Pasadena Wants Your Opinion on Quick-Build ‘Activate Allen Avenue’

The city of Pasadena is in the process of adding quick-build Complete Streets improvements along Allen Avenue to bolster pedestrian and cyclist access to the Metro A Line Station. The Activate Allen Avenue project is funded by a $164,000 Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) grant.

From Villa Street in the north to Colorado Boulevard in the south, there were 17 bicycle-involved and 10 pedestrian-involved collisions from 2007 to 2016, according to the city of Pasadena. The funding for the quick-build limited the project area to these boundaries.

The city has also characterized sidewalk conditions in this area as “uneven” with “varied widths,” while some intersections are “extremely wide, creating an unfriendly environment for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Though more facilities are needed, this stretch of Allen is off to a hopeful start. When SBLA visited, crews were on-site working on crosswalk signals. 

Installations thus far include: buffered bike lanes, high visibility crosswalks, plastic bollards, and a few painted curb extensions.

The new bike lanes connect Allen Station to the nearby bike lanes on Villa Street. Currently though, only the northbound side of the 210 Freeway underpass has a bike lane. The southbound side, where the Allen Station drop off zone is located, has sharrows.

There are more improvements still to come (per the project overview): improved street lighting, wayfinding signage, leading pedestrian intervals, and a more delineated pick-up/drop-off zone in front of Allen Station. More curb extensions would be good at the ends of the project area too (Villa and Colorado). Presently, there are no facilities installed at Colorado.

To give input on the Activate Allen Avenue installations, take the survey, or send an email to GoAllenPasadena@cityofpasadena.net 

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