Pasadena ranks first of 62 similar-size California cities for pedestrian victims aged 65 and older and fifth for pedestrian victims overall, with 75 people on foot killed or injured in 2023. Most of those crashes happen on a handful of streets. Colorado Boulevard, the Rose Parade route and the spine of Old Pasadena, mixes four to six lanes of traffic with the densest foot traffic in the San Gabriel Valley between Pasadena Avenue and Lake Avenue. Lake Avenue, Fair Oaks Avenue, Los Robles Avenue, and Arroyo Parkway are named safety corridors in the city’s own roadway safety plan.
Old Pasadena. Restaurants, bars, and the Memorial Park and Del Mar stations on the Metro A Line put people in the crosswalks on Colorado, Green, Union, Fair Oaks, and Raymond late into the evening. Left turns across a crosswalk on Colorado and right turns on red from the side streets are the two collisions we see most often. Drivers must yield to a pedestrian in any marked or unmarked crosswalk and slow down as they approach (Vehicle Code 21950).
Rose Bowl events. UCLA home games, the Rose Bowl Game, concerts, and the monthly flea market move tens of thousands of people on foot through the Arroyo Seco and along Rosemont Avenue, Seco Street, and Arroyo Boulevard, past drivers looking for parking on residential streets with no sidewalks in places. Event-day crashes often involve rideshare pickups and out-of-town drivers; the event date and time, the lot you were walking from, and any wristband or ticket help us locate video and witnesses.
Reports and deadlines. Pedestrian collisions on Pasadena streets are investigated by the Pasadena Police Department; reports come from the Records Section at 207 N Garfield Ave or online through CrashDocs. If a Pasadena Transit or Metro bus, a city vehicle, or a dangerous crossing contributed, a written claim must be presented to the public entity within six months (Government Code 911.2); see our government claims guide. If the driver fled or was uninsured, the uninsured motorist coverage in your own auto policy applies to you as a pedestrian (Insurance Code 11580.2). Serious injuries go to Huntington Hospital, the San Gabriel Valley’s only Level II trauma center. Our pedestrian and bicycle accident page explains how we build these cases.
