Description

Citizen is requesting: bulb-outs, raised intersections, wider bike lanes, and traffic circle. Please see full statement below.

The primary safety concern on Central Avenue between Broadway and High Streets is excessive speeding. Due to the fact that Central Avenue is one of the widest two lane roads in Alameda, it already has some of the greatest vehicular intersection visibility in the city. The enhanced visibility and straightness of the road means I commonly see vehicles traveling 35 to 40 mph, and periodically see vehicles traveling at even greater speeds.

I am concerned that the plan to paint curbs red on Central Avenue between Broadway and High Streets will negatively affect the neighborhood without making significant gains towards the Alameda Vision Zero Policy. Paint is cheap, and is often used as the most inexpensive way to apply complete streets principles to a stretch of roadway, sometimes with little to no discernable increases in safety. In this project, I believe the paint will inconvenience residents (due to loss of parking) without increasing safety.

Increasing the corner red zones makes Central feel safer to motorists, who will correspondingly increase speeds, and take turns faster. The increased vehicle speed is very dangerous to bikes and pedestrians. The increased visibility with reduced parking creates the opposite of a road diet/lane diet that slows vehicle traffic.

What the neighborhood needs is corner extension/bulb outs and traffic calming.

Corner extensions would increase pedestrian visibility more than the red paint, while preserving more on street parking for residents. Corner extensions also limit the amount of time a person must spend exposed to vehicular traffic, which is particularly important on a street as wide as Central. The temporary extension, as seen above, is an inexpensive treatment.

Some type of traffic calming measures should be employed on Central. I would suggest a raised intersection at Mound or Grove to slow speeders, increasing the width of the bike lanes to create a lane diet, and possibly a traffic circle at Central/Gibbons/Versailles.