City of Berkeley public meeting: Woolsey-Fulton Bike Boulevard and Shattuck-MLK Bus Stops
Where: Virtual via Zoom – Meeting link to be posted here on January 30th
When: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The City of Berkeley Public Works Department is hosting an online public meeting to present on the proposed two projects and solicit input from the public. These projects are intended to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, eliminate gaps in the Citywide bike network, and improve bus transit amenities.
Resources:
- City of Berkeley Woolsey-Fulton bikeway project page
- City of Berkeley Shattuck-MLK bus stops project page
- Postcard mailer sent to residents with meeting and project info
- Concept design plans for both projects
We are very happy to see that this plan includes new traffic circles and car diverters, and a new HAWK beacon (info here) crossing of Ashby and MLK Jr way providing an east-west bike connection past Ashby BART.
Bike East Bay encourages meeting participants to support this project, with the following additions:
- Add 4-way stops at the Shattuck/Woolsey and Shattuck/Russell intersections to enable safe bike left turn movements to and from Shattuck, in addition to safe crossings of Shattuck – The proposed rapid flashing beacons at these crossings do not address bicyclist left turn safety concerns, similar to the issue that resulted in a driver rear-ending a bike rider at Shattuck/Woolsey in 2022.
- Upgrade the crossing of MLK Jr Way at Prince St from a rapid flashing beacon to a HAWK beacon (red light for cars on MLK). Flashing beacons do not provide bicyclist right of way, and see lower yield rates for multi-lane street crossings compared to single lane roads. Berkeley pedestrians have already been hit and badly injured at other locations where flashing beacons were installed at crossings of MLK Jr Way. HAWK beacons which legally require drivers to stop and yield to both pedestrians and bike traffic are preferable for multi-lane crossings.
- Add speed humps to every block of Woolsey and Fulton included in this project. Mid-block traffic calming is needed in addition to the intersection traffic calming already included in the project proposal via traffic circles and diverters, in order to consistently reduce driver speeds and volumes, and provide a reliable design experience for bike riders. This standard is already being used by the City of Oakland for their new Neighborhood Bike Route / Slow Streets installations.
- Add a green bike box before the crosswalks and 2-way bicycle turn boxes after the crosswalks at Russell/Adeline, to both support bike left turns from Adeline to Russell as well as enable bike riders to wait in the center or right side of Russell for the HAWK beacon, depending on where car traffic stops.
- Get input from Ed Roberts Campus staff and tenants on the design for the Woolsey bikeway crossing of Adeline, to improve navigability for people with disabilities and reduce conflicts between bike riders and others at the corner where bikes are ramped up to the sidewalk.
For more information or to provide written comments on the proposals please email dhoffman@parametrix.com by February 14, 2024.
