By Fall of 2015, upper Broadway from Broadway Terrace to Keith Avenue will have shiny new pavement and bike lanes, and one less travel lane.
By Fall of 2015, upper Broadway from Broadway Terrace to Keith Avenue will have shiny new pavement and bike lanes, and one less travel lane.
It’s getting a conventional 4 to 3 road diet, similar to the redesign of Lakeshore Ave in 2009 (shown below), and to Market St, West St, Marin Ave in Albany, Bancroft Ave in San Leandro and many other streets. It’s also getting new pedestrian safety bulb outs and a new HAWK signal at Lawton (similar to the HAWK signal going in at Hillegass & Ashby).
What you can do:
- Contact Victoria Eisen and let her know you walk or bicycle on Broadway, or live and work in this neighborhood, and support the road diet and new bike lanes: 510.525.0220 victoria@eisenletunic.com
A road diet is the most cost-effective way to improve safety on a street like Broadway, said Victoria Eisen, the lead consultant on the project. Many residents and Bike East Bay and Walk Oakland Bike Oakland members agreed at the May 29 community meeting, all sharing stories of how intimidating and dangerous it is to walk across and bicycle on this angry street, affectionately nicknamed the Broadway Divide. The community meeting was filled with many supporters of the project.
However, many skeptical residents showed up and let staff and the consultants know that they are concerned about congestion, even though traffic studies show the street functioning fine with the road diet. In fact, Lakeshore Ave carries 70% more traffic than Broadway, and Lakeshore’s road diet has been a big success and much appreciated by its neighbors.
Related Bikeway Projects:
The new bike lanes on Broadway will come shortly after Oakland repaves Broadway below 51st St, past Oakland Tech, and adds bike lanes there. In a separate Caldecott 4th Bore mitigation project, Oakland is totally redesigning the intersection of Broadway & Keith Ave. A new 2-way cycle track will be built for a 3 block stretch of Broadway from Keith Ave up to Brookside Ave at the freeway on ramps. This new cycle track will include Oakland’s first bike traffic signal, and will get you safely pass a mass of freeway traffic generated by people commuting through the Caldecott Tunnel.
The news keeps getting better: Keith Ave is getting a road diet too, thanks to neighbors who have pushed for relief from commuters who drive to Rockridge BART. Bike East Bay members have for years requested a bike lane on Keith Ave, and you are going to get it.
Expect construction to start on these projects in the 2nd half of 2015, with most finishing that Fall. Only the 2-way cycle track on Broadway will take additional time, most likely finishing up in 2016.
Fourth Bore Coalition Website on Broadway Project
Useful Facts About Road Diets
- Road diets result in a 30% reduction in crashes
- Can improve capacity for through traffic, as will the upper Broadway road diet in the morning commute and throughout the day—only the evening commute northbound sees a 1-2 minute delay
- Emergency vehicles have better access thanks to the center turn lane
- Easier for motorist to enter and exit the street
- Safer for drivers because speeds are slower, lane changing is eliminated, and the center turn lane provides a buffer between on-coming traffic