Set to come in 2018, the new Dana Street will feature a two-way protected bike lane that will connect the Dana Bicycle Boulevard south of Dwight to the two-way protected bike lane on Bancroft Way and UC Berkeley. This will improve bicycle mobility and access to UC Berkeley, Downtown Berkeley, and the Southside area, without impacting parking availability along the corridor. That is the beauty of parking-protected bike lanes!
In order to accommodate these changes the number of travel lanes will be reduced to one, creating a shared general purpose lane. This road diet is actually a smart move: Dana currently has much more capacity than demand, so it is actually reclaiming excess road space to create a safer, more comfortable street. In addition, a bus-boarding island will be added at the Dana-Haste bus stop to improve passenger convenience and safety without impacting sidewalk space.
The new Dana Street should become a more walkable, bikeable road that everyone can feel safer on, and is just one section of the larger Southside Pilot Project. The ultimate goal is to make Southside safer to travel on bike and by foot, more convenient to travel via bus, and more welcoming for the thousands of people who transit the Southside area.