Alameda Advocates Celebrate Clement Bike Heaven

The city of Alameda cut the ribbon Wednesday afternoon on its newest bit of concrete-curb-protected bike lane, a long-stretch of path on Clement Avenue from Willow to Broadway. This is part of the larger cross-Alameda trail (CAT) project. From the city’s website:

Clement Avenue is the main thoroughfare in the Northern Waterfront area and is a gateway to Oakland, Fruitvale BART and beyond. This project includes two travel lanes for automobiles and trucks, a two-way separated bikeway on the north side of the street, parking on the south side of the street and intermittent parking on the north side of the street, high visibility crosswalks, curb extensions and daylighted intersections between Grand Street and Broadway, sidewalk/curb ramp improvements and railroad track removal.

As previously reported and featured in Streetfilms, Alameda has been cobbling together a protected bike lane and path near or along the north shore of the island, originating in the west at the new Seaplane Lagoon ferry terminal with connections to San Francisco. This includes all new streets with a fully separated cycle track as part of the Point development in Western Alameda, a path through Jean Sweeney Park, and now a two-way protected cycle track on Clement all the way to Park and beyond in eastern Alameda. See map below:

“The Clement Ave project from Grand to Broadway is another piece of the puzzle that will create an amazing CAT,” wrote Walk Bike Alameda’s Lucy Gigli in a 2019 email to Streetsblog about the project when it was still winding its way through the approval process. “The CAT is envisioned to be a walking and biking trail for everyone of all abilities. It will stretch from the east end of the island all the way to the west end new ferry terminal (over four miles – protected).”

Also from city documents: “Excessive speeds, challenging crossings for pedestrians and a lack of bicycle facilities cause safety concerns along this segment of Clement Avenue.”

Not any more. Or as the advocates with Walk Bike Alameda put it on social media in a recent post about the project: “Woot, woot!”