OAKLAND — After three years of planning, advocacy and outreach, the city is unveiling a new section of slimmed-down Telegraph Avenue, featuring bike lanes protected from traffic by a row of parked cars on a stretch of the avenue from 20th Street to 29th Street.

A first for Oakland, it’s a new configuration that will mean a learning curve for drivers but is intended to create greater safety for pedestrians and bikers.

“It’ll likely be a lot slower, but that’s a good thing,” said Oakland’s transportation services manager, Wlad Wlassowsky.

For bicyclists, it allows a feeling of safety that regular road riding doesn’t, and encourages fearful riders to take a chance on city streets.

“I love it,” said Dave Campbell, advocacy director at Bike East Bay. “It changes your whole mindset and experience not to feel like you’re dodging traffic.”

For drivers, the main thing they’ll notice is that the nine-block section of the avenue is no longer two lanes in each direction. Instead, the road has been reduced — in what is known as a “road diet” — to one lane each way, with a center lane remaining as before for turns.

“Basically, instead of five lanes on Telegraph there would be three lanes,” Wlassowsky said.

The other major difference is that parking for cars is now between the traffic lane and the bike lane, and not flush against the sidewalk. That can look a little strange at first, with cars parking in what used to be the middle of the street.

“It’ll take a little getting used to for drivers,” said Matt Nichols, the mayor’s director of infrastructure and transportation.

Between the parking spaces and the bike lane is a three-foot buffer. Then comes the bike lane and then the sidewalk. People exiting their cars have to cross the bike lane to get to the sidewalk, which is allowed, although bikes have the right of way.

According to Nichols, from 2007-2011 there were 66 bike-auto accidents and 68 pedestrian-auto accidents. He said one of the main dangers for cyclists is when drivers open their door as a bike is going by — something that can’t happen in the new bike lanes.

“That almost completely goes away,” he said.

It’s not just about cyclists. Wlassowsky said that merely slimming down the street is a proven and cost-effective way to avoid road fatalities by simply slowing drivers down.

“This is as much as, if not more, about pedestrian safety,” he said. And Campbell, who was out on Telegraph Avenue this week, says it’s working.

“The traffic is going slower,” he said.

The project will be officially inaugurated by Mayor Libby Schaaf on May 10, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9 a.m, in time for Bike to Work Day on May 12. But painting has already been finished, and people are riding in the lanes — including Nichols.

“It was great,” he said. “For me, it’s so much more comfortable and less stressful to ride in a protected lane.”

During the first few weeks, Bike East Bay will have volunteers out on the street to help people figure out the new configuration. It’s a learning curve that’s expected to cause some confusion for cyclists and drivers.

The improvements come after years of city planning and community outreach as part of the Telegraph Complete Streets project, which included getting feedback from more than 30 community meetings and conversations with stakeholder and advocacy groups, including merchants’ groups, neighborhood groups and Bike East Bay. An online survey was also circulated for two months and received more than one thousand responses.

Any plan for the avenue needed to be delicate balancing act, allowing for cars and parking in busy areas but making the street safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“There was a lot of discussion and dissension,” Wlassowsky said.

In the end, the City Council approved a plan for 20th Street to 41st Street. For the stretch from 41st Street to 57th Street, which includes dense commercial areas like the Temescal District, consensus hasn’t yet been reached. Concerns about limiting parking and how that affects merchants have been raised, as well as what a slimmer Telegraph Avenue means for traffic.

“I think that some people thought that it would cause undue congestion,” Wlassowsky said.

But Campbell said those kind of fears are overrated and that studies have shown that bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets help merchants.

“Businesses are more successful, not less,” he said.

With the current project finished, the city will next tackle 29th Street to 41st Street. However, the change won’t be as dramatic. Although the avenue will also go down to one lane of traffic in each direction with a center turn lane, cars will still park along the curb. Instead of bike lanes separated by parked cars from traffic lanes, the bike lanes will be separated from traffic by a buffer section of paint.

The city has also received a $4.8 million grant from the state to turn paint markings into actual concrete curbs and barriers from 20th Street all the way up to 41st Street. There has also been talk, in coordination with the Alameda County Transportation Commission, of working with Berkeley to make improvements all the way north on Telegraph Avenue. In addition, the City Council has approved a road diet and bike lanes on Grand Avenue.

For Campbell, of Bike East Bay, these spreading changes are necessary, but he’d like to see more. “It’s not enough if people have a wonderful experience eon Telegraph if they have a horrible experience in connecting streets,” Campbell said.

But for now, it’s a case of seeing how it goes on Telegraph Avenue. The city will be monitoring not only traffic but also how people feel about the new-style street. “We all need community buy-in and acceptance,” Wlassowsky said.

And Campbell hopes that Telegraph Avenue’s completed section will serve as a model for other stretches of road.

“It can’t happen soon enough,” Campbell said.

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