Because Berkeley city staff are overloaded with other projects, and partly feel that a new bike lane on Fulton Street is not the highest priority*, Bike East Bay is taking it upon ourselves to stripe the bike lane. Work begins right away and you can help. Volunteer by contacting [intern] advocacy@bikeeastbay.org.
If staff were going to stripe this bike lane, they would first have to hire a consultant to gather traffic data and analylize it to determine the best traffic lane configuration that includes a protected bike lane down the right side of the road. Then final design plans have to be drawn up, reviewed, and filed in triplicate. Then a striping crew contractor needs to be brought on board and contract paperwork approved. All of this would normally take 5-6 months, but staff admit it could be done quicker with a more focused approach and more resources, but cannot guarantee completion by May 12, Bike to Work Day.
Bike East Bay supports getting Public Works more resources to prioritize delivery of bikeway improvements, but we are not going to wait for that to happen later this year. Our bevy of resident planners and engineers in Berkeley are ready to gather the traffic data, redesign the roadway with staff approval of course, and then stripe the bike lane ourselves, leaving staff to simply approve the roadway redesign and agree that our striping job is good once on the ground. Oh, and to come celebrate a ribbon cutting on the morning of Bike to Work Day, 8:00am. You are invited too.
Here are the striping options
Option 1 adds a curbside protected bike lane on the blocks of Fulton Street (and part of Oxford leading up to Fulton Street) between Bancroft Way and Channing Way. There is an option to extend the protected bike lane south to Dwight Way after completion of the new car-free development at Dwight Way and Fulton Street. The developer of this project supports extension of the bike land south to their property so that their tennants without cars and safely bike home from school.
At the southbound approach at Durant, there is a thru lane and a thru/left lane (and of course the new protected bike lane). On the block between Durant and Channing, three parking spaces are removed on the east side of the street to allow for two vehicle lanes. Both of these lanes may be needed to accommodate car traffic. Our traffic gathering team will confirm this.
Option 1 has the same curbside protected bike lane as Option 1, but reconfigures the vehicle turn lanes on the southbound approach to Durant. There, the redesign would include a thru/left lane and a left lane. If traffic data confirms that more cars turn left than go straights sounthbound on Fulton Street, then this configuration will work. Again, on the next block between Durant and Channing, three on-street parking spaces will be removed for two vehicle lanes.
Should two vehicle lanes south of Durant not be needed, on-street parking can be easily added back to the project.
About the Suggestion that Other Streets are a Higher Priority than Fulton
*In Berkeley’s response to Bike East Bay’s Letter of February 9, the City attempts to deflect attention away from Fulton Street by pointing out that streets such as Shattuck Avenue, Milvia Street and Hearst Avenue have more bicycle crashes than Fulton Street and because of higher crashes elsewhere, staff are focusing on other streets. Bike East Bay accepts staff’s crash data, and in fact anyone can gather this data here, but what staff does not acknowledge is that lower priority streets should still be upgraded with bike lanes when they are repaved, regardless of their relative crash numbers. And this is especially true for streets that still have high crash numbers and plenty of people bicycling such as Fulton Street.
Equally important, it is entirely pointless to focus on higher crash rates on Shattuck Avenue because years ago Bike East Bay (and formerly the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition) conceded Shattuck Avenue in the downtown area for bike lane improvements in return for bike lanes on Oxford/Fulton Street and Milvia Street in the City’s Bicycle Plan and the Downtown Plan. This was a tradeoff, in order to get bike lanes more quickly and adjacent streets and build out a bikeway network that connects residents to where they are going. If we knew then how long it would take. The point is that safe bike lanes on Oxford/Fulton and on Milvia Street will encourage residents to bike on these streets and avoid Shattuck Avenue when practical for their trips. That said, the streets crossing Shattuck Avenue need to be improved for safe bicycle cross traffic. These streets include Bancroft Way, Center Street, Kittridge Street and Channing Way.
Berkeley’s response to Bike East Bay’s Letter calling for a Fulton Street bike lane