On Wednesday, July 5, City Council will review striping plans for Park and Webster Streets as Item 7-B. We’re supportive of staff’s recommendations and will be submitting this letter:
Dear Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft, Vice Mayor Daysog, and Members of the City Council,
We believe that our business districts and community overall will be much better served by the street configuration proposed here rather than reverting to the pre-pandemic configuration. While we would much rather see protected bike lanes (versus unprotected) in these districts, we acknowledge the planned phasing for bike facilities as described in the Active Transportation Plan, and support staff’s recommendations.
We also strongly support staff’s plans to better manage parking, which will improve traffic flow and bicyclists’ safety by reducing double parking. Local resident Drew Dara-Abrams has written compellingly about parking in two recent posts: The future of walking, biking, and dining on Alameda’s two main drags and Better living through parking policy reforms. We encourage you to read these posts in full for greater context and ideas, such as inventorying and signage for existing parking garages, lots, and spaces, and thinking around pricing that ensures availability at all times.
In sections of the corridors where there are parklets instead of parking, we support installing posts between the bike lane and the traffic lane as shown in this image, but also wonder if moving the barriers out from the edge of the parklet, so they protect both bicyclists as well as parklet guests, might be something to consider:
Dangerous driving and turning maneuvers also concern us, and we hope you will consider effective countermeasures, like adding posts to the centerlines (“hardening”) to prevent drivers from passing other vehicles, and “no right on red” restrictions or bollarding to reduce intersection conflicts.
We support the Transportation Commission’s suggestions for bike boxes and green thermoplastic.
Finally, we hope we’ll see more on-street bike corrals — at daylighted corners on side streets where space is not currently being used for visibility reasons, and at midblock, for example. These are easier and more convenient for people with larger bikes, and will help preserve sidewalk space for pedestrian traffic.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Bike Walk Alameda
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If you want to learn more, visit the city’s Commercial Streets web page here. And if you want to attend the meeting to see the presentation or comment, meeting details are here.