The short but awesome section of protected bike lane on Lakeside and Harrison on the west side of Lake Merritt is currently getting a long-anticipated upgrade plus a short extension. "The Lakeside Family Streets project" will extend "the existing cycletrack north to Grand and around the corner to Bay Place, as well as adding a protected intersection at Harrison/Grand and concrete protected bikeways on Harrison from Grand to 27th Street," explained Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz.
But that long awaited "protected intersection" at Harrison/Grand has a big flaw. More on that later.
The project closes the deathtrap slip lane from Harrison to Grand. Previously, cyclists coming out of the protected bike lane wanting to continue north on Harrison had to merge across traffic using the green dashed area seen above. It is already closed by construction barriers.
Under the new design, the slip lane itself will become an extension of the two-way protected cycle track, enabling turning cyclists to avoid the corner between Harrison and Grand entirely. Eventually, at some unknown date in the future, this will become part of a two-way protected bike lane that rings the entire lake.
This is all great. But here's the catch: there will no longer be a way for cyclists to go straight on Harrison across the intersection.
"Northbound bike riders will have to go to Grand then double back, and vice versa," explained Prinz.
For those not familiar with the area, look at the above image. Imagine you want to bike north, meaning to the left of the island with the trees. To get there, you'll have to go down the slip lane to the right onto Grand, make a U-turn, double back to Harrison, and then turn right to get back on course.
"The original plan had a direct cut-through path through the triangle median island to get to/from the intersection, but this was removed from the project because of concerns over the path construction on the root structures of the trees in that island," said Prinz.
But that begs the question: what about the existing bike lane seen in the photos above and below? Can't the city just put a barrier next to it to create a protected route for cyclists who want to go north?
Streetsblog posed that question to Oakland DOT and will update this post. But looking at records of the back and forth between the Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and Suty Komsonkeo, Oakland's civil engineer, that question of bikes going north was repeatedly sidestepped.
It's clear from the exchange with the BPAC, that because the city is getting rid of the slip lane, the city's traffic engineers think it needs to create a right-turn lane for cars. To do that, they have to convert the existing bike lane that permits cyclists to go north. Otherwise, it'll cause "level of service" delays at the intersection.
To be clear, there are many things to like about this project; it's an improvement over existing conditions. It's great that the slip lane is closed. And it's good news that the planters and temporary curb stops, for reasons that are obvious from the photo below of the aftermath of an errant driver, will be replaced with more robust concrete protection.
That said, in addition to the intersection issues, while advocates are happy this is finally getting done, there are questions about why it took so long. Prinz referred to a 2017 Streetsblog interview with then Oakland DOT director Ryan Russo who said Grand/Harrison would have a protected intersection in "two to three years." Josh Rowen, who's now in charge of the DOT, seems to be getting some of these projects back on track.
Let's hope he can also get his engineers to realize that just because a slip lane gets eliminated, doesn't mean a new lane has to be added for cars. There are lots of solutions to allowing cyclists to go directly and safely north across Grand, it just requires the city to get past these artificial constraints.
