Colorado Street begins at Interstate 5 as a short freeway spur, originally carrying State Route 134 until it was moved north onto the Ventura Freeway. After crossing the Los Angeles River, there are two interchanges—with Edenhurst Avenue and San Fernando Road—before it becomes a surface street. At the second interchange it enters Glendale. At the east border of Glendale, Colorado Street becomes Colorado Boulevard as it crosses State Route 2 into Los Angeles. Another short freeway spur splits west of the intersection with Figueroa Street, heading northeast to the Ventura Freeway. This spur also carried SR 134 after the Ventura Freeway was built to the east but before it was built west of the split with the spur. After crossing Figueroa Street, Colorado Boulevard splits from Linda Vista Avenue and then passes over the Arroyo Seco on the Colorado Street Bridge into Pasadena.
Colorado Boulevard becomes Colorado Street as it crosses Michillinda Avenue from East Pasadena into Arcadia. Through Arcadia, the street parallels the Foothill Freeway, providing access to many of the neighborhoods in west Arcadia; freeway access is provided via a separated interchange with Baldwin Avenue. Colorado Street then turns southeast and splits into two streets--Colorado Boulevard, which continues east, and Colorado Place, a short segment of old US 66 that goes southeast to merge with Huntington Drive near the Santa Anita Racetrack. From the split, Colorado Boulevard becomes a primarily residential street, with some commercial zones near Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia. The street passes under the Foothill Freeway between First and Second Streets in Arcadia with no access, in front of Monrovia High School, and through Old Town Monrovia before ending at Shamrock Avenue at Recreation Park in Monrovia. The Santa Anita Depot, built in 1890 to serve Lucky Baldwin, and the people of Rancho Santa Anita, was located at Colorado Boulevard and Old Ranch Road. It was moved to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden during the construction of the 210 Foothill Freeway in 1970.
History
The most original portion of Colorado Boulevard ran from Orange Grove Boulevard to Broadway, now Arroyo Parkway. This portion of the street always contained many shops, banks, hotels, and major commercial industries. By the late 19th century, this part of Colorado had become so popular, it was becoming a traffic bottleneck, and as early as May 1900 there were public outcries to the City Council to widen the road. It wasn't until 1929 that the City undertook the major and unprecedented task of cutting back the buildings along Colorado on each side. This undertaking created a monumental amount of legal red tape as well as many engineering dilemmas which were handled with amazing results. At the same time many of the Victorian facings on the buildings were replaced with Spanish and Art Deco designs. Colorado Street and Colorado Boulevard carried pre-1964 Legislative Route 161 from its west end to the merge with Huntington Drive. This was signed as State Route 134 west of Figueroa Street, U.S. Route 66 Alternate from Figueroa Street to Arroyo Parkway, and U.S. Route 66 from Arroyo Parkway to Huntington Drive. In 1954, the Colorado Freeway was opened between Holly Street in Pasadena and Eagle Vista Drive and Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock to help alleviate traffic congestion due to the narrow Colorado Street Bridge over the Arroyo Seco. The new freeway connected the two communities until 1971, when the entire freeway was closed and upgraded, as well as partially rerouted as the new Ventura Freeway. A short segment of the original Colorado Freeway remains as an on-ramp/off-ramp between Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock and the Figueroa Street off-ramp of the present Ventura Freeway. In the 1964 renumbering, LR 161 remained State Route 134 west of Pasadena, though this was being moved to the new alignment ; until the freeway was completed through Pasadena in the mid-1970s, Colorado Boulevard was still signed as State Route 134 between Orange Grove Avenue and Arroyo Parkway. Through and east of Pasadena, LR 161 became State Route 248, but was signed as US 66 and continued east on Huntington Drive to the interchange with Interstate 210 in Monrovia. In 1965, this was to be deleted when I-210 was completed. The US 66 shields began to come down along the length of Route 248 in 1975, soon after Interstate 210 was completed through Pasadena. SR 248 was never signed as such, though it did appear on some maps in the 1970s and 1980s. The segment within the city of Pasadena was deleted from the state highway system in 1986. The rest was removed in 1992. Along with the moving of SR 134 to the Ventura Freeway, this resulted in Colorado Street and Colorado Boulevard becoming a local road.
Transit
Colorado Boulevard is served by several bus routes, operated byMetro and suburban systems. Metro Local lines 180 and 181 and Metro Rapid line 780 serve most of Colorado Boulevard, running between Hollywood and Pasadena. Also, Metro Local lines 177, 256, 686, and Foothill Transit line 187 serve parts of Colorado Boulevard, beginning in Old Pasadena. Metro Local lines 28, 81, and LADOT DASH Eagle Rock/Highland park serves most of Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. Metro Local Lines 28, 183 and Glendale Transit line 6 serve Colorado Street in Glendale.
Controversies
Metro has identified Colorado Boulevard as a potential bus rapid transit corridor, part of a line between North Hollywood station and Pasadena approved in 2016's Measure M. The bus rapid transit project would need to include removable components to allow for the annual staging of the Rose Parade. Some local residents fear increased traffic congestion due to the proposed bus rapid transit route, while increasing access to high-quality transit.
