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Oakland Bicycling and Pedestrian Information

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 > Home > Departments > Department of Engineering and Construction > Transportation Services Division > Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program > Bike Lanes and Routes

Bike Lanes and Routes

General Information

Since 1999, the City of Oakland has installed over 87 miles of bicycle lanes and routes, including facilities on 27th Street, 40th Street, Grand Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, Market Street, Mandela Parkway, 73rd Avenue, Bancroft Avenue, and the Embarcadero. The Oakland Bicycle Master Plan, approved in December 2007, calls for a completed bikeway network with 218 total miles of bikeways. This plan, part of Oakland's General Plan, encourages safety and accessibility for bicyclists throughout the City.

The City is working to improve bicycle access around Lake Merritt and along the waterfront and along Oakland's portion of the San Francisco Bay Trail. (As of February 2008, approximately 19 miles of the 33 miles of the planned Bay Trail in Oakland have been completed, and, regionwide, approximately 290 miles of a 500-mile system have been completed. Bay Trail staff estimate that it will take 15 years to complete the system.) The Port of Oakland and the East Bay Regional Parks District also install bicycle lanes and paths within their jurisdictions.

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News and Current Projects

News

  • Learn more about the proposal to improve bicycle access to the MacArthur BART Station.
  • Take advantage of free bicycle safety classes, sponsored by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition and funded by a grant from the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority. Go to www.ebbc.org/safety for details. Each class consists of a 3.5 hour Traffic Safety 101 Classroom workshop and a 6.5 hour Traffic Safety 101 Road Class of on-bike instruction.
  • Check out the Winter 2010 edition of I "BIKE" Oakland, the City's twice-annual newsletter documenting six months of progress implementing the Bicycle Master Plan.Below is information on key projects under development.

Projects Under Development

View a list and map (.pdf, last updated May 25, 2010) showing the status of all bikeway projects currently under development. This list and map is updated periodically to reflect implementation progress. Highlights of specific/major projects follow. 

27th Street Bikeway

The City of Oakland will install a bikeway on 27th Street and Bay Place, from San Pablo Avenue to Grand Avenue. The project was approved by City Council in May 2008 and is being installed in three sections:

  1. San Pablo Ave to Martin Luther King Jr Way was installed in June 2008 in conjunction with a street resurfacing project.
  2. Broadway to Grand Avenue will be installed in Spring/Summer 2011 with funding from the TDA Article 3 bike/ped program.
  3. Martin Luther King Jr Way and Broadway will be installed in 2011.

For more information about this project, please see 27th Street Bikeway project overview (.pdf, 511k)

Broadway Corridor

The Bicycle Master Plan calls for a bikeway, mostly Class 2 bicycle lanes, along the Broadway/Webster/Franklin corridor, from downtown to Keith Ave at Highway 24. There are currently bike lanes on Broadway from 25th St to MacArthur Blvd. The additional bikeway segments were studied as part of the EIR for the bike plan and are being developed in phases. The phases currently under development are: (1) bike lanes on the Webster/Franklin St one-way couplet from 14th-25th Sts (currently in design); and (2) a connecting bikeway on Broadway between Franklin St and 25th St which will be funded by Federal Stimulus dollars (expected to be installed in late 2010).

E 12th St Bikeway

The E 12th St Bikeway (2nd to 40th Aves) will connect the Measure DD-funded projects around Lake Merritt to Fruitvale BART and beyond. A feasibility study evaluated travel lane removal on E 12th St, 2nd to Fruitvale Aves, and found that lanes may be removed and bike lanes installed along most of the corridor without significant impacts to motor vehicle flow. The first phase of the project is the segment from Fruitvale to 40th Ave, funded, in part by a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The second phase will be bike lanes from 14th to Fruitvale Aves. The third phase (2nd to 14th Aves) is on hold pending coordination with AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal.

MacArthur BART Bicycle Access Project

Overview

The MacArthur BART Bicycle Access Project seeks to improve east-west bicycle access between MacArthur BART, the Piedmont Ave neighborhood, Kaiser Hospital, and Emeryville. The project includes recommendations for 40th St, 41st St, and W MacArthur Blvd. These east-west bikeways will connect to existing north-south bikeways on Adeline St, Market St, West St, Webster St, and Broadway. The project will also connect North Oakland via 40th St in Emeryville to the bicycle and pedestrian path across the new eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge, scheduled to open in 2014. For a more detailed overview, read this two-page flyer (February 2008).

