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Amgen Tour in Pasadena, 2014 (Photo – Vahe Simonyan).
Pasadena is in a position to use bicycles to improve the quality of life for everyone in the city, and influence cities, not just around the country, but around the world.
Here are the various steps Pasadena needs to implement in order to become the number one bicycling city in the nation.
1- Protected bike lanes
Protected bike lane (Photo – en.wikipedia.org).
Start by converting buffered bike lanes into protected lanes. Click here for an informative infographic.
2- More bike lanes
Marengo Ave. bike lane in Pasadena (Photo – Staff).
Add more citywide bike lanes with at least 20% of them designated as protected lanes.
3- Create robust, neighborhood bike networks
Chicago Divvy Bike_Sharing (Photo – en.wikipedia.org).
City departments, state agencies and Pasadena citizens should come together to lay out a plan for creating safer streets for bicycling while attracting new riders.
Appropriate agencies need to identify a network of bicycle routes throughout the city, and modify the streets to create a world-class bicycling city.
4- Bike parking
Bike parking (Photo – commons.wikimedia.org).
Install more bike racks, including on-street bike corrals.
For example, once Colorado Boulevard is slimmed down and Parklets are added, it will be primed for such addition.
5- Convert extra-wide parking lanes into bike lanes
Cordova street (Photo – Staff)
Cordova Street comes to mind. It is primed to be a fine example, if improvements are done right.
Most people cannot envision a bike-friendly street until improvement is made, then they take to it and opinions change.
6- City Council needs to be solidly super-majority pro-bike
Councilmember Kennedy at the Pasadena Ride Roll & Stroll (Photo – Staff)
We need to see a new resolution in favor of protected bike lanes, complete streets, and bike lane expansion on a weekly basis.
7- Get in the competitive spirit
Few years ago, New York City jumped from #7 to # 1 on Bike Magazine’s Friendliest Bike City. Other cities took notice. Better biking competition among cities is a good thing. It’s a win-win situation.
Let us aim for the best position. Let us not crawl to the top but leap and lead amongst mid-size cities.
I believe we need to enlighten and awaken drivers to the fact that bicycles have the same rights on the road that they do. Right hand turns on red lights these days is also a huge issue especially for walkers. Many drivers just don’t care about cyclists or walkers.
I think it’s funny that this article appears in “Colorado Blvd.net” when the business district of Old Town seems very much opposed to ANY bike/pedestrian friendly changes on Colorado Blvd.