by Dave Campbell, Advocacy Director, Bike East Bay
The Bay Bridge Path touched down to Yerba Buena Island, The Shed opened- a Scraper Bikes new youth-led bike shop at MLK Jr Library in East Oakland, sponsorship was secured for bike share to move forward next year, and you started seeing protected bike lanes on the ground—Telegraph Avenue, Fulton Street and a protected intersection at The Alameda and Hopkins Street in north Berkeley. All accomplishments this year.
You also helped get approved many more protected bike lanes, now so many that counting isn’t as fun as it once was. We hope you are excited for one coming to your neighborhood soon, including Walnut Ave in Fremont, Bancroft Way and Dana Street in Berkeley, Central Ave in Alameda, Mission Blvd in Hayward, Stanley Blvd/Valley Ave intersection in Pleasanton and even Moraga Road in Moraga is getting a short, protected bikeway. And with any luck we will soon seal the deal for a protected bike lane on Treat Blvd at Pleasant Hill BART. Carlson Blvd brought a close to the year with a road diet and buffered bike lane approval in Richmond. All of these facilities are happening because of your support, and we hope you enjoy them in the coming years.
However, 2016 could most be remembered as the year transportation funding in the East Bay got a big boost. As we reported in November, voters approved approximately $5 billion in new funding to improve streets, bus service and BART through Measures KK in Oakland, RR for BART and C1 for AC Transit. All passed with well over 70% voter support, thanks to volunteer efforts of many Bike East Bay members. And local street measures passed in Berkeley, Albany, Pleasant Hill and Martinez, adding millions more to smooth your commute.
Yeah, we are bummed Measure X came up short, but we built a lot of strong relationships through our Measure X work and we know that it will eventually come back to voters for approval. For all these measures, volunteers worked hard in campaign offices in Richmond, Walnut Creek and Oakland, and walked neighborhoods in many cities, talking to voters about how important it is to fund transportation. Voters listened and collectively approved hundreds of millions per year for better transit and roads. That’s a lot.
This wonderful funding news comes on top of several large grants to East Bay cities this year for impressive bikeway projects. Oakland and Berkeley received around $50 million for affordable housing projects, which will also stripe bike lanes on several nearby streets. The money comes from Cap ’n Trade funds. Oakland and Alameda received $24 million for three marquee protected bike lane projects: 14th Street in downtown Oakland, Fruitvale Avenue west of E.12th Street and Central Avenue in Alameda. In addition, unincorporated areas of Contra Costa and Alameda Counties will receive $5.7 million for bike ped improvements, to be approved January 11, 2017. These projects are funded from the State Active Transportation Account, which Calbike has worked hard to increase funding for. And finally, Fremont received $1.3 million for protected intersections on Fremont Blvd and Oakland another $8 million in traffic safety grants, including $1.1 million for bike lanes on Fruitvale Avenue east of E.12th Street. That’s over $80 million total in grants. Not bad for one year. Again it was your help and support that won these needed grants to improve places you ride.
While the ballot measure and protected bike lanes funding are impressive, two other encouraging things happened in 2016, somewhat under the radar, but worth mentioning here. First, in September over twenty local city planners and engineers from East Bay cities, thanks to our urging, attended NACTO 2016 Designing Cities Conference in Seattle, where they learned how innovative transportation cities in North America are redesigning streets for walking, bicycling and good transit. They saw Seattle’s two-way downtown protected bike lanes and new subway, took a day trip to experience Portland’s nationally-leading network of great bikeways and the first transit/walk/bike-only bridge built in this country in a long time, and learned from Chicago how to make major arterial streets great for bicycling and transit at the same time. Local staff from Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Fremont, Oakland, Berkeley, and Pleasanton will be putting to work what they learned in Seattle, and you will soon benefit from this educational experience.
Chicago’s impressive bike-transit examples relate to another milestone this year—AC Transit agreeing to work closely with Bike East Bay to ensure that all major bus corridor streets have good transit service and protected bike lanes. This agreement is going to pay off down the road on many projects. It has been years of work in the making. In 2001, I wrote a nasty letter to AC Transit in response to their opposing bike lanes on Claremont Ave in Berkeley. This year, we joined hands to redesign a street not far away with bus and bike lanes–Bancroft Way.
2016 marked my 20th anniversary as a bike advocate in the East Bay, and I have to say I’m proud of what your expanding advocacy team at Bike East Bay accomplished this year, including your volunteers, interns, board, and local partners. We are looking forward to better things in 2017. Thanks for your continued support.
Oh, and I learned how to smoke a really good brisket too, which played a role in getting protected bike lanes on Telegraph Avenue. Happy to share that story with you over a beer.
