If you’ve ever walked, driven or biked on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland and Berkeley and seen something on the road you thought should be improved, like new and more visible crosswalks, now is the time to let transportation planners know.
The Alameda County Transportation Commission, the regional agency in charge of the project that will reconfigure and modernize this important arterial road, published its latest concept designs on its website on April 1. For the first time in a project of this type, ACTC also built a community feedback website that includes a map where people can point to specific parts of the road and add comments about how they feel about proposed changes or offer ideas of their own.
The interactive map shows where short-term metered parking will be maintained, where reconfigured medians are expected to be added, where new pedestrian and bicycle crossing signals will help slow cars down, and more.
ACTC engineers are looking for specific feedback on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley South of Heinz Avenue. The agency will host several pop-up meetings over the next month in each city. And if you want to get significant face time with engineers, they will also host two in-person meetings next week in Oakland and Emeryville to review designs block-by-block. As they did last year in Berkeley, the maps will be printed and displayed on whiteboards large enough to accommodate dozens of people’s sticky notes.
According to an ACTC engineer, the community has already contributed more than 400 comments to the online map.
Oakland District 1 Councilmember Dan Kalb, an ACTC commission alternate, told The Oaklandside he’s excited about the San Pablo Avenue project.
“The latest iteration you’re seeing [on the interactive map] shows details they’re proposing based on extensive community and merchant input,” Kalb said. “I think it’s a good model for enhancing pedestrian safety, for inviting bicyclists, and for facilitating the rapid movement of buses up and down the corridor. I think the plans we have in Oakland and Emeryville are strong.”
Block-by-block detail helps residents know what is likely to change on the road
San Pablo Avenue’s big redesign begins in downtown Oakland where ACTC is proposing to shrink the large and confusing 17th Street intersection at the corner of the Oakland Ice Center. It will expand the sidewalk at the corner of the Haley Law Offices into a concrete rest area with a cut-through protected bike lane, and create a small plaza on the opposite corner, possibly with new landscaping, and brand-new crosswalk signage.
Already, this intersection is receiving a lot of comments. Former Bike East Bay advocacy director Dave Campbell, now the transportation director in Charlotte, wrote on ACTC’s website that while he likes the bike infrastructure plan, the plaza design in Oakland’s 2019 Downtown Specific Plan gave the area a better “sense of place.” Another commenter said they were disappointed because the proposed changes make the intersection too confusing. “All San Pablo Avenue needs is repaving, regular old bike lanes, and trees,” they wrote, choosing to remain anonymous.
Several intersections in the new plan have extended bulb-outs that could become plazas and new gathering places. The city could use these to add public art or small food stalls like hot dog carts or coffee pop-ups. The expectation that more people would hang out on those corners prompted one comment on the ACTC map site to say that ACTC should add heavy bollards, or other protection like planters or K-rails, to ensure a car doesn’t jump the curb and hit people.
Bike East Bay Advocacy Director Rober Prinz told The Oaklandside his group is happy with several new details in the proposed design. He said the bikeway-protected areas at intersections are vital to keeping cyclists and cars away from each other, as are the spaces for business loading and paratransit access. Bike East Bay also likes the recommendations to add physical separations between the dedicated bus lane and the regular car lane, which is logical given the rise in collisions due to a similar design on International Boulevard.
George Spies, a volunteer for the Traffic Violence Rapid Response group, told the Oaklandside that physical separation is an important option to avoid further harm on a major East Bay road.
“The tragedy of International shows us that no lane delineators is a recipe for disaster. We are going to push for the concrete option over plastic, as that will be most effective in preserving lives and keeping speeding drivers out of the bus-only lane,” he said.
Spies also noted that the rapid-bus lane on San Pablo would be located on the right-hand side of the road, as opposed to earlier designs, where it was situated in the middle of the road, like on International Boulevard. Spies’ group has studied the lethal consequences of International Boulevard’s design through a partnership with a car-data company.
“We expect that right-side bus lanes [on San Pablo Avenue will be] less prone to long speeding runs than the center-running lanes,” Spies said.
Concerns about parking and traffic
Some business owners and residents who use San Pablo Avenue have expressed concerns about losing some car parking spots on the corridor.
In a comment about the section of road in front of 5821 San Pablo Avenue, near the Stanford Avenue intersection, a person who did not include their name said they were worried that removing parking throughout the corridor would reduce sidewalk access for disabled people, many of whom use cars to get around.
“The blanket elimination of parking is not needed and impractical, disproportionately favoring cyclists over other road users,” the person wrote.
Louise Rafkin, the owner of Studio Naga Indo-American Martial Arts at 59th Street and San Pablo Avenue, wrote on the map that reducing parking will affect many parents who drop off their children at the after-school self-defense program.
“My many parents will find it difficult to park. I don’t think there should be meters. Parking in the area is at a premium and the crime is such that people don’t want to walk in the dark through the neighborhoods,” Rafkin wrote. The owner of the 23-year-old business wrote the improved lighting in the proposal was appreciated.
Road planners greeting people at one of the pop-up meetings on San Pablo Avenue this week, in front of the Golden Gate library, told The Oaklandside that they had also heard concerns about parking, in addition to worries about traffic congestion.
Prinz said that the parking concerns are legitimate and that he hopes ACTC better communicates the extensive work they have done to analyze how parking is currently used along the corridor and how it may change. At the very least, Prinz said planners should publish a parking conversion graphic like the one that the Oakland Department of Transportation issued before the Telegraph Avenue protected bike lane project.
Chris Hwang, director of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, said transportation planners should also consider working with cities to create “wayfinding guides” to help people find the best way to access businesses and other places on San Pablo Avenue and ensure that bus service is constant and consistent throughout the corridor.
This week, ACTC told us the project’s goal is to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists while ensuring that the road continues to function as a major arterial moving people and goods in the East Bay.
“Safety is a top priority for the Commission and San Pablo Avenue has the third highest number of collisions in the county,” ACTC spokesperson Remy Goldsmith said in an email statement. “This project will make a material difference by improving safety for all users, especially the most vulnerable, including pedestrians, youth, and seniors. It will also improve transit service along this critical corridor.”
So far, the transportation commission’s approach has pleased locals and advocates.
“The project is encouraging in its draft form and approach to getting community feedback, virtually and in person,” Hwang said.
