New City Road Plan
A new Local Road Safety Plan adopted by the City Council this week has a short-term focus on streets with a relatively high number of injury crashes, and a longer-term goal to remove about half the existing parking on streets now designated as the city’s “backbone bikeway network.” The plan does not discuss costs or funding sources.
Council members and the public seemed to agree that the plan contained a lot of good work, but there were also concerns.
Removes Right to Appeal
Council member William Ktsanes, who voted against adopting the plan, said it hands over too much authority to city staff to remove street parking for future bike lane projects without oversight from the City Council or ways for residents to appeal.
Wants 20 MPH Limit
Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Saltzman said the plan is “fantastic,” but it calls for maintaining a “wishy-washy” citywide speed limit of 25 mph. She said the speed limit should be 20 mph.
“There’s a big difference in surviving a crash between 20 and 30 miles per hour,” she said.
The Right Direction
Council member Lisa Motoyama praised the plan, saying: “I think this is the right direction. It makes much more sense to prioritize humans rather than how fast cars can get through an intersection.”
Motoyama said the city received about 1,000 comments on the draft plan, and that showed there was public engagement.
People Are Getting Hurt
Council member Carolyn Wysinger said, “We have this data that’s telling us that people are getting hurt and/or dying on our streets and we still have to defend creating infrastructure that protects lives.”
Mayor Gabe Quinto said he agreed with Saltzman, Motoyama, and Wysinger.
The council approved adoption on a 4-1 vote, with Ktsanes dissenting.
‘Monitor’ State Action on e-Bikes
On the high-profile issue of e-bikes and e-motos, the new Local Road Safety Plan did not propose any local action. It recommended that the city monitor what happens at the state level.
However, two council members and several members of the public said the city should pursue a 15 mph speed limit on the Greenway in El Cerrito without waiting for state legislation.
A “High Injury Network”
The update of the city’s Local Road Safety Plan used crash data from 2018 to 2025 to identify a “high injury network” of streets which it said should be the focus of city efforts to achieve the goal of a “Vision Zero” goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities or severe injuries by 2035. According to the report, the high injury network accounted for 18 of 21 fatal or serious injury accidents, or 72% of all injury crashes, despite accounting for only 5% of the road network.
Two Blocks of Richmond Street
The high injury network includes two blocks of Richmond Street – those between Potrero Avenue and Donal Avenue. An $11 million plan to redesign and repave Richmond Street sparked controversy because the city approved the removal of about 60% of street parking in eight city blocks to create room to add dedicated chicane bike lanes. One argument of project opponents was that crash data for their street did not support a need for the project.
“Responsive” or “Proactive” Measures
On Sept. 15, the council’s approval of the new plan gave discretion to the city staff to execute both “responsive” and “proactive” countermeasures for road safety. Responsive countermeasures are directly related to fatal or serious injury crash patterns, the report says, while “proactive” actions are intended to reduce crashes before they occur.
Public Works Director Yvetteh Ortiz told the council: “Bike lanes have been a proven safety countermeasure that improve safety for all modes, not just people bicycling. It can serve as traffic calming…On this backbone bikeway network we would repurpose almost half of the on-street parking. And we’re also asking for the removal of parking on the backbone bikeway network to be exempt from the city’s parking appeal process.”
Richmond Street All Over Again?
Ktsanes said the plan authorizing staff to move forward with removing parking for bike lanes and not allowing any appeals means the Richmond Street controversy could happen again.
“If in the future people are losing 80% of the parking on their street, what role can council have if this is adopted?”
Ortiz replied, “The role is right now. If you disagree with the backbone bikeway network you could not approve it…Right now is the opportunity for council to provide that decision.”
Low-Cost, Fast, and Effective
Ortiz said an initial focus will be on seven safety measures described in the report as economical, effective, and capable of being rapidly deployed.
The list of measures included:
· Speed humps
· Speed tables
· Bicycle lanes
· Road diet
· Crosswalk with flashing beacon
· New midblock crosswalk
· Near-miss analysis
Waldo Avenue
Waldo Avenue, a street drivers use to cut through from San Pablo Avenue to Richmond Street, is a high-priority area where speed humps are likely to be used, the plan shows.
A San Pablo Avenue crosswalk at Waldo Avenue was the location of a crash on Nov. 15 that severely injured Donna Revecho, who later died of her injuries. The report also shows that two injury crashes have occurred on Waldo.
The road safety report describes “responsive” and “proactive” actions proposed for Waldo Avenue. The responsive approach involves installing speed humps on the street and possibly making some changes at intersections with Norvell and Lexington Avenues.
The proactive proposal is to create a Waldo Avenue Slow Zone Pilot.
