Eyes on the Street: Sneak Peek at El Cerrito’s San Pablo Ave. Bike Lanes
It was almost a year ago when Streetsblog last checked out the half-mile of concrete curb-protected bike lanes and protected intersections going in on San Pablo Avenue, across from El Cerrito Del Norte BART. The official ribbon cutting for the project is scheduled for mid-July, but Streetsblog decided to take a peek at the lanes, now that they are essentially completed.
First, the good stuff. The wide islands at the corners, such as the one seen above, work as intended. They maintain good sight lines and force drivers to take their rights slowly, giving a chance for cyclists and drivers to react to potential conflicts. The bioswales, as seen in the lead image, also add a bit of beauty to a section of street that makes it feel a bit less like a traffic sewer (more on that later).
It was also nice to see the concrete bus-boarding islands that channel cyclists to the right of the loading area, so they’re not forced to zipper merge with buses. This seems to be becoming the default on many projects and that’s great to see.
Another nice feature—the protected lanes and features extend a little bit onto the perpendicular streets. For example, on Cutting Boulevard, which connects San Pablo to Interstate 80, there are also protected lanes.
As readers are probably aware, San Pablo is a state highway, so Caltrans was calling the shots. And as seen in the above image, Cutting Boulevard’s protected bike lane runs past the ramps of Interstate 80. The protected lane follows along the sidewalk and crosses the ramp at an essentially 90-degree angle, next to the crosswalk. This is something I’ll confess I haven’t seen before, but it makes more sense to treat cyclists as slightly faster pedestrians, not little cars. In every other installation I’ve seen, Caltrans creates a dangerous mixing zone for cyclists and right-turning motorists to cross paths at freeway ramps. I’d be curious to hear if readers have ridden a ramp configured like the one above and what they think of it.
And now for some of the bad impressions. First, San Pablo remains a hugely overbuilt highway, with too many lanes of fast-moving traffic. That kind of dictates more robust infrastructure. These bike lanes are a huge improvement, but these curbs are not going to keep a wreck or a drunk driver away from vulnerable road users. Case in point below:
This is a brand new project, with paint that’s barely dried, and as seen in the above photo, some errant driver already managed to navigate into the bike lane and into a signpost, which broke away.
If a cyclist had been there at the time, they’d be dead. That’s why installations such as this need bollards and bells that will stop an errant driver. Instead, Caltrans still designs things to minimize damage to the car when a driver messes up, rather than prioritizing protecting the squishy bodies of people outside the car. Likewise, there are a few sections that are protected only by plastic bollards.
And then there are the beg-buttons everywhere. The signals are obviously timed to maximize car throughput; the wait times to cross on foot are interminable. Just once, it would be nice if Caltrans built a raised crosswalk with signals that stay red for drivers and turn green only once a car showed up and activated the signal. In other words, this design still prioritizes drivers.
Another problem: El Cerrito Del Norte’s land use is, well, typical suburban America, and it really makes for a harsh and uninviting streetscape with more land for driving and parking than for shops or anything else.
However, the city, BART, and its urban planners are working to fix that too, as illustrated by the new housing going up around the station. Thank Bike East Bay co-director, former BART board member, and El Cerrito City Councilmember Rebecca Saltzman‘s hard work for much of that.
What’s more exciting, perhaps, is the idea that there’s now an on-the-ground starting place for fixing San Pablo, a 22-mile traffic sewer and one of the most important arterials in the East Bay.
Getting a protected bike lane, even just a half-mile, on this overbuilt state highway is a huge accomplishment that sets the stage for improvement all along the corridor. At least, that’s the hope among advocates. And expansion can’t come soon enough. The photo below of the southern end of the project shows again why conventional paint-only lanes *just* *don’t* *work*.
The official opening of the project is July 13, 11 a.m. at the Mayfair Station housing, 11600 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito.
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