East Bay Cities on Notice for Substandard Bikeways

Bike East Bay reviews a list of projects unrealized, despite city promises

3:27 PM PST on February 21, 2025

2024 was a record year for separated bikeways and protected intersections construction in the East Bay (read more here), and 2025 is shaping up to be similarly impressive. But not all of the progress has been linear, and we have had our share of starts and stops.

Acknowledging what didn’t happen as expected, and understanding why, is important in order for us to improve our advocacy and get ahead of issues. So in this update we are looking back at several corridor projects in East Bay cities that did not go as planned, followed by some recommendations and ways you can get involved.

Castro Valley - Somerset Ave

Somerset Ave in Castro Valley is a critical street for bike/walk access and safety. It is a connector route to multiple area schools, and due to the lack of a cohesive street grid there are no nearby, alternate bikeway options available.

It is a busy street with more than 10k vehicles per day, but also somewhat narrow with one travel lane in each direction and curbside car parking on each side.

Because of the corridor’s importance to the bike network, the Alameda County Unincorporated Area’s 2019 bike/walk plan recommended “Class 2” painted bike lanes on Somerset Ave, requiring conversion of at least one half of the car parking.

This was already a compromise, as national guidelines from NACTO recommend protected bikeways or side paths for streets like Somerset with more than 6k vehicles per day. Paint-only bike lanes are typically only recommended for streets with less car traffic.

Bike East Bay and our local partners at Bike Walk Castro Valley engaged in a multi-year process led by Alameda County Public Works for a project on Somerset to improve bike/walk access and safety to nearby schools.

But despite survey respondents preferring some sort of dedicated bike lane over retaining all the car parking, and despite a student being hit by a driver while biking on the sidewalk in 2024, staff continued to recommend retaining all of the curbside car parking with no dedicated bike lane (neither protected nor painted) or traffic calming, and suggested that bike riders could use the sidewalk.

This was then approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for implementation in 2025.

We are extremely disappointed in this outcome which clearly prioritizes car parking availability above traffic safety concerns, overruling both national best practices for bikeway selection as well as locally approved plans. This is one of numerous bikeway projects with problematic design elements we have seen from Alameda County Public Works.

To avoid continued whittling away of bike plan recommendations, we encourage the county Board of Directors to adopt policies that tie project funding to adopted bike/walk plan implementation, and set a clear order of priorities in the decision making process to elevate safety and access needs.

Here are some of our official communications about the Somerset project:

Union City - Decoto Road

Decoto Road is an important corridor in Union City, connecting between the BART station, Alameda Creek Trail, and many more destinations.

As such a “Class 4” protected bikeway was recommended for Decoto in Union City’s 2021 bike/walk plan update.

The project was presented to their bike/walk committee in April 2024 for a required Transportation Development Act Article 3 (TDA3) funding application review.

This presentation showed a continuously post-separated “Class 4” bikeway shown, to be incorporated into a routine paving project (screenshots from the presentation file below, detailing the proposed separation):

Staff responses to committee member questions at that meeting also made it very clear that physically separated bikeway was to be included, stating:

“Delineators and green paint will be used to protect bicyclists.”

We at Bike East Bay provided a comment letter of support and kudos to staff for that meeting, lauding it as the city’s first major separated bikeway project.

So we were very surprised and disappointed that the actual project which went to construction a few months later included only a “Class 2” painted buffer bike lane and no physical separation, with no follow up or explanation.

This change was in violation of a Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) directive for local bike/walk committee review of grant applications through the state TDA3 program.

We brought this to the attention of Union City staff and MTC staff in advance of the project construction, but it went forward with no changes regardless.

We are currently communicating with both agencies to understand how and why this happened, and to encourage more checks and balances as well as enforcement mechanisms to prevent this going forward.

We continue to request near-term follow up from Union City staff on the Decoto project to add back the bikeway separation that was originally promised.

But the omission is already a significant breach of trust between the city and the public, as well as with everyone who participated in the bike/walk plan update process.

If you would also like to express your concern over Union City’s violation of TDA3 funding requirements for the Decoto Road bikeway, please contact MTC at info@bayareametro.gov.

