BART Grant is Good News for Oakland, Alameda, and Other Cities

Protected bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes leading to Lake Merritt BART, better bikeways to BART in Fremont, and upgrades to the Ohlone Greenway are three of seven projects that were approved Thursday for $16 million in funding under the latest round of BART's 'Safe Routes to BART' program. "I am excited about BART’s latest awards to incentivize bike/ped improvements," wrote BART Director Robert Raburn in an email to Streetsblog about the program.

There have already been two rounds of funding approved for projects all over the Bay Area. The chart below breaks down this latest round (the lead image corresponds to the first project listed in the chart, the Lakeside Dr/Lake Merritt Blvd Complete Streets Paving Project).

The funds are from 2016's Measure RR, a $3.5 billion bond, which mostly went to BART infrastructure directly. But $135 million was set aside for bike and ped improvements to help people "safely reach BART fare gates," as Raburn explained. 

Raburn was particularly happy to see the grant towards the Tilden Way project in Alameda, the second largest grant recipient. Streetsblog readers will recall that Oakland is nearing completion of a truly first-class, sidewalk-level bike facility on Fruitvale Avenue, connecting the Fruitvale BART station to Jingletown and just within sight of the Miller-Sweeney Bridge to Alameda. Unfortunately, where Fruitvale Avenue crosses the bridge into Alameda (and then transitions into Tilden Way) all bets are off for cyclists, as seen below:

But in part thanks to Measure RR more of that will get fixed in another year, giving cyclists in eastern Alameda a much safer route. "Over the past year I have encouraged Alameda staff to be prepared to submit a complete proposal for the critical Tilden Way connection to close the gap to reach Fruitvale BART," wrote Raburn.

Streetsblog, of course, will continue to visit and update on these projects as they enter construction.