the Hillsides meetings, Glendale council meetings & donated to the cause. We eventually won. I took personal vacation days off to attend because I did not want any more silly trac homes built on the Verdugos.

Riders should get involved in these events---sure you may have family sh%@, work or things you have to do, but isn't taking out a little time to help
out your favorite past time worth it?

[MTBMaven]

It seems pretty widely recognized that pedestrians do not follow the signs and walk in the buffer zone, which causes most of the problems. This plan attempts to resolve this problem by allowing people to walk both directions. I think the thing that will help the most are the barriers. Without those I think pedestrians will continue to stray outside their zone. My long term hope is that the funding will be found to conduct the necessary studies to evaluate eliminating the inside lane to vehicle traffic and ultimate eliminate the lane.