Antioch - L Street

L Street in Antioch was included in the 2018 Contra Costa County bike/walk plan as a recommended low stress and all ages/abilities bikeway, with an intention to bring it from the current highest level of traffic stress category (LTS 4) to the lowest (LTS 1).

This corridor was prioritized for safety upgrades due to its connections past Highway 4, to Antioch High School, and the Rivertown district.

However when a $7.6M project using federal, state, and county funding moved forward last year, only “Class 3” shared bike/car lane markings (aka “sharrows”) were proposed on L St from Sycamore Drive to Lemontree Way.

Shared lane bikeways on a street like this are in conflict with national guidelines for all ages/abilities facilities from NACTO as well as Caltrans Complete Streets design guidelines.

In addition, Senate Bill 1216 was passed in 2024 which now prohibits the use of “Class 3” shared bike/car lane markings on streets signed at over 30 mph, making the 35 mph L Street proposal out of compliance. See our previous blog post on this new law here.

Most recently, Caltrans has also released a draft of their Bay Area bike plan update, which includes a priority protected bikeway update through the Highway 4 interchange just to the south of Antioch’s L Street project.

But having the protected bikeway dump bike riders out into a shared bike/car lane in high speed traffic would create a significant safety hazard and reduce the value of the Caltrans investment.

The L Street project is fully designed but not yet under construction. We are continuing to compel Antioch staff to implement an update and replace the sharrows with a more appropriate and legal bike facility.

San Ramon - Crow Canyon Rd

The City of San Ramon spent $12.5 Million on widening Crow Canyon Road from 4 car travel lanes to 6, but the project only added bike lanes with a painted buffer despite the 45 mph speed limit.

This is a very similar condition to Dougherty Road in San Ramon, where Greg Knapp was hit and killed while biking in a painted buffer bike lane in 2021, after a driver drifted into his lane.

Despite the high project expense for the Crow Canyon widening, the city ignored a protected bikeway recommendation from their own 2018 bike plan update.

San Ramon is now working on a new bike plan update but has still not built a single protected bikeway from the dozen recommended in their 2018 plan.

The city is also currently finishing an Iron Horse Trail bike/walk bridge over Bollinger Canyon Road and preparing for another over Crow Canyon Road, both at great expense.

But they have not made commitments to implementing relatively affordable and effective protected bikeways on these streets.

The Crow Canyon widening project is nearly complete, but a follow up project to add physical separation to the bike lane buffer spaces is feasible and needs to be prioritized.

This won’t solve the negative safety and environmental impacts of the roadway widening, but it is a small step San Ramon can take to finally start building out a network of safe and accessible bikeways.

What needs to change?

A common theme between all the examples above is a jurisdiction ignoring a recommendation in an approved bike plan. See our bike plans landing page here for information on what these are for, and links to adopted plans across the East Bay.

There is a lot of hard work and community involvement in developing these plans, so it is very disappointing when individual project recommendations are watered down or rejected. This impacts the bigger-picture bike network connectivity as well as impacting safety, equity, climate, and other goals on the local and regional levels.

We have helped to pass some local measures such as Measure U in Oakland and Measure FF in Berkeley that tie bike/walk plan implementation to the use of the associated funding, whenever feasible. Going forward, incorporating similar requirements into more local and regional funding mechanisms will provide leverage for cities to actually implement the plans.

Building a coalition

Building our local coalition network is also critical to better outcomes, as often staff and elected officials will be more responsive to constituents than they will be to Bike East Bay as an organization. Some steps you can take to help with this include:

Visit our coalition partners page to find an East Bay group we organize with, in your area. And if no group exists yet, fill out the form to help get one started.
Sign up for our Green Mobility Ambassadors list to learn about and attend free trainings on how to be an effective advocate in your community
Attend and/or join your local bike/walk committee – These are official, city sponsored groups that exist to provide oversight on bike and pedestrian plan implementation
Donate and join Bike East Bay as a member – Your financial support helps us to continue coordinating on projects throughout every corner of the East Bay. Higher membership numbers help to increase our influence and encourage cities to partner with us on street safety initiatives