The Alameda County Transportation Commission has launched an online tool to help collect community feedback on their ambitious San Pablo Avenue Corridor project.

San Pablo Avenue, AKA State Route 123, runs through seven cities and is used by approximately 120,000 people per day. The 7.39 mile long boulevard also has the third highest rate of injury collisions in the county providing urgency to improve safety on the road.

The segment of the project that the ACTC is collecting feedback on is a 3.5 mile section that will span a small portion of Southern Berkeley, all of Emeryville’s strip running between 36th and 53rd streets and the segment that runs through West Oakland to downtown.

The project will be a difficult balancing act for engineers as they try to accommodate the many and often incompatible uses of the road.

Leaders in Emeryville and Oakland have been on board with the plan while leaders in Berkeley and Albany have been more reluctant. The design north of Heinz Ave will instead diverge from this plan favoring so-called “Parallel Bikeways” that rely on adjacent residential streets as bikeways.

The project will eliminate most parking as well as a lane of vehicle traffic in either direction. This vehicle lane and parking will be replaced with a protected bike lane with a buffer and a dedicated bus lane (sometimes referred to as a “BRT” or Bus Rapid Transit). The project also includes improved visibility street crossings and flashing beacons.

Cyclists are rightfully giddy about the possibility to more safely cycle to and from Downtown Oakland. The current options that avoid San Pablo Avenue are less than ideal and not direct.

Transit activists and cyclists have rapidly peppered the tool with their recommendations for improving the plan.

“Reducing the car traffic to one lane is going to make cars slower and make the city feel nicer, especially because there are some local businesses that are going to get a lot more traffic if people are walking and biking.”

Needless to say, businesses along the corridor and residents that rely on their vehicle for mobility and lack a dedicated parking space have expressed concern with the plan. Some worry that the plan will force more cars onto residential side streets and are skeptical that the tactic of frustrating drivers out of their cars and onto bikes and transit will pan out.

Some of these concerns are reflected in comments on the tool.

“As a resident of an apartment building on San Pablo, I am dreading the idea of having to walk even further in order to get to my door. The neighborhood is not safe, and this area does not allow for permits that exempt residents from 2 hour parking rules. As a woman who often gets home after dark, I do not want to walk blocks just to get home every night.”

“My mother is a senior citizen and I also have a disabled sister who is blind and has developmental problems. We absolutely need the parking in front of our home for our disabled family members and for ADA compliance!!! We only have street parking available.”

The redesign including several design decisions that will inconvenience drivers including the inability to make a right on 40th traveling north on SPA toward the MacArthur BART station (presumably to avoid creating a conflict zone with buses and cyclists).

The tool allows users to enter comments along the route categorized by Bike, Pedestrian, Transit, Parking, Traffic or “Other.” These comments are captured anonymously and displayed publicly. These comments can also be toggled and sorted by the public.

Users can browse and submit their own feedback on the project at sanpabloave.mysocialpinpoint.com/interactive-map. The website also has a brief questionnaire to help better capture the demographics of those using it.

The ACTC will also be hosting several community meetings and pop-ups to answer questions in person including one at the ECCL on Wednesday, April 17.

Emeryville is also pursuing a redesign of 40th Street that will include a two-way cycletrack and dedicated bus lanes.