Richmond Street Choices

Are There Choices?

When it comes to redesigning Richmond Street, are there any alternatives to the city’s current proposal to remove about half the street parking on eight blocks to make room for bike lanes?

This question was posed after presentations on the issue at the March meeting of the El Cerrito Democratic Club.

The city’s 2016 Active Transportation Plan does show an alternative: a two-part approach to planning for bicyclists and Richmond Street.

Under the 2016 plan, Richmond Street would keep its current shared lane marking configuration. And the city would create a “bicycle boulevard” along side streets that offers another route to destinations east of Richmond Street such as Korematsu Middle School and the Community Center.

The route would run mostly along Norvell Street.

This block of Norvell Street includes a drop-off and pick-up zone for Korematsu School.

The 2016 bike boulevard route starts at the intersection of Blake and Richmond streets. From Blake Street it turns onto Norvell Street where it continues for five blocks. From Norvell it turns onto Schmidt Lane, then Richmond Street, Portola Drive, and Everett Street.

A dotted black line shows a Norvell bike boulevard route. The solid gold line shows Richmond Street as a route with shared lane markings. This graphic was taken from the 2016 Active Transportation Plan.

To see the full 2016 Bicycle Network map with a key to route markings go to the bottom of this post.

What Are Bicycle Boulevards?

Bicycle boulevards are signed to prioritize bicycle traffic over vehicles, usually on a local street. They can include parking. Berkeley has seven bicycle boulevards, including Milvia Street, a local street that runs parallel to busy Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue. Some have chicane (curving) lane markings.

A straight section of the Milvia Street bicycle boulevard with parking on both sides of the street.

A "chicane" section of Milvia Street with an S curve with parking on both sides of the block.

El Cerrito Bike Boulevard Route

Some residents of the neighborhood surrounding Korematsu have said they already use the suggested bike boulevard route or a similar route if they are biking on the east side of Richmond Street. The only tricky part, they say, is riding on Richmond Street for a block or two to get to and from Moeser Lane.

The 2016 bike boulevard route includes one block of Richmond Street – the block between Schmidt Lane and Portola Drive.

Implementing the 2016 plan might involve removing parking to add a short bike lane on Richmond Street. However, it would not require removing street parking from eight blocks of Richmond Street as currently proposed.

Steve Price’s Perspective

Steven Price, co-founder of the advocacy group El Cerrito/Richmond Walk & Roll, is a staunch supporter of adding bike lanes to Richmond Street and he advocated for that at the Democratic Club meeting.

At the same time, he urged people to look not just at one street, but at the network.

In an April 8 interview, Price agreed that, if the city chose to pursue it, the bike boulevard route in the plan could be used to create safer access to Korematsu School and the Community Center.

Price said one consideration is that the grant money obtained by the city for the Richmond Complete Streets project can only be used for work on Richmond Street.

The Richmond Street project will cost an estimated $11 million and is primarily being funded with an $8 million Safe Streets for All grant from the federal government. The city will pay $700,000 using funds from the Measure A Street Maintenance Fund.

If the city chose to implement the 2016 bicycle boulevard route, Price said little if any parking would need to be removed from side streets.

However, one block of Richmond Street is essential to the route and would require installation of a bike lane, in Price’s view. That is the block between Schmidt Lane and Portola Drive, where the Rose Park condominiums are located.

Better yet, Price said, bike lanes could be added on the two blocks of Richmond closest to Moeser to make a more direct connection.

Not Under Consideration

City Manager Karen Pinkos said the bicycle boulevard route is “not under consideration at this time.”

She said Richmond Street is one of the few streets that was not rebuilt or repaved in the period between 2008 and 2012, after the city passed the Measure A sales tax for streets. Work was delayed many years until completion of the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s replacement of the Wildcat Pipeline, which only happened this year.

Now Richmond Street needs to be rebuilt to meet all current standards, she said, while most of the streets in the bike boulevard route have been redone.

“At this time the plans are for Richmond Street only,” Pinkos said.

Could Shared Lane Markings Still Be Used?

The 2016 Active Transportation Plan shows Richmond Street continuing as a shared lane roadway marked with a sharrow. Sharrows are images of bicyclists painted on the road to show that drivers and cyclists need to share.

However, Pinkos and City Engineer Yvetteh Ortiz said that bike lanes must be added to Richmond Street to meet current design standards.

The street is not wide enough for parking and bike lanes on both sides. That means parking would have to be removed.

A street with a shared lane marking (sharrow)

The Sharrow Debate

The sharrow was conceived in the early 1990s and for decades sharrows were used around the world, even on very high-volume streets, Price said.

But starting about a dozen years ago, transportation planners started to question whether and when the use of sharrows was sufficiently safe. Price said studies have shown that adding bike lanes makes streets safer.

