Mobility Element 2015
City of Pasadena
Department of Transportation
Page | 23
The City of Pasadena utilizes the roadway categories recognized by regional, state, and federal
transportation agencies for grant applications to secure funding for ongoing street maintenance and
rehabilitation programs.
There are four categories in the roadway hierarchy, ranging from freeways with the highest capacity to
two-lane undivided roadways with the lowest capacity. As mentioned before, the City has jurisdiction
over roadways designated as arterial, collector, or local streets. The State of California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) maintains and has jurisdiction over all freeways and state routes. The street
classification system is used for the purpose of indicating streets which can use federal funding for
reconstruction and resurfacing programs.
FREEWAYS: Freeways are limited-access and high-speed travel ways included in the state and federal
highway systems. Their purpose is to carry regional through-traffic. Access is provided by interchanges
with typical spacing of one mile or greater. No local access is provided to adjacent land uses. The City of
Pasadena has access to several freeways: SR-110, SR-134, I-210 and I-710.
ARTERIALS: Arterial roadways are major streets that primarily serve through-traffic and provide access
to abutting properties as a secondary function. Arterials are generally designed with two to six travel
lanes and their major intersections are signalized. There are two categories: Principal and minor
arterials. Principal arterials are typically four-or-more-lane roadways and serve both local and through-
traffic. Minor arterials are typically two-to-four-lane streets that serve local and commute traffic. These
streets provide movement within the City and are primarily for trips that originate from or are destined
to the City. Through-trips are directed to stay on arterial streets and away from residential
neighborhoods.
COLLECTORS: Collectors are streets that provide access and traffic circulation within residential and
nonresidential (e.g., commercial and industrial) areas. They connect local
streets to arterials and are
typically designed with two travel lanes that may accommodate on-street parking. In some cases, they
will provide access to abutting properties.
LOCAL: Local streets distribute traffic within a neighborhood, or similar adjacent neighborhoods, and
are not intended for use as a short-cut for through-traffic between higher capacity facilities such as
collector or arterial roadways. Local streets are fronted by residential uses and do not typically serve
commercial uses.
4.8 Performance Measures
A key challenge facing the City is the current set of Performance Measure and Metrics, used in the 2004
General Plan and the Transportation Impact Review Current Practice and Guidelines, place a
considerable emphasis on the automobile operations. If these measures continue to be used in their
current form, it would present a conflict with the Mobility Element objectives.
Pasadena is currently using a conventional set of performance measures for evaluating system
performance and in reviewing the impacts of new development. Intersection volume to capacity ratios
and Level of Service (LOS) are the primary measures. The city also uses a volume-based analysis of
change in traffic on street segments to assess impact. The 1994 General Plan update went as far as to
include a measure of the environmental capacity of residential streets, essentially an estimate of the
level of traffic volume that would be acceptable on residential streets as opposed to the operational
Mobility Element 2015
City of Pasadena
Department of Transportation
Page | 24
capacity. This measure was replaced in the 2004 update by the street segment analysis. A discussion of
staff’s proposed modifications to the Street Segment Analysis measure is included later in this report.
When looked at in the above context, the current measures are silent with regard to system
performance of non-auto modes and tend to generate mitigation solutions that encourage widening of
intersections and streets, which may compromise the performance of non-auto modes and are
increasingly contrary to community values. Consequently, a more robust set of transportation
performance measures has been developed that adds depth and balance to the existing measures of
vehicle capacity and delay while adding measures to evaluate impact on the non-motorized modes as
well as transit. The new measures also align with the sustainability goals of the General Plan by
evaluating the “efficiency” of projects by analyzing the per capita length and number of trips associated
with changes in land use.
The five adopted transportation measures with CEQA thresholds are:
1.
Vehicle Miles Traveled Per Capita
2.
Vehicle Trips Per Capita
3.
Proximity and Quality of the Bicycle Network
4.
Proximity and Quality of the Transit Network
5.
Pedestrian Accessibility
The thresholds guide system-wide bike and local transit improvements and guide pedestrian
improvements in Specific Plan Updates. The bike and transit improvements identified will be included in
a nexus study to the update of the Traffic Reduction and Transportation Improvement Fee (TRTIF)
following the adoption of the Land Use and Mobility Element updates. An analysis at the project level
impacts to the various citywide network is not necessary because projects would address their
proportionate impacts in these areas by paying their fees.
4.9 Neighborhood Protection
Pasadena has approximately 90 neighborhood organizations/associations that vary in size from a few
blocks to entire ZIP Codes. The process through which the city’s Neighborhood Traffic Management
Program has been implemented has relied heavily on a concurrence between these neighborhood
organizations and their respective City Council Districts to identify the boundaries of each NTMP. This
approach has been used to ensure that each study area has consensus on the traffic issues that are to be
addressed, which has effectively
underpinned the education elements
that the areas included in each
NTMP. This approach has also
reinforced the city’s commitment to
neighborhood protection.
However, the NTMP has been
sufficiently long-running that by the
end of this year, essentially all
neighborhood areas of the city will
have been studied as part of an
Pasadena’s NTMP
Figure 2