One city has successfully eliminated their proposed road diet!
The Pasadena City Council unanimously approved Monday the halt of a "road diet" and traffic calming plan that would have affected a one-mile-plus stretch of Orange Grove Boulevard from Lake Avenue to Sierra Madre Villa Avenue.
City Manager Steve Mermell recommended the idea around six months ago after citing a lack of consensus, funding, and dialogue.
The proposed "pedestrian and bicycle improvement program" will be eliminated from the future projects Section of the City’s Capital Improvement Program.
Councilmember Victor Gordo agreed with opponents of the program saying the plan had unintended, but foreseeable, circumstances." He feared that slowing the traffic on Orange Grove Blvd would create a hectic situation on parallel-running streets in neighborhoods where traffic would move to.
“Traffic is like water,” Gordo said at Monday's council meeting. “It seeks its own level.”
The proposed project would have reduced 1.8 miles of Orange Grove Boulevard down to one traffic lane in each direction with a turn lane running down the center and two bicycle lanes along the sides of the street. Pedestrian curb extensions to shorten crossing distance at some intersections would have also been included in the now-abandoned program.
With funds from SB 1, the Public Works Department had also proposed to reconstruct and resurface Orange Grove Boulevard eastward from Lake Avenue to Sierra Madre Villa Avenue.
The project was never actually funded, and remained part of the Future Projects section of the Capital Improvement Program.
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