Pasadenans not happy about proposed speed limit increases
Sounds like the city is planning on increasing the speed limit by about 5 mph on 10 different streets in Pasadena, and that prospect has got some residents as riled up as a bunch of Linda Vistans with a park about to open up next door.
Here's the city's synopsis of staff's proposal, going up before the council at Monday night's meeting:
* Speed Limits – State regulations that define the method for determining speed limits has changed. As a result, new engineering and traffic surveys have been conducted on 50 street segments in Pasadena to determine whether the process by which existing speed limits were set meet state regulations. The city council will consider approving proposed speed limit increases on Columbia between Orange and Fair Oaks (30 mph to 35), Glenarm between Pasadena Avenue and Arroyo Parkway (25 to 30), Hill Avenue between the northern city limit and Washington (30 to 35), Mountain Street between Hill Avenue and Altadena Drive (30 to 35), Pasadena Avenue between Walnut and California (35 to 40), Pasadena Avenue between California and the southern city limit (30 to 40), Riviera Drive between Sierra Madre Boulevard and Alegria Street (25 to 30), Villa between Altadena Drive and Eaton Drive (25 to 30), and Washington Boulevard east of Del Rey Avenue to Sierra Madre Boulevard (35 to 40); and will consider approving a proposed speed limit decrease on West Drive between Washington and Seco (40 to 35).
Well at least we won't hear any complaints coming from West Drive.
Interestingly enough, South Pasadena went through the exact same rigamarole last week, with staff recommending speed limit increases on a bunch of streets and residents crying foul over the whole issue. Apparently the "new state regulations defining methods for determining speed limits" are meant to avoid cities creating speed traps by posting lower limits on streets where the average vehicle speed is regularly higher.
But that logic does not jibe with the folks at the West Pasadena Residents Association, who put out a special e-mail over the weekend urging people to show up at Monday night's 6:30 p.m. meeting and tell the council to reject the limit increases. The association's argument is much the same as the one used in South Pasadena: If drivers are already exceeding the posted speed limit, increasing it will only prompt even faster driving.
From the association's e-mail:
Staff’s answer to drivers who break the speed limit is to raise the speed limit! How much sense does that make? The WPRA strongly disagrees with this approach for safety and quality of life reasons.
Instead, the association is asking the city to control speeds by using "traffic calming methods and neighborhood protection tools, so that when it is time to measure the speeds for state requirements, the average speeds will match the posted speeds."
That was pretty much the recommendation of the city's Traffic Advisory Commission. Vince Farhat, the TAC's chair, forwarded me a copy of the letter the commission sent to the council urging it to reject staff's speed limit increase recommendations and instead adopt "traffic calming and safety measures" to keep speeds at the currently posted limits.
"In effect, the revised speed limit proposal has yielded a list of nine street segments in Pasadena warranting the immediate implementation of traffic calming measures," the letter read.
We'll see if the council is swayed by the likely strong public showing against the speed limit increases on Monday night -- or the recommendations of its own advisory committee.
UNDER THE DOME
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| Pasadena -- news, politics and gossip. Send tips, rumors, rants to Dan Abendschein dan.abendschein@sgvn.com. |
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