14th Street in Oakland now has concrete curb-protected bike lanes and shelter islands from Castro to Jefferson eastbound and from Oak/Lakeside to Jackson westbound. Crews are working diligently from end to end to eventually convert 14th Street from the lake to I-980 into a fully protected bike lane.
Streetsblog readers will recall that the project broke ground in January and was scheduled to be completed by fall of next year. However, parts of it were expected to be ready for use before then. In fact, Streetsblog has already been able to drive several blocks of it.
It already shows how well guarded intersections work, as shown in the photo below, where a driver turns from 14th Street onto Martin Luther King Street. The tight curve radius forces the driver to turn slowly enough to have enough time to react, which is the whole point of guarded intersections.
One of the lamest excuses for why protected bike lanes aren’t feasible is that they push disabled people who drive cars away from the curb. Note that there are regular breaks in the protected curbs for deliveries and wheelchair users. The ramp to the sidewalk in the main image is not a driveway – it’s a path for people to roll onto the sidewalk from the street and bike lane.
During construction, and on a quiet Friday afternoon, the bike lanes – and the car lanes – weren’t very busy. But the gentleman on the mobility scooter in the photo below was able to use it, proof that protected bike lanes mean a safer road for everyone.
Tim Courtney, a safe streets advocate who lives nearby, told Streetsblog that the ongoing construction is a testament to the power of advocates working with a supportive city councilor, in this case Carroll Fife. Courtney recalled Fife’s emotional reaction to the death of Dmitry Putilov, who was killed while biking with his two sons on the 14th of 2022, and thanked her help in getting the project finally approved and construction beginning.
However, Oakland and other cities clearly need to find a way to get the temporary protection in the ground more quickly while they work out the details of the permanent installations. It took nearly 25 years of advocacy, legislative debates and preparation to get this project started, and that delay likely cost a man his life. In the five years from 2016 to 2021, 189 people were injured in collisions, 38 of them seriously, according to Oakland’s project page. Bay Area cities need to start building protective bike lanes and other measures as if lives depended on it, because they do.
More photos below:
