There is a reasonable alternative to handling the traffic in the corridor proposed for the 710 Freeway extension. It has been variously called the "low build" or "managed traffic" approach.

"Low build" recognizes the need to accommodate some of the additional traffic brought on by population growth in the area, but without the sacrifice of a significant part of three communities, hundreds of homes, thousands of trees, or the creation of thousands of additional trips daily through a quiet residential area.

"Low build" does not capitulate before the onslaught of the automobile on our society, a form of transportation which is:

• Expensive: The State of California estimates the average family spends 19 percent of its income on the automobile
• Harmful: Cars produce nearly 50 percent of the smog-forming pollutants, and kill or maim hundreds of thousands of persons annually
• Socially Disruptive: Long commutes have been linked to increased incidents of family breakdown and child abuse, as well as road rage

South Pasadena proposes a solution which is less disruptive, and addresses the imbalance of our transportation system. "Low build" would accommodate growth in our area by improving the operation of local streets, increasing the flow along arterials both north/south and east/west (which completion of the 710 would actually make worse), and allow all communities affected to responsibly meet their obligations as good civic neighbors.

The "Low Build" Solution

Specifically, the "Low Build" approach would look at the entire area served by the proposed corridor, and make improvements through signal coordination, parking management, turn controls, and the potential development of paired one-way streets to handle volumes of up to 100,000 cars a day (compared to the 250,000 Caltrans estimates would be using the 710 as it redirects trips away from existing routes to the new, freer-flowing freeway route).

Under this plan, streets including Fremont, Fair Oaks, Los Robles, and San Gabriel in the north/south direction, and Mission Street, Monterey Road, Huntington Drive, Alhambra, Mission Road, and Valley Boulevard would all be organized in a linked grid, similar to the signalized system in downtown Los Angeles, to measure and control the flow of traffic through computerized management in "real time".

Additional crossings of the depressed Southern Pacific railroad tracks could be built at modest cost, and traffic from the stub ends of the existing 710 could be better distributed by creating one such crossing of the tracks in El Sereno, allowing traffic to exit on Mission Road as well, thus reducing the bottleneck at Valley and Fremont.

Meanwhile, at the northern end of the corridor, in Pasadena, traffic would be directed from the stub end of the 710, which would be finished to fit into the neighborhood with less disruption along improved streets including Fremont, Fair Oaks, and possibly a one-way street pair consisting of Raymond and Arroyo Parkway, which would link to the Pasadena Freeway.

Conclusions: "Low Build" is a Sensible Approach

Caltrans' own traffic engineers estimate that a completed 710 freeway would be at extreme levels of congestion from the day it opens. Further, according to their own figures, all of the intersections of main streets which currently fail to meet minimally acceptable standards (Level of Service "F") would continue to fail, although for shorter periods of time. In other words, the 710 would, far from reducing traffic, actually increase it to the point that the system would again suffer from the same or higher levels of overload, despite the increased capacity.

"Low build" suggests that since there is no "solution" to the traffic, a much better approach would be to utilize the projected savings (estimated at between $500 million and $1 billion, after paying for "low build" improvements) for additional transit, now desperately needed in the region. Transit will reduce traffic, provide mobility for the young, the elderly, the environmentally conscious, and the poor.

It might also be pointed out that the Blue Line is scheduled to commence service between Pasadena and Los Angeles in 1998 (a goal not met).

Funds saved by the "low build" approach could also be used to extend the service as far as Azusa, strongly desired by the communities east of Pasadena. And, it might be noted, federal law prohibits funding of freeway projects which would reduce the viability of transit investments, which the 710 would certainly do to the Blue Line.