Every morning and afternoon on their way to and from MLK Jr Middle School, hundreds of kids walk and bike past the North Berkeley Branch Library at the corner of The Alameda and Hopkins. And after school, plenty of kids are going to and from the Library and King pool and playground down the street. Add in 22,000 cars a day.
To make it safer for kids to cross at the intersection of The Alameda and Hopkins right in front of the Library, Berkeley is shortening the crosswalks and narrowing this wide intersection. Pedestrian bulb outs, right? No, a protected intersection, the first in the East Bay and seventh nationally. With existing bike lanes on The Alameda and Hopkins, the new intersection design should improve your safety bicycling.
Berkeley’s protected intersection will look like this
We don’t have a great visual of the protected intersection, because the project is happening so quickly. The visual insert lower left gives you the idea of what happens at each corner of a protected intersection. Read more here. Note, however, that regular bike lanes rather than protected bike lanes lead to Berkeley’s protected intersection, which is not uncommon.
Each corner of the intersection includes raised islands outside the bike lane that transitions curbside, and a corner raised island to create a tighter right-turn radius for cars, and this is a key feature of protected intersections. The corner island slows turning traffic and provides queuing space for turning cars outside of the thru-lane, allowing turning cars to wait for bicyclists and pedestrians to proceed forward through the intersection without blocking thru car traffic. In wide intersections such as this one, it works. The intersection corner at the bottom of the plan view graphic includes a floating bus board island where AC Transit riders will stand to board and off-board from the Line 25 bus, while people bicycling go behind the bus island.
It’s interesting how the design of this intersection came about. In 2010, Berkeley received a Safe Routes to School grant to add bulb outs at this busy intersection. Added bulb outs shorten crossing distances for walking and place pedestrians where they are more visible to drivers. But bulb outs come with one added design challenge–they change how water drains on the street, because bulb outs move the curb line.
The project was delayed due to engineering staff constraints, and when Caltrans threatened to rescind the grant, Berkeley jumped into action. They quickly learned about the design challenges of drainage and figured out that the issue is minimized if they move the bulb outs into the street, maintaining existing curb lines and drsinsge. Bulb outs in the street look a lot like a protected intersection, if you move the bike lane behind the bulb outs. This is what Berkeley has done. And the clever design saves Berkeley money and expedites the project.
By the end of 2016, Berkeley could have five protected bike lane facilities on the ground:
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Protected intersection at The Alameda & Hopkins
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Bancroft Way two-way protected bike lanes
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Dana Street two-way protected bike lanes.
Of course, none of these modern, attractive and pride-inducing bikeways happen without support from supporters such as yourself. Join Bike East Bay and support our work to build a network of protected bike lanes, starting in downtown Berkeley, and expanding throughout this country’s number 2 city for bike commuting.