A big thanks is owed to the self-determination, expertise, and continuous hard work of the North Lake Traffic Calming Committee(Jerry Cauthen, David Bolanos, Ken Katz, Cameron Brown, Bruce DeBenedictus... just to name a few). Because they developing their own list of specific concerns and projects, pooled their skills as engineers and architects and so on, and communicated in many meetings, documents, and emails with Public Works, the Oakland Pedestrian Safety Project, City Council, neighbors, and many others over the years, this and other projects have become solid reality.

Would anyone who attended this meeting give those who were not able to attend a sense of the meeting and the public response to the plans? Posting an announcement on this webpage just three days prior to the actual meeting seems insufficient notice. Was the neighborhood immediately impacted (Lakeshore, from 580 to 1200 Lakeshore and nearby surface streets) mailed notices regarding this public input meeting? We didn't get a notice and we in the slice between Brooklyn and Hanover.

Nicholas,

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.

Don't let Ken lull you into inattention, Nicholas. Under Measure DD, your stretch of Lakeshore is scheduled for reduction to only two traffic lanes with bike lanes and sidewalk widening consuming two of the existing four traffic lanes. See this link for more details: http://www.oaklandpw.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=1177 [B] The upper Lakeshore narrowing was "pedaled" by a small but active group of cyclists and perhaps one-half the residents on upper Lakeshore Blvd., who were amenable to practically any plan that would reduce auto speeding in front of their homes. [B] Interestingly, the vote of actual Lakeshore Blvd. residents at the meeting was a tie with one-half wanting the narrowing and one-half not. The overall meeting vote was approximately as Ken reported. However, 40% of the attendees reported never receiving the opinion survey, which was blatantly biased and presented only potential positive outcomes of the plan. [B] Had the survey included both positives and negatives and been properly distributed and had the votes of out-of-area carpetbaggers at the meeting not been counted, the vote of all the meeting attendees could have well gone the other way. [B] The vote could have also changed had the meeting been organized in a debate format. Instead, staffers from the Bicycle & Pedestrian Project section of Public Works controlled the dias and selectively filtered the questions and answers. Several of these staffers are cycle enthusiasts and their city positions are directly funded by the Pedestrian & Bike Safety section of County Measure A. The odds of these guys ever seeing a bike plan they didn't like is probably about the same as your local plumbers union scheduling a monthly cross-dressing night. [B] Considering how deeply the fix was in, the con faction was happy to get a tentative agreement to accept the plan on a one-year trial basis with dedicated funds for restriping if the trial results were unsatisfactory to the community. [B] Kernighan seemed to agree to this option but was uncertain if the "dedicated funds" could be found. She could start searching in the previously mentioned Measure A funds which deliver $1 million to the city annually for pedestrian and bike safety projects. The city typically earmarks $100k of this stipend for bike lane striping. [B] How many bikers are there on upper Lakeshore? In a rash moment of candor at last Wednesday's meeting, a PW staffer admitted that an attempted bike count on upper Lakeshore in December had resulted in a statistically insignificant value. [B] The upper Lakeshore project is a classic example of a very small tail of speeding-weary Lakeshore Blvd. residents and a miniscule group of cycle activists wagging a very large dog composed of the average 6,600 motorists who use upper Lakeshore daily. If you want more of the un-PC details, Nick, contact me at oakjunque@sbcglobal.net.