San Leandro Breaks Ground on New ‘Greenway’ Segment
Officials with the Alameda County Transportation Commission, Caltrans, MTC, and San Leandro broke ceremonial ground Wednesday on a 3.5-mile San Leandro segment of the East Bay Greenway, a bike and pedestrian project that will one day stretch 16 miles from Lake Merritt BART to Bayfair, Ashland, and beyond. The event was held at the San Leandro Boys and Girls Club across from San Leandro Blvd. and the BART tracks and a Union Pacific right-of-way.
“We’ve been working on this since at least 1997,” said advocate and BART Director Robert Raburn, who attended the event. “It was Urban Ecology‘s idea to reuse the old right-of-way for it,” he added. Raburn was one of the only officials to arrive by bike, but more on that later in the post.
“This will make it safer for everybody, whether they’re biking or walking,” said Alameda Mayor and Vice Chair of the Alameda CTC’s Ezzy Ashcraft. “We’re building a safer, more connected San Leandro.”
“This is about partnerships, persistence, pedestrians, and pedal power,” said Caltrans district director Doanh Nguyen, who also pointed out the overall project is costing around $200 million.
Unfortunately, Union Pacific wasn’t keen on having bikes on its right-of-way through this section. Instead, the “greenway” through San Leandro will actually be on San Leandro Blvd. Bike East Bay’s Robert Prinz pointed out that this will, in fact, take it closer to destinations such as schools and the San Leandro Business District. And that “the lanes will be protected from traffic.”
Protected bike lanes are welcome. But that said, Streetsblog would be remiss not to point out a key failings in this project (and others managed by Alameda ATC and Caltrans). And that’s the intersections.
Note in the above diagram from this project at Washington and San Leandro, not all intersections and corners will be protected. Cyclists and pedestrians will still contend with dangerous slip lanes. Slip lanes are a known hazard to anyone not in a car, and leaving them in the designs shows the planners on this project are still putting car throughput above safety.
Only a handful of corners are getting protected islands to slow turning cars. And while getting a protected bike lane will be a great improvement and a step in the right direction, the intersections are the most important part. This follows a pattern with Alameda ATC and Caltrans: while they’re willing to add some bike protections, they then compromise on safety whenever it might actually force motorists to slow and drive safely, as indeed it might if the slip lanes were removed. Think of the designs they did on Hesperian in nearby San Lorenzo, which includes a protected corner that still requires cyclists to zipper across a lane of speeding traffic (thus completely defeating the purpose of the protected corner).
Prinz stressed that Bike East Bay is pushing for improvements to the design and that it will be an “iterative process.”
Unfortunately, the current designs are simply not suitable for all ages and abilities. That might have something to do with the perspectives of the people overseeing and planning the project.
Ashcraft expressed amazement that the MTC’s Director of Legislation and Public Affairs, Rebecca Long, actually biked there (Streetsblog checked, and Long had biked from the San Leandro BART station, which is four minutes away from the Boys & Girls Club parking lot where the event was held). That should be completely normal for anyone working at a Bay Area transportation agency. Streetsblog also watched the long queue of cars leaving the parking lot once the event wrapped up.
To risk pointing out the obvious, Streetsblog suggests that if Alameda and Caltrans officials actually rode bikes on what they build, with their kids in tow, they might be motivated to study Dutch design and best practices. They would immedately eliminate all slip lanes.
More from the Alameda ATC’s construction page:
The East Bay Greenway is a regional trail which will link BART stations throughout the inner East Bay. Alameda CTC is the project sponsor and implementing agency for many segments of the East Bay Greenway between the Lake Merritt BART station and the South Hayward BART station. Between Lake Merritt BART and South Hayward BART, the East Bay Greenway will consist of a bicycle and pedestrian facility that will generally follow the BART line for a distance of 16 miles through the cities of Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward as well as the unincorporated communities of Ashland and Cherryland. The East Bay Greenway will connect seven BART stations as well as downtown areas, schools, and other major destinations between Oakland and Hayward.
Project Benefits
- Improve cyclist and pedestrian network connectivity in communities along the BART line
- Improve access to regional transit, schools, downtown area and other destinations
- Create a facility that is accessible and comfortable for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities
- Improve safety for people walking, biking and rolling
- Promote broad and accessible travel options and help reduce of greenhouse gas emissions
The East Bay Greenway in San Leandro is split into two phases. In addition to the one that just broke ground, a second one from 54th Avenue to San Leandro will complete design in spring 2027.
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