Pasadena’s worst bike lane
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Candidates
Sierra Madre Boulevard
Sierra Madre Blvd is marked as one of the longer bike lanes on the Pasadena Bike Map. It has potential for large ridership, as it passes right by Pasadena High School and a number of businesses.
But in practice, it’s almost unusable. This is a paint-only, door-zone bike lane on a huge road with traffic at 40 MPH or more. Only the very bravest, most confident cyclists would ever ride here. Worse, the map is wrong: the bike lane disappears altogether in some places, violates guidelines by riding in the gutter, and goes over dangerous tire-snagging storm drains.
How can we fix this?
The good news is that Sierra Madre Boulevard is super-easy to fix. There is more than enough space on the road to upgrade this to a protected bike lane, which would make it much safer and usable for more people. If the bike lane were protected, more students could bike to the high school or Victory Park.
Fill in the gaps: In places where the bike lane disappears, it should be painted onto the road.
Make Sierra Madre Blvd a protected bike lane: The car lane widths on Sierra Madre Blvd are too wide, according to Pasadena’s own guidelines (12’ lanes instead of 10’). Fixing this would open several feet of space to add a barrier to protect the bike lane. The bike lane could swap positions with the parking, to make a parking-protected bike lane. These changes are low-cost and easy to implement.
Consider reducing the number of car lanes: In some places, Sierra Madre Blvd has three traffic lanes in each direction. That’s a lot!! The street would be safer and more pedestrian friendly if this were reduced to two lanes in each direction, and that would still be wide enough to keep traffic moving.
S. Marengo Avenue
Marengo Avenue is pretty quiet north of Orange Grove, and has a usable bike lane from Orange Grove to the 210 freeway. But, near the 210 freeway, the bike lane suddenly disappears, and riders are dumped into fast moving traffic. About a mile further south, the bike lane starts up again. The southern section is too narrow and in the door zone. The gap makes this route a huge disappointment, because the bike lane disappears when you need it most. This route - if it were connected - would be the only bike route between Northwest Pasadena, Old Pasadena and Playhouse Village. It is important to connect the residents of these neighborhoods with businesses just across the 210 freeway.
How can we fix this?
Fill in the gaps: Add a protected bike lane on the 0.7 mile gap between the 210 and Cordova.
Add traffic calming: The paint-only sections of the bike lane would be safer if cars were moving at safer speeds. This would be safer for residents and drivers, too.
Consider parking-protected bike lanes: On the southern paint-only segment, it might be possible to swap the parking lane and the bike lane, making this a parking-protected bike lane.
Sierra Madre Villa, Halstead, Rosemead
Sierra Madre Villa has a scary paint-only bike lane, as do short segments of Halstead and Rosemead in this area near the Hastings Ranch Trader Joe’s. This destination has lots of shopping, a bowling alley, and even a Metro station. Riding in any of these bike lanes is pretty scary, as the lanes are narrow and car speeds are fast. This is a missed opportunity, because people on bikes can get really close to here using Paloma, but the terrible bike lanes make this unusable for most people.
How can we fix this?
Fill in the gaps: There is a two block segment from Paloma to Rosemead that needs to be connected. Also, the bike lanes should be extended to reach the Sierra Madre Villa Metro station.
Add protection: Sierra Madre Villa and Halstead both have space to add physical barriers between moving cars and the bike lane. This would be easy and low-cost, and should be done immediately. The bike lane on Rosemead could be swapped with the parking to make a parking protected bike lane.
Connect to Sierra Madre: Adding some traffic calming on Greenhill would connect with Halstead to create a route to the city of Sierra Madre.
I fixed it!
Protecting a bike lane isn’t hard. You just have to put some stuff in the buffer.
On Sierra Madre Villa, my shoes and helmet show where the city could easily add planter boxes or curb stops.
Please support our plan for safe bike routes in Pasadena.
Maple and Corson
Maple and Corson are “frontage” roads that run on either side of the 210 freeway. Scary paint-only bike lanes run along them. In some places, especially near Lake Avenue, the bike lanes disappear. In general, they are too narrow and too close to speeding traffic. This is a shame, because they are necessary to access the Lake and Allen Metro stations.
How can we fix this?
Fill the gaps: The bike lane needs to be painted onto the street near the Lake Avenue station. In addition, they should be extended to connect to the (also terrible) bike lanes on Sierra Madre Blvd.
Add width: The car lanes on this street are way too wide. Overly wide car lanes encourage speeding and are a safety hazard. Adjusting the lanes to the Pasadena standard width (10’) would free up five and a half feet, creating space to double the width of the bike lane and/or add a much needed buffer.
Add protection where possible: The parking situation changes on different segments, so this might be complicated. But there are at least some segments where a physical barrier could be added between the bike lane and moving traffic.
Consider dropping a lane of traffic: I could be wrong about this, but I think these frontage roads have extra lanes. They are next to the 210 freeway, which is already a 12 lane freeway. That’s enough lanes! I think one lane in each direction would be enough to get drivers safely on and off the freeway. Then, these streets could be redesigned to add both parking and a protected bike lane, making it much nicer for the people who live along the street.
Avenue 64
Avenue 64 has a paint only bike lane, which is a popular route from Highland Park into Pasadena (see video). Unfortunately, the bike lane disappears for no reason around Church Street, dumping riders into traffic. This is a missed opportunity to create a biking connection from Pasadena into Los Angeles.
Bike lane on Avenue 64. Movie courtesy Pilar Reyanldo.
How can we fix this?
Fill in the gaps: Extend the bike lane to Colorado Blvd. There is plenty of width to do this.
Add protection: There is enough width on this street to make this a protected bike lane. That would be safer for people on bikes, and reduce speeding and collisions for drivers, as well.
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Published April 22, 2026