A Sharrow Law

This year, a new law took effect in California that limits but still allows the use of sharrows.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, local governments are prohibited from installing a new shared lane marking for bikeways or highways with a posted speed limit greater than 30 miles an hour.

Richmond Street has a posted speed limit of 25 miles an hour, so the law does not apply.

However, City Engineer Ortiz said Richmond Street’s average speed of 31 miles per hour and about 6,000 vehicles per day put it at the maximum boundary of permitted sharrow use.

Slide prepared by CSW Consulting for a fall 2024 workshop.

Safety Data from Residents

Richmond Street residents who formed a neighborhood group to oppose the proposed redesign have questioned the validity of the city’s data and conclusions.

One workshop presentation in the fall showed the stretch of Richmond slated for bike lanes had a traffic volume of 6,000 while the segment south of Richmond had 6,800 vehicles per day, yet the southern segment with a higher traffic volume will be rebuilt without bike lanes.

Resident Shelby Holguin said the dominant feature of the Richmond Street project has become bike lanes, yet accident data from the California Highway Patrol shows there have been no reported accidents involving bicycles there going back to 2013.

Focus on Safe Street Crossings

In the same period there were four accidents involving pedestrians, she said. Two accidents occurred at Gladys Avenue, one at Donal Avenue, and one at Fairmount Avenue.

Residents are very concerned about traffic speeds and being able to cross the street safely, she said.

As residents in the Richmond Street Neighbors Association see it, bike lanes are not needed to address the safety of pedestrians crossing the street, yet it seems that bike lanes are driving the project.

Richmond Street resident Inge Brust said the city’s current plan to have parking on only one side of the street for entire blocks would make pedestrians less safe because many of them will cross the street more often. And 40% of the residents on the affected stretch are over 65, she said.

“Proactive” Not “Reactive” Approach

Asked about the need to address documented pedestrian safety problems at intersections where pedestrians have been hit, Ortiz said that looking at collision patterns over the years is a “reactive” way to approach safety.

Current thinking among transportation planners is more proactive, she said. That means applying standard accepted practices along the corridor to create a network that will be safer for everyone who uses a street, Ortiz said.

This slide based on community feedback was prepared by CSW consultants.

Another issue is the very small number of bicyclists who ride on Richmond Street. The city did not provide bicycle traffic volume, but has agreed the number is low. Brust said bicyclists account for 0.3% of total traffic there.

Ortiz said that to encourage more people to ride bikes, there must first be a safe bicycle network for them to use. Building bike lanes without existing high demand is an accepted practice, she said.

Trying to Balance Needs

Ortiz is the city engineer and she holds the authority to certify the final design for Richmond Street. While she said her design team is reaching out to work with residents, Ortiz said bicycle lanes must be part of the design.

She said many layers of traffic engineering and policy guidance influence her thinking.

“It’s traffic volumes, speeds, geometry, uses along the corridor, and layering a lot of different things including city and county plans and policies,” Ortiz said. “And Richmond Street is the most direct, flattest route that connects city destinations.”

Ortiz likes the concept her design team came up with of removing parking on every other block and adding a bike lane that will sometimes run along the curb and sometimes curve out and around clusters of parking. She said the design, called a chicane, balances the needs of residents and bicyclists and will make the street safer for pedestrians by slowing down traffic.

“In my engineering judgment this (design) would be appropriate for this type of corridor,” Ortiz said in an interview on April 10.

Is there a similar design that is already in use on an arterial in the East Bay?

“We’ll be one of the first in the area,” Ortiz said.

Can Residents Influence the Outcome?

Residents of the eight blocks of Richmond Street overwhelmingly oppose the city’s plan. They canvassed all the homes on their street and found that 90% of people who were home were against the design. They formed the Richmond Street Neighbors Association, wrote a petition explaining their concerns, got 140 signatures, and submitted it to the City Council. They continue to do research and started a website, Richmond Street for All, to showcase information from their perspective.

Brust said she hopes to speak with City Engineer Ortiz and individual City Council members soon.

Ortiz said her team plans more parking studies, which will include side streets as well as Richmond Street. The design team will work with Richmond Street residents, particularly disabled residents, on concerns about access to their homes if street parking is removed. She said any resident with a concern should email the design team at RichmondStreetComplete@gmail.com.

“We are looking at hosting another community meeting where we can lay out the whole project,” Ortiz said.

City Manager Pinkos said, "We haven't completed the design yet. We're taking all the feedback and coming up with a more detailed design."

Pinkos added, "This is not just a bike lane for bike lane's sake. But there are plenty of people who want bike lanes. Most times the best public policy is a compromise where everybody is heard. We're trying to do the best we can for everyone."