The island city of Alameda is set to break ground Monday on a $15 million project to build a segment of two-way protected bike lane on part of Central, plus traffic roundabouts and a lane-reduction as part of an overall safety project. Unfortunately, several blocks of the bike "infrastructure" will consist only of painted lines.
More from the city's release:
This project is designed to enhance safety for all users and reduce vehicle delays. The full length of the project spans 1.7 miles, but the biggest impact to the public will occur during the construction of three roundabouts, which will be completed in phases to minimize disruption.
Phased Construction Approach to Minimize Impact
- Phase 1 (January-June 2025): Construction of roundabouts on Central and Third and Fourth Streets will involve the closure of one westbound lane between Fifth and Pacific.
- Phase 2 (June 2025-January 2026): During this phase, construction continues on the roundabouts on Central and Third and Fourth Streets, with a single eastbound lane closure between Pacific and Fifth Street.
- Phase 3 (April 2026): Construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Central/Pacific/Main will require the full closure of the intersection to through traffic. Detours will be established to direct traffic around the construction zone.
There will be a two-way bikeway only "between Eighth Street at Washington Park and the Main Street/Pacific Avenue intersection at Alameda Point," explained Sarah Henry, a spokesperson for the city.
"It's a combo of a fully protected two-way cycle track (like Shoreline) and one-way paint-only bike lanes," confirmed Bike Walk Alameda's Denyse Trepanier. So while there will be a road diet throughout, east of Eighth there will be zero physical protection for cyclists, who will again be wedged between moving and parked cars. Westbound cyclists will also have to switch sides to get between the unprotected and protected parts.
Preserving free car storage on the public street (aka: car parking) was, as always, the issue at the root of the "compromise" bike lanes. It's just a fact that someone will get maimed or killed at some point in the future as a result. And of course the unprotected bike lane segments will become a de-facto double parking zone, as always.
As previously reported when the project was first approved, this is an oddly inconsistent design with its mix of a less-than-ideal two-way protected bike lane and a section of way-less-than-ideal unprotected lane. Bike East Bay's former advocacy director Dave Campbell explained in 2021 that a decade ago, when the process began, "Shoreline Drive had just been done, so now we had a two-way cycle track almost all the way to 8th and Central... the idea was to continue Shoreline's family friendly facility on down to Main Street."
Trepanier told Streetsblog that it'll still be a great improvement over the four-lanes of high-speed traffic that exist there today. However, from Streetsblog's view, it's also profoundly disappointing that Alameda is starting a project that will be so below par compared to much of Alameda's otherwise excellent new infrastructure.
