A new section of protected bike lanes, and an early attempt to de-traffic-sewerize San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, is now well under construction. From a Bike East Bay post:
This exciting project includes the following features:
- A new half-mile of protected bikeway on San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito by Del Norte BART, between Knott Ave and Potrero Ave
- A protected bikeway connection on Cutting Blvd between I-80 and Key Blvd
- Protected intersections at San Pablo Ave / Cutting Blvd and at San Pablo Ave / Eastshore / Hill
- Concrete bus boarding islands with protected bike channels
- New crosswalk median refuges, curb ramps, sidewalk extensions, and other pedestrian infrastructure features
- New pavement, lighting, landscaping and street trees
As reported in March of 2024, this is part of a larger project to add dense housing and to improve access to the El Cerrito del Norte BART Station, which was (and still is to some extent) in the middle of an asphalt desert.
For East Bay advocates, this is also the first step in a hoped-for upgrade to the length of San Pablo Avenue. Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz told Streetsblog when the project broke ground that it will become about "connecting the dots," adding a "kudos to El Cerrito for getting it all started."
As Streetsblog readers are probably aware, San Pablo Avenue is also a state highway and therefore controlled by Caltrans. State highways in California, and nationwide, account for a disproportionate number of deadly crashes. It's a rare instance where the state transportation agency has actually gone along with protected bike lanes.
However, Caltrans still operates from a cars-first playbook, even when putting in bike lanes. For example, with protected lanes, driveways have to be narrow with sharp inclines (or some other treatment) to force cars to slow down as they pull across the bike space.
Unfortunately, the newly poured driveways on San Pablo are super-wide, with a very shallow gradient, and gently curved sides to maximize throughput and encourage speeding into and out of the adjacent parking lots. Streetsblog asked a worker on the project, who was with the city of El Cerrito, why the driveways were so wide. "They conform to Caltrans standards," was his answer.
The above driveway, for example, leads to a defunct Church's Fried Chicken. Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz told Streetsblog that they tried to get this driveway closed completely (there's access from Cutting Blvd., but the business objected). "That Church's Chicken restaurant is now closed, so it seems like a good opportunity for the city to follow up on this before someone else moves into that spot," added Prinz in an email to Streetsblog. "Even if that big driveway can't be reconstructed now, they could possibly barricade it for the time being, then include a closure as a condition of approval for whoever is there next (hopefully not with a drive-through)."
Prinz added that the site will likely be redeveloped as housing at some point, and that will be an opportunity to finally fix or remove the driveways. For now, Rebecca Saltzman, with Bike East Bay and a member of the El Cerrito City Council, said she would reach out to city staff about the driveway issue.
That said, it's still great that this stroad is getting its first dose of real safety. For more on the project and the larger, long-term vision, check out this great Bike East Bay video:
And for more on how driveways can be properly designed to co-exist with protected bike lanes, check out this post and video from the Bicycle Dutch blog.
