There has been a lot of movement on our Multimodal San Pablo Avenue campaign this year, stretching all the way between Downtown Oakland and the Carquinez Bridge.
This includes some progress, a few setbacks, and many ways to get involved!
Read through the updates below, then visit BikeEastBay.org/SPA to get on our notification list to receive more news and events.
El Cerrito Del Norte Protected Bikeway Construction Nearing Completion! Check it out at Car-Free Happy Hour on Oct 15th
This half mile stretch of San Pablo Ave protected bike lanes between Potrero Ave and Knott Ave around Del Norte BART began construction in March 2024, and is expected to be complete near the end of 2025.
The monthly “Car-Free Happy Hour” meet up is being held at the Los Moles Beer Gardenright next to the San Pablo Ave project in El Cerrito.
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025
5:45 pm – 8:00 pm
Los Moles Beer Garden
6120 Potrero Ave, El Cerrito
Find the complete event details here. Join us there to hang out and see the construction progress!
San Pablo Ave El Cerrito Video Interview
In August 2025 we met up on San Pablo Ave with a local advocate from our partner organization El Cerrito Richmond Annex Walk & Roll to talk about the project and why it’s important.
Check out the 2-minute video:
Berkeley San Pablo Ave Specific Plan Meeting
Years ago Berkeley officials opted out of a county plan for protected bikeways on San Pablo Ave, but now they regret that mistake.
A separate project will be under construction starting in 2026 to provide “parallel” bikeway upgrades on side streets through Berkeley and Albany, along with improved crossings of San Pablo Ave along the bike boulevards.
However we haven’t given up on San Pablo Ave itself.
Berkeley now has a planning process underway to inform future decisions on housing, transportation, and land use along San Pablo Ave.
This month they are hosting an open house to get your input on the plan. So we need you to show up and reiterate that protected bikeways ON San Pablo are still needed!
Wednesday, October 29th, 2025
Presentation: 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Open House: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Kala Gallery
2990 San Pablo, Berkeley
Oakland San Pablo Ave Protected Bikeways Update
Last year we were amazed by the bike and bus facility concepts shared by Alameda CTC staff for the Downtown Oakland to South Berkeley San Pablo Ave project.
However, this summer we were taken aback by a project update indicating that the estimated construction was delayed from 2026 to at least 2030.
We were also shocked to hear that the project’s construction budget had ballooned to $250 Million, none of which has been secured so far.
We are trying to get to the bottom of these issues and help find a path forward for this critical project.
As such, Alameda CTC staff have been invited to the next Infrastructure Committee meeting of the Oakland bike/walk commission, to provide updates and answer questions.
This meeting has not been officially announced yet, but the details are included below. Please save the date if you would like to participate, and stay tuned for more updates.
Thursday, November 6th, 2025
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm (in-person only)
Oakland DOT offices, Broadway Conference Room
250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 4314 (4th Floor), Oakland
More information will be available here once the agenda is published.
San Pablo Ave Federal Funding is "Safe"
We have been getting many questions about the status of already-awarded federal funding.
Until recently we did not have answers, but thanks to our partners at the League of American Bicyclists a list of “safe” grant funding has been published.
We summarized the list of East Bay projects in our own document below.
This thankfully includes all the major, previously unaccounted-for awards we are aware of, including $15M for the segment of San Pablo Ave from Berkeley to Albany (mostly bus stop and pedestrian crossing upgrades).
We will continue to keep an eye on this and not take anything for granted until the ribbons are cut on the new facilities!
What's Next?
Here are a few more items to look for in the coming months:
The City of Pinole is finalizing their first-ever biking and walking plan. The most recent recommendations included a protected bikeway on their part of San Pablo Ave.
We need to make sure this stays in the final draft, so visit the plan website here for updates as they become available.
This year a $430k local grant was awarded to study bike/walk access improvements on a segment of San Pablo Ave in unincorporated Contra Costa, from Richmond Pkwy to the Pinole border (map here).
Public outreach for this plan will launch soon, and we will need you to help call for continuous protected bikeways on this very difficult stretch.
As noted above the neighborhood bikeway upgrades to the east and west of San Pablo Ave are going to start construction in 2026.
This work will stretch from 63rd St in North Oakland to Brighton Ave in Albany. Concept plans are available here (large file).
Although our end goal is a continuous bikeway ON San Pablo Ave, we will still need your help monitoring this construction to ensure it is delivered as promised and to minimize impacts from construction activity on people biking and walking, and on local businesses.
Sign up for our Green Mobility Ambassadors list here for notifications on how to get involved with this outreach.