With a Waldo Avenue Slow Zone Pilot, speed humps would be added along with “gateway treatment” of a larger area bounded by higher traffic streets such as Stockton Avenue, Moeser Lane, Richmond Street and San Pablo Avenue. The pilot would record and analyze before and after vehicle speed and volume data, crash data, and community feedback to gauge which elements, if any, might be suitable for other El Cerrito streets, the report says.
E-Bikes and E-Motos
Another high-interest topic was e-bikes and e-motos, particularly on the Ohlone Greenway. Some said it was not clear whether there is any speed limit there.
Ortiz said there is no speed limit on the Greenway in El Cerrito. The City Council would have to first establish that speed limit, which would require an engineering analysis. That is needed so police could defend citations in traffic court, she said.
Several speakers including M.J. Jawili, Steven Price, Janet Byron, and Joshua Saunders urged the city to move ahead with a 15 mph speed limit on the Greenway.
When Do Riders Need a Motorcycle License?
Saltzman said more needs to be done to deal with the sale and use of illegal e-motos – “and they are illegal even if they are not in a bike lane unless people have a motorcycle license.”
She said one problem is they are being sold as legal e-bikes. Online advertising included Back to School specials and encouraged parents to buy them for their kids.
“We need to get the word out and do some enforcement because they’re just flat out illegal devices,” Saltzman said. “I think they’re creating a backlash against e-bikes.”
Motoyama asked El Cerrito Police Captain Lauren Caputo about the use of two e-bikes purchased for the department. In response to questions, Caputo said the e-bike is often used by an officer -- usually himself -- during pick-up and drop-off hours at the various local schools.
Ortiz said of e-bike use on the Greenway: “We’re not planning on discouraging it, but we are planning on monitoring and educating about which bikes are allowed.”
Public Comment
Jawili, who is running for City Council, said Class 3 e-bikes can go 28 mph and that’s too fast for the Greenway. She also said there are laws on the books that could provide better visibility for drivers at intersections if they were enforced. These include the state daylighting law that does not permit cars to park within 20 feet of the approach to an intersection. Shrubs that block drivers’ views should be cut back, she said.Map from the road safety plan
Long-time resident Jerry Figone said that the plan contained a lot of good content but should have included Colusa Avenue in any Backbone Bikeway Network. In his opinion, the omission of a street used by many bicyclists means the plan is “flawed.”
Janet Byron and Steve Price, co-founders of El Cerrito/Richmond Walk and Roll, praised Jarrett Mullen for his work as the city’s first Sustainable Transportation Manager, and said they were pleased to hear that there is a city effort to quickly hire someone to fill the position. Jarrett’s last day of work in El Cerrito was Sept. 3.
In a letter to the council dated Sept. 15, the coordinating committee of Walk and Roll supported the road safety plan but suggested significant changes.
They wrote: “We support the draft Local Road Safety Plan and urge you to adopt it. It would add meaningful bicycle infrastructure on Moeser Lane, Carlson Boulevard, Ashbury Avenue, and the west end of Stockton Avenue—a major improvement for people trying to get around El Cerrito by means other than a car.
“We also urge the City to strengthen the plan in three important ways: by giving greater attention to safe routes to schools, by committing to a full update of El Cerrito’s Active Transportation Plan, and by including a 20 mph speed limit for all neighborhood streets.”
City’s Ranking on Speed-Related Crashes
The city report notes: “In California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) crash rankings, El Cerrito generally ranks in the last 10 percentile compared to other cities of similar size in terms of speed-related crashes, which suggests past speed management efforts have been effective and ongoing commitment can help reinforce the result.”
Bike Lanes on Central Avenue
Another high-interest topic was the city’s planning for bike lanes in the city and beyond.
Planning for bike lanes on Central Avenue from its intersection with Richmond Street to the Bay Trail on the far side of I-80 was not covered in the Local Road Safety Plan, but it was discussed.
“Is there a plan for Central Avenue to have permanent bike lanes and to reduce it by one lane each way?” asked Mayor Quinto.
Ortiz responded, “We are looking at alternative alignments, (one) just south of Central Avenue as well as (another) on Fairmount Avenue, and working with the city of Richmond on potential alignments through Pacific East Mall…We are seeking input.”
She added the traffic volume on Central Avenue is about 20,000 vehicles per day.
Below is the road plan's map of proposed bikeway changes.
ccouple of questions:
Has there been an analysis of the causes of road accidents? If so, does it show the plan will reduce accidents? If not, the plan is a fantasy.
How about accidents on the Greenway?
What was the last city administration suggestion rejected by the Council? When?
So the city government requested the city council vote to eliminate residents' as well as elected officials' right to appeal decisions made by city workers -- and four of five council members did! I certainly hope anyone planning to vote in November will note that Quinto and Wysinger (as well as another candidate, Jawili) supported stripping their and your right to have any input on decisions made by city officials whose salaries are paid by your taxes. Truly, champions of democracy!