BERKELEY – San Pablo Avenue is the third most dangerous traffic corridor in Alameda County, where bicyclists and pedestrians are often left unprotected from speeding motorists traveling along the bustling state highway — one of the oldest in the East Bay.
While the 22-mile corridor, which runs through two counties and a dozen cities, is home to buzzy eateries, eclectic storefronts and an increasing number of new multi-family housing complexes, the infrastructure cannot safely and efficiently accommodate the tens of thousands of people who traverse this “central spine of travel” each day.
On the 2.5-mile stretch inside Berkeley’s borders alone, transit officials say that more than 10 people are killed each year.
After roughly seven years of community input and study, Berkeley this week became the last and final city to sign off on the first phase of the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project — part of the Alameda County Transportation Commission’s multi-million dollar plan to modernize the roadway cutting through Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley and Albany.
The core of this project is to improve bus travel times, throughput and reliability along San Pablo Avenue, which is one of AC Transit’s most heavily trafficked corridors and is a popular route for reaching interstates 880, 580 and 80.
By installing new infrastructure such as bus bulbs, lighting, signals, ADA ramps, flashing beacons and other traffic calming measures, Alameda and Contra Costa counties are making these changes in hopes of getting more people boarding buses, biking and walking on San Pablo.
John Bauters, ACTC board president and Emeryville’s mayor, emphasized that the project aligns with the state and federal government goals to reduce road violence. He also confirmed that no speed limits will be changed, since local agencies do not have the authority to do so under state law.
Dedicated bike and bus lanes are slated to be installed along San Pablo Avenue, stretching from 16th Street in Downtown Oakland, cutting through Emeryville and ending at Heinz Avenue in Berkeley.
That plan protects less than a half-mile of roadway inside Berkeley’s boundaries, but upgrades to “parallel” neighborhood bikeways — such as traffic calming and car diverters — are still planned from Russell Street in Berkeley to Albany’s Marin Avenue.
The Berkeley city council will also be able to reconsider an extension of those transit-priority lanes and other improvements in the future, especially as the city launches a San Pablo Avenue Area Specific Plan process with grant funding from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Construction isn’t expected to break ground until winter 2024, once transit staff can complete required environmental studies and final designs.
But the heat was still on Tuesday night, as Berkeley’s timely approval was vital for ACTC to retain the $44 million in state and federal funding for the project, supplementing $19 million invested from Measure BB, a voter-approved countywide sales tax dedicated to supporting transportation improvements.
Tuesday’s unanimous support pleased Councilmember Terry Taplin, who has lived along the avenue his entire life, commuting by both bike and bus to visit shops, restaurants and neighboring cities.
Representing more than half of Berkeley’s portion of San Pablo Avenue in District 2, he said the project will not only improve his own bus and bike commutes, but also help protect some of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable residents and visitors, including seniors in nearby assisted housing facilities, families who attend numerous schools in the neighborhood and people who enjoy southwest Berkeley’s parks.
“I get hundreds of emails … from households in every corner of my district who want to be able to cross San Pablo Avenue, and want the city to calm traffic in their neighborhoods so they can go about their days in their own community without risking their lives,” Taplin said Tuesday, during a special council meeting dedicated solely to discussing the proposed plan. “This isn’t just a transit project, it’s a safety project.
As a parent living in West Berkeley, Ben Gerhardstein said he’s experienced way too many scary close encounters while crossing San Pablo Avenue on daily walks and bike rides to school. Gerhardstein, an advocate with Walk Bike Berkeley, said a motorist once crushed the side of his bike trailer while his child was inside.
“For far too long, San Pablo has been dangerous by design,” Gerhardstein said. “Most of the mobility and safety improvements … are long overdue, common sense steps.”
Those steps include plans to remove 21 parking spots directly on San Pablo Avenue and 153 other spaces on other residential and commercial streets nearby. County transit staff said most of these spaces will be lost to comply with California’s new “daylighting” state law, which aims to increase visibility by banning cars and trucks from stopping, standing, or parking within 20 feet of crosswalks.
But those explanations didn’t assuage the handful of public commenters who were concerned that change has the potential to negatively impact small businesses along the corridor.
Ali Sadeghi, owner of the Lavender Bakery & Cafe that recently opened up a second storefront near the intersection of San Pablo and University avenues, echoed fears about parking. While he likes the project, he said a majority of his customers drive to the bakery to pick up cakes and other goodies, while other revenue streams are increasingly driven by delivery apps like DoorDash.
This project was originally slated for approval without discussion, but Councilmember Sophie Hahn pulled the issue of the consent calendar. However, Hahn didn’t have any substantial criticism of the proposed plan for San Pablo Avenue following Tuesday night’s presentation, adding that her inbox was relatively empty about the project.
Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani was especially excited that the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project would help more people move efficiently through this corridor, where more than 2,200 homes within two dozen different housing projects have been developed or are under construction there.
She cited data that these types of traffic improvement plans are crucial to sustainable growth and help businesses thrive, even if their customers arrive differently than in the past.
“When you have a bus that’s filled because it’s safe and reliable, or you have more people getting those cargo e-bikes and taking their little tykes on them because they feel safe, that actually improves your (business’) bottom line,” Kesarwani said. “We have to believe in this vision of what the 21st century can be in the city of Berkeley.”
