At the June 16, 2022 BPAC meeting, OakDOT Transportation Planners Charlie Ream and Celina Chan presented on two projects, the 66th Ave Coliseum BART to Bay Trail project (this post) and the Laurel Access to Mills, Maxwell Park & Seminary (LAMMPS) – Phase 2 project.
These projects and the 27th St Bay Pl Project which was heard at the May BPAC meeting was submitted as One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) applications for the June 30, 2022 deadline. Staff requested the commission review the checklists attached for each of the three projects and share comments back to Charlie Ream by June 23, 2022.
Project goals
Create an off-street biking and walking pathway connecting the East Bay Greenway (San Leandro Street) with the MLK Jr Regional Shoreline
Realign Caltrans freeway ramps to create space for pathway
Work with Union Pacific Railroad on safe crossing treatments
Add AC Transit bus stops to the Dil Damon Slough trailhead
Power the People: Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Access Study, is a project that will explore the feasibility of creating a new Non-Fare zero emissions bus route along 73rd Ave and other clean mobility options that will bring East Oakland residents from 94603, 94605 and 94621 zip codes to the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline park. In the belief that the same neighbors of East Oakland deserve better neighborhoods, this project aims to model how community can plan for improvements without displacing existing low-moderate income BIPOC residents.
At the September 16, 2021 BPAC meeting, Commissioner and Oakland Public Library staff RB led a discussion on bicyclist programming efforts happening at the MLK Library located at 6833 International Blvd. Anthony Propernick and Manuel Hernandez, staff with the Oakland Public Library, provided an overview of the library’s bicycle services at the 81st Ave Library, Martin Luther King Jr Library, and other locations in partnership with the Scraper Bike Team and EBALDC.
Jason Cook, OakDOT staff, provided an update on capital improvements being made to support such programming. Modified shipping containers will be installed to create a workshop, storage, and space for programming. OakDOT is partnering with the Oakland Public Library on these improvements, funded primarily by the Transformative Climate Communities grant. OakDOT is helping with the design, construction, and additional funding to prepare the site for the new repurposed shipping containers. This item was introduced by Commissioner Lok.
The presentation and summary of discussion are below.
Notes from the discussion, and the presentation are below.
Discussion
Committee forwarded a list of concerns to AC Transit before meeting, including concerns around lane striping, signal timing/actuation, and training/policy. How much follow-up can still be done by AC Transit versus by others?
North of 42nd Ave is Oakland right-of-way, south of 42nd Ave is Caltrans. AC Transit project is almost entirely complete, so follow-up will likely need to be handled by others.
Garrett suggests forming a smaller follow up sub-committee to review specific concerns and find out which can be addressed still via the AC Transit project. Committee members will follow up directly to coordinate.
Some issues may be in AC Transit’s interest to adjust, even if built as planned, including pedestrian signal timing.
Some of the pedestrian signal timing issues may have been related to signal control problems—now resolved.
Drivers are parking in the bike lane, especially around the community market near 56th Ave, andalso between 73rd and 105th Aves.
AC Transit’s BRT outreach team has been disbanded, so any communications follow-up will have to be done by others.
Interested in focusing on non-enforcement solutions.
At the October 15, 2020 BPAC meeting, Marquita Price, Director of Urban and Regional Planning for the East Oakland Collective, and David Ralston, PhD, MCP, Research fellow at the Brower Dellums Institute for Sustainable Policy and Action presented on the San Leandro Creek Greenway and community engagement for the project. The San Leandro Creek Greenway is an incoming bike and pedestrian trail being built along the surfaced San Leandro Creek running behind the neighborhoods of Columbia Gardens, Brookfield, and Sobrante Park.
The presentation is below, as well as the 90% design plans for intersections where the greenway will cross major roadways at Hegenberger Road and 98th Avenue.
Garfield Elementary Safe Routes to School — There was a fatal crash here in 2019, which resulted in rapid response project around the school.
This application builds on top of the rapid response project with more expensive upgrades like signals—mast arm, left turn phase, pedestrian leading phase
Concept is 2 to 1 road diet with a buffered bike lane and high visibility crosswalks.
Project will be delivered with paving this fall.
Previous concept had a left side bike lane to avoid conflicts with bus stops—The new version has a right side bikeway instead, to avoid transition points at each end of the project.
Designs to be finalized within 2 months. Committee members asked for plans to be shared at that time.