Downtown Oakland Bikeways Update

Author: Bike East Bay

Date: March 4, 2019

There is a lot going on in Downtown Oakland and we need your input and guidance to achieve a great bikeway network over the next five years.

Join us Wednesday, April 17 at Walk Oakland Bike Oakland’s offices in Downtown Oakland at the CEL Lab coworking spaces, 1330 Broadway, Suite 300, to learn more and get involved. Snacks and refreshments provided. RSVP here for the event.

Oakland’s Bicycle Master Plan Update/Downtown Oakland Specific Plan

Oakland is currently updating its Bicycle Master Plan and wants your input on the draft bikeway network. At the same time, Oakland’s Planning Department is tackling some bigger issues downtown, such as removal of Interstate 980, on-street parking policies to make space for high-quality bikeways, walking and transit improvements, and land use regulations to ensure everyone benefits. It’s part of a new Downtown Oakland Specific Plan.

In the downtown area for bikeways, these concurrent plans have chosen 9th Street as a crosstown bikeway, but could 7th Street have more potential to get built and connect to more destinations such as Laney College and West Oakland BART? Let’s talk. Staff from Oakland Department of Transportation will be on hand to answer questions and collect your input.

Oakland A’s New Howard Terminal Ballpark

The Oakland Athletics have chosen the old Howard Terminal location in Jack London District as their preferred location for a new privately-financed A’s baseball park. This location is where the cranes closest to downtown are located, no longer used by the Port of Oakland. The A’s are strong supporters of great bikeways to their new ballpark, and will sponsor Bike to Work Day 2019 for the first time with Stomper on a bike. 3rd Street can be a key crosstown bikeway in the Jack London District, and MLK Jr Way will be a direct connection to the new ballpark for bicycling. The new ballpark will also have lots of bike parking, at least as much if not more than the SF Giants ballpark. What do you think of 3rd Street and MLK Jr Way as key bikeways? Staff from the Oakland Athletics will be on hand to answer questions and collect your input.

Oakland-Alameda Access Project

This project is a multimillion dollar project to redesign 880 freeway access to and from the Wester-Posey tunnels into Alameda. A goal of this project is to get cut-thru traffic out of Chinatown, making Chinatown a much safer and more enjoyable place to walk and shop. As part of this, we are working with Bike Walk Alameda on a new bike-ped bridge over the estuary, which would nicely connect to a new A’s ballpark. We have successfully convince the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) to study the feasibility of this bridge concept as part of the Oakland-Alameda Access Project. Do you like the bridge? Have you heard of the gondola idea?

In addition, as part of the Oakland-Alameda Access Project, the Alameda CTC is designing a two-way, protected cycle track on Oak Street, from 3rd Street to 9th Street. This north-south bikeway will form a key part of a downtown Oakland bikeway network, connecting the Embarcadero bikeway (also getting new protected bike lanes soon) with Laney College and Lake Merritt BART Station. What do you think about Oak Street as a key north-south bikeway?

Learn more about this excitement at a Bike East Bay/Walk Oakland Bike Oakland supporter meeting Wednesday, April 17 at Walk Oakland Bike Oakland’s offices in the CEL Lab coworking spaces, 1330 Broadway, Suite 300, snacks and refreshments provided. RSVP here for the event.

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