There has been a lot of excitement around an innovative intersection design out of Cambridge, Massachusetts that could be a breakthrough for the design of highly skewed intersections. The “peanutabout” builds upon principles of protected roundabouts and mini roundabouts to address the unique challenges of such intersections, which often include long crossing distances, lack of visibility, and delays associated with signal operations. The design represents a win-win that would enhance safety for all users – it would improve visibility and protection for bicyclists by maintaining protected bike lanes throughout the intersection, improve walkability by shortening crossing distances for pedestrians, and make driving safer and less stressful by providing traffic calming while reducing conflicts and delay.

Oakland has several skewed intersections that could be candidates for peanutabout designs. In particular, two intersections exhibit potential for such a design:

College/Claremont/62nd/Florio:

A real nightmare intersection for anyone to navigate that experiences high volumes of vehicles and pedestrians. Some bicyclists brave this intersection as well – a road diet on Claremont is also badly needed.

Adeine/Market/57th/Aileen:

A terrible intersection of two bike routes that incredibly lacks a crosswalk across Adeline on the northeast side. Adeline recently received a road diet with buffered bike lanes, while Market is excessively wide on the north side of the intersection and needs a right-sizing of its own.

Both of these locations desperately need improvements for safety and operations – a peanutabout could be just the solution.

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