CHALLENGE

The City of Pasadena is very proactive in its planning, particularly when it comes to its transportation system and encouraging other modes of transportation than cars. One of the early adopters of designated bike lanes and routes in the 1970s, Pasadena included a Bicycle Transportation Action Plan in its most recent transportation planning as part of the Complete Streets Act. The City’s focus on bicycle safety in its overall transportation planning is very comprehensive and includes infrastructure upgrades through a capital improvement program, with special attention to 10 key bicycling corridors and important City thoroughfares. These corridors/thoroughfares include:

East-West                                             North-South

   Washington Blvd.                                 El Molino Ave.

Orange Grove Blvd.                                  Wilson Ave.

     Villa St.                                            Sierra Bonita Ave.

Union St.                                                Craig Ave.

Colorado Blvd.                                     Holliston Ave.

EXECUTION

In late 2015, Pasadena DOT began to evaluate different bicycle detection and differentiation solutions. A prerequisite was for the detection system to differentiate bicycles with a 95% accuracy rate. Ultimately, Pasadena DOT selected Autoscope Encore video detection with Cyclescope. Installation of the video detection systems began in September 2016 to initially upgrade 38 intersections of the bicycle corridors the City identified in its plan. Another factor in the decision to go with Autoscope Encore was that the City could push video to the DOT’s Transportation Management Center (TMC) video wall.

RESULTS

The project was partially funded through the Complete Streets and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) federal programs. The new video-based bicycle detection and differentiation capabilities is helping Pasadena DOT implement new traffic signal timing strategies, including phase timings for bicycles such as Bike Min Green, which adjusts green light extension to provide safe crossing time for bicycles and returns signal timing to normal when bicycles are not detected. Pasadena is looking to increase this bicycle detection and differentiation capability to additional intersections – up to 30 more intersections.