If a proposal currently being considered is implemented, the number of travel lanes will be reduced, and bicycle lanes will be added, to Lakeshore Avenue between Mandana Blvd. and the Harvard Road/Winsor Avenue intersection.
Oakland’s Public Works Agency contacted residents in that area in October and has since received numerous comments from community members. Council Member Pat Kernighan reported that a “significant majority” of those comments favored the project.
Nevertheless, Ms. Kernighan is convening a public meeting “to make sure that the neighborhood is fully informed about the proposal, and give everyone who is concerned ample opportunity for discussion.”
The public meeting will be this Wednesday evening, January 10, from 7 to 8:30 PM at Barnett Hall (behind the main building of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church at 3534 Lakeshore Avenue—at Mandana Blvd.).
For more information about the proposed project, check out Jason Patton’s “The neighborhood benefits of bike lanes.”
Comments
Residents below 580 would not have been contacted regarding this meeting since there is no reason to think that traffic there would be impacted. The proposed project only involves restriping a very small section of Lakeshore from Mandana to a point just above Walla Vista.
Without getting into exact numbers, roughly 60% of those attending supported the proposed change as contrasted with the earlier mail-in survey in which the response was about 70% positive. Although feelings on both sides were sometimes intense, a substantial number of those opposed did indicate that they would support a one-year trial period.
I personally think any drawbacks will be greatly outweighed by the benefits by slowing down vehicular traffic and substantively improving safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The Guardian has been promised an article by a MacArthur Blvd. resident where a similar project was recently instituted. I'm expecting that this will help allay concerns about the proposed change.