The San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project seeks to develop a long-term vision and near-term improvements for San Pablo Avenue that will allow it to function better and be safer for people who walk, bike, drive and take the bus.

The San Pablo Avenue Corridor

Carries local, rapid and express buses;

Includes high-activity pedestrian areas and commercial districts;

Is a bicycle route in many local jurisdiction plans;

Serves as a reliever route for freeway traffic during incidents on I-80.

San Pablo Avenue is the heart of a critical travel corridor that carries tens of thousands of people every day and connects multiple communities to job and activity centers. The corridor provides north-south connections throughout the Inner East Bay. San Pablo Avenue:Jurisdictions are concentrating growth along the corridor, with several higher-density, mixed-use developments recently completed and numerous others under consideration.

Project Need

To better serve existing users and accommodate growth from new housing and jobs, the corridor must be able to effectively carry more people through increased efficiency and improved travel choices.

The corridor has limited right-of-way and competing demands, which must be brought together in a comprehensive, systematic way to achieve safety, quality, and convenience for all users and all modes.

Transit service in this corridor suffers delays and poor on-time performance due to moderate to severe traffic congestion on several key segments, which undermines the attractiveness of transit as a travel choice for many users.

The corridor experiences high rates of collisions, affecting the safety of all users.

The project aims to support current and future businesses and residents as communities grow and evolve along the corridor. Improved mobility options will be important to enhance quality of life and manage future congestion along the corridor.

Project Approach

Phase 1 of the project began in fall 2017 and concluded in summer 2020. Phase 1 identified and refined potential long-term concepts for the corridor through extensive outreach and technical analysis. Due to the complex and constrained nature of the corridor, no single long-term vision emerged at the end of Phase 1 and multiple project alternatives are still being considered for the long-term improvement of the corridor. Major outcomes of Phase 1 of the project are documented in thetab.

In response to strong desire from Alameda CTC, cities, AC Transit and communities to advance a project that begins to address needs in corridor – in particular improvements to make buses more reliable and improve safety for people walking and bicycling – Phase 2 will focus on advancing more incremental near-term improvements seeking to improve safety and learn more about the effectiveness of different treatments.

Very Near-term Safety Improvements in the Alameda County segment of the corridor focused on targeted small-scale changes to improve pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit rider safety with an anticipated construction initiation within the next three years. These improvements do not preclude more substantial multimodal improvements under consideration for the corridor in the long-term.

An Infrastructure Pilot Project in the Alameda County segment of the corridor to better understand the effectiveness of different types of improvements and make incremental progress towards a larger, long-term project. Based on outreach and technical analysis to date, the pilot will consider dedicated bus and bike lanes in Oakland and Emeryville and spot bus improvements and parallel bike facilities in Berkeley and Albany, but additional outreach is needed to determine exact configurations for the pilot in each city.

Due to greater geometric and operational variability, different mode splits and travel needs, and varying attitudes towards preferred improvements, no clear set of improvements emerged from Phase 1 in Contra Costa County. Phase 2 work will include additional location-specific design and development evaluation needed to advance long-term concepts on the northern segments.

Beginning in fall 2020, Phase 2 will advance the following:If you have questions, or would like to be added to the project email list to be alerted of future opportunities for input, email sanpabloave@alamedactc.org