|
|
County Walking Danger Up;
Pasadena Pedestrians Safer
CONTACT: Roger H. Gray, Pasadena Walks!
626.399.4729
Fax: 877.767.2912
www.pasadenawalks.org
Los Angeles County moved from the 6th most dangerous county in which to be a pedestrian last year to the 3rd most dangerous today, based on statistics released by the national Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP). But not Pasadena.
Bucking the county-wide trend, Pasadena is among the Top-10 Safest in the state for pedestrians, ranking 6th on a list of all cities over 100,000 in population, according to the STPP report.
Pasadena also ranks third-best on the statewide list for the number of people who walk – behind only San Francisco and Berkeley -- according to Roger Gray, a member of the city’s Transportation Advisory Commission and co-founder of Pasadena Walks! a private pedestrian advocacy group.
The city’s 1994 General Plan proclaims that “Pasadena shall be a place where people can circulate without cars and sets out many pedestrian-friendly policies.
“Since the plan’s adoption, residents have
been pretty diligent in keeping their city a walkable, livable city.” Gray said.
“Pasadena is blessed with a traditional
street design and comfortable human-scale neighborhoods. We have to fight to maintain that tradition
every time a new development is proposed,” Gray said. “But the quality of life a walkable city produces is obvious
here, and well worth protecting.”
Developers often try to make it more difficult – sometimes thoughtlessly – to arrive on foot or by using public transit: “People live in cities, not automobiles” Gray said. “It is important in any town, but especially in Pasadena, that we insist that developers start with the premise that people do walk and do take public transit if it is pleasant and convenient. A project designed to favor automobile access over other modes, even accidentally, reduces walkability, increases auto traffic, and, frankly, is not welcome here.”
Although
the STPP statistics are aimed at highlighting safety issues, this is only one
factor in a walkable, livable-cities equation, according to Gray. “Land-use
and planning have to focus on actively helping people to get out of their cars.
Safety while walking is a big factor, but not the only factor.”
“It is possible, for example, to design a
perfectly safe sidewalk that is so poorly thought out that it actually repels
pedestrians. The few pedestrians who
brave ‘pedestrian deserts’ are sometimes pointed to – inappropriately – by
developers and planners as the excuse to put pedestrian planning at the bottom
of the priority list,” Gray said.
“Moreover, it’s not right just to make it
harder to drive a car in order to coerce walking and transit use – it’s
important to encourage people to get out of their cars occasionally by making
the alternatives safe, interesting and pleasant.” Gray said.
The STPP study shows that statewide there is
much left to do to reclaim California cities for the pedestrians that walk
there – but it also highlights the tremendous gains made in the past five
years.
With its
general plan focus on walkability, Pasadena has undergone a quiet renaissance,
and has recently increased its pedestrian-friendly efforts.
Bucking national and statewide trends,
Pasadena has not removed mid-block crosswalks, but has, instead, enhanced them
– in one case installing an experimental crosswalk with embedded flashing
lights in the pavement, and installing all-way pedestrian scrambles in the
revitalized Old Pasadena neighborhood. Two years ago an enclosed auto-oriented
shopping mall (Plaza Pasadena) fell to wrecking balls and was resurrected as a
pedestrian-oriented mixed use development not far from a future light-rail
train station.
Policies
to implement the general plan principal continue to be refined, with
pedestrian-friendly Transit Oriented Development zones, parking maximums
(rather than minimums) for certain developments near train stations,
requirements for pedestrian oriented development within transit zones and
elsewhere, a planned increase in the local free shuttle bus from two lines to
nine, ordinances to increase sidewalk widths and development design guidelines to
encourage pedestrian and bicycle mobility.
In addition, the Metro Gold Line light rail train service (with six
stations in as many miles in Pasadena) will open for business in less than a
year and heralds a new era of pedestrian oriented opportunities.
Pasadena Walks! is a private pedestrian advocacy group, sponsoring walking and traffic
calming workshops, supporting non-auto travel in Pasadena. They can be found on
the web at www.pasadenawalks.org.
# # # # #
CONTACT: Roger H. Gray, Pasadena Walks!
626.399.4730
Fax: 877.767.2912
Email: rhgray@pasadenawalks.org
OR
Pasadena Walks!
902 N. Madison Ave. Pasadena, CA
91104
626.399.4729 
Fax: 877.767.2912
 |