Metro Approves $12 million for Monterey Park, South Pasadena Active Transportation Projects
5:07 PM PST on February 2, 2021
The Metro board of Directors approved 16 projects for the Metro Active Transport, Transit and First/Last Miles (MAT) program. Two of these included a project in South Pasadena and Monterey Park. Image: Metro
Last Thursday, the Metro Board of Directors approved 16 active transportation projects across the county, including two San Gabriel Valley projects - in Monterey Park and South Pasadena.
Twenty-eight proposals were submitted in this year's cycle totaling $102.7 million. Eight projects totaling $16 million were recommended to be placed on the wait list in case additional funds become available.
Spread out over the next three years, Monterey Park will receive $6.36 million, and South Pasadena will receive $6.05 million.
MAT submittals were not required to have prior planning completed, which is uncommon in most competitive funding programs. Projects will be able to got through an initial scoping phase to arrive at the budget needed to complete the full project.
Metro staff is expected to return to the board annually to seek approval on program funding amendments as project scopes are developed and refined and to allow for other adjustments in programming.
The western portion of the West First Street, West Riggin Street, and Portero Grande Drive Corridor. The yellow line indicates the corridor path. The green lines shows where currently existing sharrows are located, and the red line shows the location of a currently existing bike lane. Map: Kristopher FortinThe eastern portion of the West First Street, West Riggin Street, and Portero Grande Drive Corridor. Map: Kristopher Fortin
First/Riggin/Portrero Grande Bikeway, Monterey Park
This roughly 5.3-mile project project will cross east-west through unincorporated South San Gabriel, Cities of Monterey Park, Montebello, and Rosemead.
In Metro's Active Transportation Corridors Project Profiles report, Riggin Street is proposed to include bike lanes from Atlantic and Garfield (including upgrading some areas that currently have sharrows.) Portero Grande Drive is proposed to include bike lanes.
The South Pasadena project has two bikeways - running along Huntington Drive and North Fremont Avenue. Map: Kristopher Fortin
Huntington Drive and Fremont Avenue, South Pasadena
This project is broken up into two sections:
North Fremont Avenue between Alhambra Road and Columbia Street (1.8 miles), and
Huntington Drive between Alhambra Road and Atlantic Boulevard (1.5 miles)
The city's bike master plan has designated a bike lane for Huntington Drive and a bike route for North Fremont Avenue.
The project is proposed to eliminate existing and potential conflict areas by upgrading ADA paths of travel, implementing bike improvements approved in the bike master plan, improving intersection functionality, and providing a safe transition between corridors.
Both projects are still in the conceptual phase will most likely require more planning and community engagement efforts, said Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero.
SBLA San Gabriel Valley coverage, including this article and SGV Connect, is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the new Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. “Foothill Transit. Going Good Places.”
L.A. County needs to embrace physically-protected bikeways, robust traffic calming around schools, and similarly transformative, safety-focused projects