ARTERIAL AND LOCAL STREET TRAFFIC NEEDS

The lack of freeway service dramatically impacts the residents of the 710 corridor itself – residents are choking on the nearly 100,000 additional vehicles idling at traffic lights, crawling along at slow speeds, and spewing higher levels of pollutants into the local corridor’s air. Modeling in the Environental Impact statement showed a 50% reduction in local street traffic. Modeling in a later study showed that the amount of projected traffic on these streets will be reduced between 15% to 36% when the freeway is completed. Fremont Avenue will be especially impacted if the freeway is not built because average speeds will drop to between 5 and 10 mph during peak hours as traffic moves between Valley Boulevard and Huntington Drive. Fremont is not the only arterial affected, Fair Oaks Avenue, Arroyo Parkway, Los Robles Avenue, Atlantic Boulevard, and Garfield Avenue are all projected to have at least 10,000 more vehicles per day by 2015 than their already congested state today, if the 710 is not completed. Thus, the modeling demonstrates that a very significant number of vehicles clogging local streets and cutting through residential neighborhoods will be attracted to the freeway once it is completed.

Every morning and every evening, streets in El Sereno and Alhambra are flooded with traffic moving to or from the termination of the 710 Freeway at Valley Boulevard. The city of South Pasadena appears willing to delay the 710 completion indefinitely leaving El Sereno and Alhambra residents to suffer the negative traffic and air quality impacts.