Carpinteria - Linden Avenue

Location

• Downtown Carpinteria, CA
• Linden Avenue

Background

Linden Avenue is one of the main downtown streets of this small beach community located 15 miles south of Santa Barbara. The city of Carpinteria spent $1.4 million redesigning Linden Avenue to improve the atmosphere of the downtown area. The previous street design was not inviting for tourists or locals. It was simply just a shabby, plain downtown street. There were also flooding problems that warranted improvement to the storm drainage system. Old concrete PG&E light posts 30 feet tall lined the street. The new design of Linden Ave. was constructed from 1991 to 1995, improving the aesthetic appeal of the street, bringing in expensive landscaping and nice sidewalk furniture, creating a median with a large flagpole, improving the storm drainage system, and bringing the street lights down to a “human level.”

Notable Features

Median Island

Upon entering downtown Carpinteria, Linden Avenue has a median island for one block. This island has bushes, plants, and a flagpole within its perimeter. The flagpole helps accentuate the entrance to downtown and provides a quaint old–town feeling.

Extensive Landscaping

The sidewalk has several landscaped portions between the street and the sidewalk. Where these landscaped sidewalk planters end, parallel parking begins. Parallel parking and landscaped sidewalk planters alternate down the street, using the same longitudinal portion of the street. This pattern, which continues down the length of Linden, provides a nice balance between parking and landscaping. There is just enough parking for drivers, and also sufficient landscaping to enhance the appearance of the street.

Sidewalk Furniture

Located just next to some of the sidewalk planters are tables, chairs, benches, and umbrellas for pedestrians to sit down, relax, and enjoy the atmosphere of the downtown. This furniture matches the style and green color of the other sidewalk furniture on the street such as bike racks, trash bins, and street lamps.

Clearly Defined Bicycle Lanes

Bicycle lanes 1.5 meters (5 ft.) wide run down the sides of the street between traffic and parallel parking. These lanes are defined by painted stripes down the whole length of the street.

Other Features

Concrete tile pedestrian crossings at signalized intersections, striped asphalt pedestrian crossings at unsignalized intersections, plaza with fountain in front of Vons to block the view of large parking lot and keep the pedestrian feel, and kiosks with electricity for parades and the annual avocado festival.

Street Maintenance

Ongoing landscaping and fountain costs cause high maintenance costs for Linden Ave. All sidewalk furniture and street-lights are powder coated with green paint. This type of paint is the most durable for an oceanfront environment. However, the paint has not lasted as long as the city hoped. Therefore, painting costs cause street maintenance to be more expensive than expected.

Accident Information

Accidents have never been a problem for Linden Avenue.

Public Response

Very positive. At first, citizens thought the project was too expensive. Business owners were also disappointed during construction. Now business owners like the new design because it attracts more pedestrians. This causes an increase in business, which the city also benefits from.

Transportation Philosophy of the Town

Since Carpinteria is a beach community, they promote as much pedestrian activity as possible. The city’s old circulation element calls for widening Carpinteria Avenue, an adjacent downtown street, from 2 lanes to 4 lanes. The city council recently decided to keep it 2 lanes. Whether or not they are planning for enough growth, they feel it is more important to keep the downtown area as pedestrian friendly as possible.

Additional Information

Linden Avenue is a location for the annual avocado festival. Of all the avocado festival locations Carpinteria rated very high among the festival locations, primarily due to the street layout of Linden Ave.

Original Contact

Bob Nisbet
Public Works Director
City of Carpinteria
5775 Carpinteria Ave.
Carpinteria, CA 93013
(805) 684-5405

This information originally compiled by Eric Spangler, 1999, as part of a senior project.