Albany Approves Plan with Protected Bike Lane on Solano Avenue

The Albany City Council approved its active transportation plan (ATP) Monday evening with a protected bike lane on one side of Solano Avenue, the city’s main merchant corridor. “The ATP was adopted by a 4-1 with Vice Mayor Hansen-Romero casting the dissenting vote,” explained Albany Mayor Peggy McQuaid in an email to Streetsblog.

From Ken McCroskey, advocate with Albany Strollers & Rollers:

Thank You! To the many, many folks who wrote in and made comments in-person/online at tonight’s meeting! To those who put the message out to their networks, and those who helped make materials and reach out to folks leading up to this meeting. 

Public comment at the meeting was almost 2-1 in favor of the ATP and a cycletrack along Uptown Solano. Four out of five Council Members voted to continue consideration of cycling facilities on Solano, and to approve the overall Active Transportation Plan, with just a couple of minor modifications.

As seen in the above diagram, the plan is to have a protected bike lane in the uphill direction for the half-mile from Masonic to Tulare Avenue, where Solano continues across the border with Berkeley.

Among the public speakers at Monday’s hearings were the aunt and grandmother of four-year-old Maia Correia, who was killed on Lakeshore around Hanover Street in 2023 in Oakland because of the lack of protected bike lanes. Oakland is finally trying to remedy that situation. Her family urged the Albany councilmembers to learn from Oakland and not wait until another child is killed. “Protected bike lanes save lives, period,” Sheila McCracken, Maia’s aunt, told the council.

City Councilperson Robin López told Streetsblog he took exception to people who heard such testimony but still prioritized preserving the status quo on Solano. “It’s telling when you have folks in public comment choosing to overlook the statements of Maia’s family.”

Advocate and Albany City Councilperson Preston Jordan explained to Streetsblog that for decades the city was developing a plan that didn’t include any bike safety improvements on Solano, so this is a great first step. “If I had the opportunity, I would have loved to advocate for protected bike lanes on both sides,” explained López. “But some of the initial caution we were getting was that we needed to provide enough clearance for emergency vehicles.”

Of course, as Streetsblog has reported before, nobody ever talks about removing parking to provide clearance for emergency vehicles.

Advocates and planners realized that by changing the angle of the parking to increase efficiency, it would be possible to get one protected lane, maintain space for the fire department, and preserve parking. “It was about political feasibility,” explained Jordan. “The reality is that if you make a play to take away parking, you’ll get totally torched.”

Either way, “I wasn’t willing to sacrifice the opportunity to have a ten-block cycletrack,” said López. “There’s no doubt in my mind it’s going to be used. And that will lead to the opportunity to advocate for more.”

Before moving to Albany, López lived in Richmond and used to bike to class at UC Berkeley via the greenway that follows the BART line across Solano. But he said he never felt comfortable exploring the street with its many shops, in part because it lacked any bike lanes. “I was curious about checking out Solano, but I never did because I never felt safe, dismounting and walking around as a person of color,” he said. “I also did not feel safe riding my bike up and down Solano, seeing how people blow through that intersection [with the greenway].”

He hopes the protected bike lane will start to make the space feel welcoming and safe to all, including those who don’t get around by car. López said he was especially impacted by the kids who came to speak at public comment, especially those who said they “can’t drive cars, bikes are how we get together.”

More from the Albany Strollers and Rollers advocacy group:

The project would improve conditions for people driving, using sidewalks, and biking east of Masonic.

As proposed the project would reconfigure and add bulb-outs to shorten road crossing distances for people using sidewalks. It would provide an uphill cycletrack between car parking and the sidewalk on the south side. Room for this would be provided by reorganizing that parking into a more efficient use of space. Parking on the north side would be made parallel, which also makes biking downhill safer. Parking on the south side would be increased from the current ~35 degrees to the curb to 60 degrees, like it is on Solano west of Masonic.

The uphill cycletrack would make it safer for people to bike and move them out of the general traffic lane, so motorists don’t have to slow down for and maneuver around them.

“Advocates from Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, and other jurisdictions showed up in support of the excellent Albany Active Transportation Plan update, which was approved by City Council last night,” said Bike East Bay’s Robert Prinz. “This was despite some opposition to a proposed Solano Ave protected bikeway, organized by some of the same folks who also opposed Berkeley’s Hopkins protected bikeway project.” The segment of Solano Avenue in Berkeley would not be covered under Albany’s ATP plans. However, advocates hope Berkeley will follow Albany’s lead.

Meanwhile, López said the next step is getting the final designs prepped, “so we can get the next iteration of city council to approve it… I think in an ideal world we’re looking at five years before the new bike lanes are in the ground.”

But he cautioned that the timeline will depend in large part on upcoming elections and who is sitting on the council moving forward. In other words, the council needs to keep people such as councilperson Hansen-Romero, who one advocate said “ties herself in knots defending car culture and dependency,” out of leadership.

More questions on Solano Avenue? Check out Albany Strollers & Rollers FAQ. Want to get involved? Reach out to Albany Strollers & Rollers and Bike East Bay.