Facing Hayward’s Winton Ave is a mix of residential driveways, schools, shops, offices, and industrial land uses. An Eisenhower-era cloverleaf poses a daunting gauntlet for bicyclists who attempt to cross I-880. At 6:38am on March 12, 2009 a 37-year-old bicyclist was clobbered while riding through the interchange. The unidentified victim remains in serious condition.
Hayward is bisected by I-880. Few opportunities exist for bicyclists or pedestrians to cross this monster. Winton Ave offers only a “shared roadway” for bicyclists. Big deal! Motorists are guided by free-flowing on- and off-ramps at high speeds directly into conflict with bicyclists who need to get to work, school, shop, or visit the shoreline.
The Winton Ave crossing of I-880 is a prioritized regional bikeway. It appears on the Hayward Bicycle Plan, the Alameda Countywide Bicycle Plan, and it even is distinguished as the only segment of the regional bikeway network that crosses I-880 in the MTC’s Regional Bicycle Plan. The County and Regional plans call for bike lanes to be installed. The City of Hayward plan appears content with a few shared roadway signs. Talk about low expectations!
Despite a glaring need for safety improvements, recent construction on Winton Ave did nothing to improve conditions for bicyclists. Like the freeway ramps, the project was intended to conduct more motorists through the area without delay.
What is needed in the short-term is to reduce vehicle speeds and install bike lanes. Bicyclists can hardly be expected to “share” a lane with speeding traffic. Bike lanes guide the flows of motorists and bicyclists. Plenty of good guidelines have been adopted by Federal, State and Local agencies for conducting bicyclists through freeway interchanges. A wimpy shared route sign is not an appropriate device on high-speed arterials!
In the long-term, free-flowing ramps and cloverleaf interchanges should be banished from urban areas. Interchanges can be redesigned. Santa Clara County traffic engineers have published a compendium of Bicycle Technical Guidelines that illustrate the best practices for adding bike lanes to freeway interchanges and how to reconfigure the ramps to intersect arterial roads like Winton Ave at right angles. It is too late for one unfortunate bicyclist, but these guidelines provide a bottom-line standard for the Regional Bicycle Network to follow.