Bike-Ped Divide on New BART Path? Not in El Cerrito's Plan

Update, Oct. 19, 3:04 p.m.: We've added a reader poll at the bottom of this article.

Correction: Due to an editor's error, the original version of this story incorrectly reported that Albany's new, widened bike path will have separate sections for bikes and pedestrians. The new Albany paved path, which replaces the current paved bike path, will continue to be dedicated chiefly to bikes and will not have a separate lane for pedestrians, who will be encouraged to use the two-foot-wide jogging paths on either side of the new paved path or the existing, winding pedestrian path along Masonic Avenue, according to Rich Cunningham, public works manager for Albany. The article and headline have been corrected.

Once Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) completes its and reconfiguration of the bicycle and pedestrian paths beneath them, users will know at a glance whether they are in El Cerrito and Abany.

Along with ongoing seismic retrofits of the El Cerrito Plaza and del Norte stations, BART is enlarging the subsurface foundations of the elevated track support columns. It started in Albany in October and begins in El Cerrito in January. Completion is scheduled for 2015.

Two years ago the two cities negotiated for the transit service to not just repair the paths it tears up during its three-year upgrade but widen the eight-foot portions to 14 feet. Numerous improvements will bring the popular path traversing both cities, installed in the 1980s, up to current standards.

No Separate Paths in El Cerrito

El Cerrito’s renovated path will have two-foot crushed granite shoulders for joggers. But the entire asphalt strip will be marked for use by both pedestrians and cyclists, with at most a center stripe or broken line encouraging people to keep right. The parallel, meandering, four-foot-wide path now reserved for pedestrians will be removed.

In Albany, however, the widened path will be dedicated chiefly for bicyclists with pedestrians encouraged to use the two-foot-wide jogging paths that will be be installed on both sides of the new, widened bike path, according to Rich Cunningham, public works manager for Albany. In addition, pedestrians in Albany can continue to use the extant curving pedestrian path next to Masonic Avenue, which will remain as is, Cunningham said. El Cerrito's winding pedestrian path is being eliminated.

Keep Them Separated 

As El Cerrito cyclist Neil Robertson sees it, El Cerrito’s 2.7-mile portion should be designed more like Albany’s one-mile stretch—providing separate paths for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Robertson wrote both an and a in Patch challenging the city’s treating the wider path as a multi-use path. In doing so, his letter charged, the city’s policy “appears to contradict state law” requiring that pedestrians stay off bike paths where separate walking paths are installed.

“You’ve got to keep them separate,” he stressed.

What really caught his attention was a city newsletter article written by Environmental Services Manager Melanie Mintz, who suggested bicyclists wanting to go fast should use streets instead of the greenway, Robertson told Patch.

“Suggesting that cyclists use city streets was throwing down the gauntlet to me,” he said.

‘Bicycles Only’ a ‘Misperception’

Mintz told Patch the idea the two current paths are for separate use is “a misperception.” Although the paths remain clearly marked for pedestrians and cyclists in several places, the city designated the larger path a multi-use path in 2007 when it adopted its Circulation Plan for Bicyclists and Pedestrians.

“There are a lot of reasons for this,” explained Mintz, a greenway cyclist herself.  “Everything [on the wider path] is straighter and flatter. The police prefer having a main path; they can see everybody. And there are maintenance issues; it’s hard to maintain a separate path.”

Further, the so-called pedestrian path “doesn't meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards,” she said. Also, in public hearings leading up to adoption of the Ohlone Greenway Master Plan in 2009, testimony indicated “people didn't feel so safe with the columns” close to the pedestrian path.

Sharing Not a Problem

Pedestrians and cyclists sharing the wider path has not been a major problem, she said. “When I asked people, [responses indicated] no one has to stop much” to avoid collisions. And with a 14-foot-wide path, getting around each other should be even easier, she suggested.

Overall, the city’s strategy will be to urge sharing, keeping to the right, and courtesy. Future signs may stress that.

She said the circulation plan intends for cyclists wanting to go faster to use other streets. Since adoption of the plan, the city has marked streets designated for bicycles and motor vehicles to share such as Key Street and Richmond Ave., which parallel the greenway, with large logos called sharrows. (See attached photo.)

She acknowledged that leaving the separate-path signs up after making the eight-foot path multi-use in 2007 could be a factor in the conflict between cyclists and walkers.

“You could be right,” she said. “We could take down the signs and spend time grinding down the pavement (to remove labels), but it would be an unnecessary expense. We've been waiting for BART to start their construction and do it right.”

Space to Spare: Albany Yes, El Cerrito No

Cunningham said that Albany's situation is not comparable to El Cerrito's because Albany has room to expand, while El Cerrito doesn't.

Despite the spacious future layout, Albany will not require users to stay in their respective paths, Albany transportation planner Aleida Andrion-Chavez said.

“Pedestrians sometimes use the whole path,” she acknowledged. In addition, some walkers prefer the shorter, straighter route, and groups of pedestrians might spread across the entire path.

Meeting at City Hall

El Cerrito is holding a Thursday at 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall at 10890 San Pablo Ave. The meeting has been planned for months and was not called in response to Robertson's criticisms.

“We’re nearing the end of our five-year plan, and the mayor (Ann Cheng) is very interested in cycling,” making the public review appropriate, Mintz said. “The Ohlone Greenway is not the only project in the Bicycling Master Plan. We are going to do a short presentation on a lot of different things to bring everyone up to the same page. Then we are open to public as to what gets discussed.”

Robertson said he plans to be there and is urging other separate-path advocates to join him.

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