The good people over at BPAC, the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, continue to fight for improvements to Oakland's distinctly unfriendly streets. Ron Bishop, one of the stalwart advocates for a more livable city, sent over a report from the meeting on Thursday, Feb. 21.
The committee discussed several options for improving the area around Whole Foods (27th Street and Bay Place). One is to have a 7' parking and 7' bike lane with the parking Ts extending into the bike lane as a warning to cyclists not to ride in the door zone. The second is to have 9' parking and a 5' bike lane. The third is to use sharrows, or shared-lane pavement markings. (For a positive article on sharrows in Portland see here.)
What solution to support? Bishop points out that the 9' parking could become a magnet for larger vehicles.
The committee also discussed the transition from the bike lane on Bay Place to no bike lane on 27th at the slip turn area. There are no provisions in the current budget to modify the island.
Dead ending 24th St and removing the slip turn at 27th and Harrison were dismissed because of budget priorities. The intersection at Broadway has a similar problem as the pork chop does not allow for a bike lane.
Bishop flagged the problem of the lack of a turn lane from the Westlake Middle School onto 27th Street -- a serious problem that the city has yet to deal with after more than a year of talks! "They seemed unaware," Bishop said.
IMAGE BY Robert Kurtz
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