As Bike East Bay focuses on more challenging bikeway projects, we need be more savvy and comprehensive in order to create space on constrained roadways and build comfortable, attractive bikeways, as shown here. Moving forward, challenges will range from buffered bike lanes to comprehensive street redesigns that include protected bike lanes, bus boarding islands, parking management systems, transportation demand management strategies (TDM) and innovative intersection designs to get you safely to your destination, and projects in between.
To get us ready for these challenges, Bike East Bay has been honing our skills by:
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taking advantage of talented volunteers to develop our own street redesign concepts, such as this one above by Joshua Handel, a Walk Oakland Bike Oakland volunteer helping with Grand Ave. Other volunteers have redesigned Telegraph Ave, 14th St, International Blvd and Park Blvd in Oakland, Milvia St in Berkeley, San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito, and California Blvd in Walnut Creek. Redesigning streets ourselves has proven useful when city staff are reluctant to push the envelope with innovative treatments, or don’t have the resources or support from above to do so;
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conducting on-street parking utilization surveys to gauge potential opportunities to relocate parking off a street where we want a better bikeway. Our Cal [IN]CITY Program just complete a parking survey of Milvia Street Bicycle Boulevard and last Fall graduate students Cal did the same for Temescal District in Oakland;
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learning more about the usefulness of doing shopper intercept surveys to explore how people get to local commercial districts and how much they spend when they arrive. Successful shopper surveys have been completed for the Temescal District and Downtown Berkeley;
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spreading the word about Berkeley’s successful GoBerkeley Program to the Directors of Business Improvement Districts. The GoBerkeley program shows that smart parking management can increase shopping activity by as much as 30%, which presents opportunities for relocating parking to build great bikeways;
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