{"id":489796,"date":"2026-10-09T00:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489796\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T00:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T00:34:15","slug":"oakland-dot-survey-on-foothill-blvd-project-excludes-protected-bike-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489796\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland DOT Survey on Foothill Blvd. Project Excludes Protected Bike Lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oakland Department of Transportation is planning to repave Foothill Boulevard in 2028 from Fruitvale Ave to 23rd Ave as part of a safety project called \u201cCalm Fruitvale Streets.\u201d But before that gets underway, the city wants people to take a survey<\/a> about what kind of arrangement they\u2019d like to see on this high-injury street.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the city only offers two possible configurations, and they both include only paint for cyclists. Although there is a place to make comments on the survey<\/a>, protected bike lanes are just excluded.<\/p>\n

Bike East Bay\u2019s Robert Prinz posted about this on social media. He included a diagram of how protected bike lanes would look on the street:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Note it should read \u201c11 foot travel lanes\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, staff considered this option \u201c\u2026but decided it wasn\u2019t well suited for this section of Foothill due to the many driveways that would require the bike lane protection to be frequently dropped to allow access to the driveways,\u201d OakDOT spokesperson Kent Bravo wrote in an email to Streetsblog.<\/p>\n

However, if properly designed, driveways can work fine with protected bike lanes, as the BicycleDutch blog explained in this video:<\/p>\n

But it does require removing more parking spaces to ensure sightlines on driveway approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving half of the car parking would make both curbside protected bikeways and AC Transit \/ Oakland Fire Department-friendly lane widths possible,\u201d wrote Prinz, in an email to Streetsblog. \u201cBut in this instance I think it will be an uphill push to even get just painted bike lanes on Foothill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Current conditions on Foothill at 27th. Clearly, there\u2019s room for protected bike lanes. Image: Google Maps<\/p>\n

Some background about this deadly section of street from the survey<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Foothill Boulevard<\/a> between 23rd Ave and Fruitvale Ave is a High-Injury Corridor for people walking, biking, and driving. Since 2019, there have been 87 crashes reported on this section of Foothill, and five people have been killed, including a six-year-old and his mother in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foothill is also the street where an AC Transit bus operator was caught on video driving in the bike lane and terrorizing a cyclist<\/a>, albeit on a different section than this project. But it illustrates again why paint is not protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More from the city<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This paving project will include important safety improvements. These may include:\u00a0<\/p>\n

high visibility crosswalks and upgraded curb ramps<\/p>\n

safer crossings for pedestrians, including safety islands and flashing lights<\/p>\n

traffic calming features to slow cars, such as speed cushions<\/p>\n

biking safety improvements<\/p>\n

In Streetsblog\u2019s view, it\u2019s not true to call anything that\u2019s only paint \u201cbiking safety improvements.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring OakDOT in-person outreach for the project over the past month, the main feedback we received has been to maximize pedestrian safety features. With over a month of outreach remaining, staff are committed to hearing all community perspectives on the future of this important corridor,\u201d added Bravo. <\/p>\n

But of course, as Streetsblog has reported many times<\/a>, \u201cmaximizing pedestrian safety\u201d doesn\u2019t entail ignoring bicycle safety. In fact, protected bike lanes make streets safer for pedestrians too by reducing crossing distances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The second option has painted bike lanes. The city isn\u2019t offering an option with protected bike lanes. Image: OaklandDOT<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the survey<\/a> has a comment section where advocates can write what they like and don\u2019t like about each option. Streetsblog strongly suggests everyone write the same thing for both options: it\u2019s time to put protected bike lanes on the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oakland Department of Transportation is planning to repave Foothill Boulevard in 2028 from Fruitvale Ave to 23rd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,109921],"class_list":["post-489796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-promoted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}