On Tuesday, Oakland City Council voted unanimously to save the protected bike lanes on Telegraph Avenue in the Koreatown Northgate (KONO) district. The protected bike lanes, which calm traffic, speed up transit, and fully separate people biking from moving cars, were in danger of being ripped out and converted to paint-only buffered bike lanes under a proposal by the Oakland Department of Transportation. Responding to Bike East Bay’s call-to-action, hundreds of members, volunteers, and community partners, including AC Transit, sent letters to city council members. The overwhelming show of community support led Oakland City Council to reject the proposal and save the protected bike lanes.
Your support made this victory for biking, walking and public transit possible. Will you celebrate today with a donation to Bike East Bay?
By saving the KONO segment, Bike East Bay is one step closer to our vision for connecting downtown Oakland to downtown Berkeley with a continuous, protected bikeway. Your donation will accelerate campaigns across the East Bay for safe and sustainable transportation options.
This win wouldn’t have happened without your support. More than 30 community members called in to the city council meeting and spoke passionately about the importance of protected bike lanes. We heard from parents who bike with kids, business owners, and people who drive the corridor. Hundreds more provided e-comment online and wrote to council members. Together your voices made it clear: a street built for people is the only path forward.
Make a donation today to support more safe streets for biking, walking and public transit in the East Bay at BikeEastBay.org/Donate.
For more than 20 years Bike East Bay has been at the table, advocating for a connected, safe, welcoming Telegraph Avenue for people who walk, bike, and take transit. Your voices ensured Oakland kept the safest street design, and will move forward with $4.5M in further upgrades including concrete curb protected bike lanes and bus islands, protected intersections, new traffic signals, and accessibility upgrades. We expect construction to start later this year.
This stretch of Telegraph Avenue was Oakland’s very first protected bike lane. As safer streets roll out across the East Bay, we have pointed to Telegraph Ave. both as a model for other cities and to highlight lessons learned. This project is the first—we hope of many—to include the city’s Department of Race and Equity, and we look forward to a more robust review of projects by this department, baked in from the very start. We also fully support Councilmember Carroll Fife’s direction to allocate more financial support to the KONO district. We’re celebrating at the next First Friday street festival on Telegraph Ave., and can’t wait to see everyone there.
Special thanks to our partners at Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, East Bay Transit Riders Union, Transport Oakland, The Scraper Bike Team, Spokeland, CalBike, East Bay for Everyone, ABC bike club, AC Transit, Councilmember Carroll Fife who was instrumental in prioritizing the needs of West Oakland, Councilmember Dan Kalb for his continued support of protected bike lanes in the Temescal district, and the many Bike East Bay members and volunteers who have been involved throughout this campaign. Thank the businesses on Telegraph Avenue for their support by shopping the Temescal and KONO Districts this summer.
Bike East Bay members support safe, accessible streets across the East Bay. Not a member yet? Join today.
