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Oakland's Department of Transportation has picked a basic design for protected bike lanes on Upper Telegraph from 52nd Street to Wolsey, extending the Temescal business district's protected lanes farther north. "Telegraph Ave north of Hwy 24 was among the first bike lanes striped in Oakland, way back in 1999," wrote Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz in a celebratory email to Streetsblog. "It was a big deal at the time but a lot has changed."
Construction is scheduled to take place in 2026 and 2027. More from Oakland DOT:
This design will enable the installation of the greatest number of pedestrian safety improvements, more comfortable facilities for bicyclists, more features for people with disabilities, more commercial loading and parking, and more amenities for transit riders, all while having minimal impacts to current transit operations (3 second delay southbound, 9 seconds faster northbound). Among other elements, the project design will feature a slower, calmer roadway for all users, fully separated bike lanes, pedestrian safety islands, and transit improvements, including approximately 10 bus boarding islands with shelters and seating.
In August and September 2024, OakDOT staff will be visiting businesses and property owners on Telegraph Avenue to discuss specific needs that may need to be accommodated with the selected design for the corridor.
Oakland DOT had already narrowed the project down to two possible designs. The one that was selected is shown in the lead image. The alternative design also included dedicated bus lanes, as seen below:
Telegraph doesn't have a lot of bus routes and since there are no bus lanes along the rest of the street, time savings would be minimal, concluded Oakland DOT.
And, of course, residents objected to the loss of a parking lane.
The good news, say advocates, is protected bike lanes were included in both options—meaning that protected bike lanes are getting a little bit closer to becoming the default.
"Thanks to the over 75 percent of voters who approved Measure U in 2022, including the requirement to implement bike and pedestrian plan recommendations whenever feasible, the conversation for this Telegraph Ave project was not oriented around whether the bikeway should be implemented but how," wrote Prinz. Moreover, "The local funding also means the entire project timeline from planning to start of construction is much shorter, at around three years, as opposed to the eight years that we saw with the Telegraph Ave project in KONO."
The initial designs for the entire corridor can be viewed here.
From Streetsblog's view this is, of course, great news. However, one concern is over the design of the intersections. In the schematics they deviate from standard Dutch design, with one diagonal wheelchair ramp instead of the safer two directional ramps at each corner. Additionally, the protected islands that are supposed to keep cyclists safe from turning cars are behind the crosswalks, instead of in front of it.
Streetsblog has asked OakDOT for an explanation and will update this post. Prinz told Streetsblog, however, that the designs are still being refined. "OakDOT staff let me know that the intersections will be reworked for the 35 percent design level coming later this year, as well as the bikeway widths," he said.
Another problem: there's a one-block gap in the protected lanes in the design, in an area that sees a lot of car traffic moving in multiple directions. "One other request I made is for staff to extend the project boundary one block further south, in order to upgrade the northbound bike lane from 51st to 52nd Street from painted to protected. Otherwise that one block gap of paint-only bikeway will remain," added Prinz.
One can hope these issues will get addressed as the project moves forward. Still, another mile of protected bike lane in Oakland is definitely something to celebrate.