Recommendations

  • 40th St (Yerba Buena Ave to Martin Luther King, Jr Wy and Telegraph Ave to Webster St): Narrow the median by six feet and install bicycle lanes in both directions. Add landscaping to offset the loss of median area. See this concept plan (June 2008). Bicycle wayfinding signage will be installed in winter 2010.
  • 41st St (Webster St to Piedmont Ave): Install a bikeway as per these draft plans (September 2009, 3.5mb). This work is planned for completion in summer 2010. Bicycle wayfinding signage will be installed in winter 2010.
  • W MacArthur Blvd (Broadway to Telegraph Ave): Pending approval by City Council, install bike lanes as per these draft plans (September 2009, 3.5mb). This work could be completed in 2010.

Project Documents


MacArthur Blvd Bikeway, Park Blvd-Lincoln Ave 

With funding from a grant from the state Bicycle Transportation Account, the City is currently designing a new bikeway on MacArthur Blvd. from Park Blvd. to Lincoln Ave. The project will close a gap in the existing bikeway that from Lakeshore Ave to Park Blvd and Lincoln Ave to Midvale Ave, and is expected to be constructed in Spring 2011. For more information about this project, please see MacArthur Bikeway Project flyer (.pdf, 811k)

Telegraph Avenue

The City is studying the impacts of constructing bicycle lanes on Telegraph Avenue from Aileen to 20th Street. This project has experienced delays in order to coordinate recommendations with AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal. When the necessary data has been collected and analyzed, the community will have ample opportunity for input before finalizing the report. Click to view the Existing Conditions Report (pdf).

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Completed Projects

Since 1999, the City of Oakland has installed over 93.6 miles of bikeways, including facilities on 27th Street, 40th Street, Grand Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, Market Street, Mandela Parkway, 73rd Avenue, Bancroft Avenue, and the Embarcadero. The Oakland Bicycle Master Plan (BMP), approved in December 2007, calls for a completed bikeway network with 218 total miles of bikeways. Part of Oakland's General Plan, the BMP encourages safety and accessibility for bicyclists throughout the City. See below for:

Major bikeways completed by the Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities Program since 2007

5th Ave (Embarcadero-E 10th St); 14th St (Wood St-Mandela Pkwy); 55th St (Adeline St-Telegraph Ave); and Oakland Ave (Harrison St/Orange St-Santa Clara Ave)

Bikeways on the above four streets were installed in summer 2009, funded by Measure B Bicycle/Pedestrian funds. The bike lanes on 5th Ave connect to the existing Embarcadero Bay Trail and to the future bike lanes on E 10th St. The bikeway on 14th St connects to Mandela Parkway, the Bay Trail alignment through West Oakland. It is the first segment of a bikeway that is planned to extend to Lake Merritt. The 55th St bikeway, predominantly bike lanes, is the first east-west bikeway in North Oakland, crossing major north-south bikeways on Market St and Genoa St/West St. As part of the project, the traffic signals at Market St and Telegraph Ave were upgraded to detect bicyclists. The bike lanes on Oakland Ave responded to neighborhood interest in traffic calming, and form the first leg of a bikeway that will, eventually, extend to the Piedmont border.

Bancroft Avenue Bikeway

The Bancroft Avenue Bikeway is now complete, stretching from 49th Avenue to the San Leandro border. The most recent segment was completed in December 2008, filling a gap between 67th and 82nd Avenues. Funded by the TDA Article 3 bike/ped funding program, the bikeway is mostly Class II bike lanes with some connecting sharrow segments and included a slurry seal of the street to provide a smooth cycling surface. The resulting continuous bikeway is 4.6 miles in length, the longest continuous bikeway in Oakland.

Market Street Bikeway, Phases I-III

TFCA logoWith grant funds from the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA), the Transportation Fund for Clean Air and Transportation Development Act Article 3, the City has completed all phases of the Market Street Bikeway, striping bike lanes from 18th Street to West MacArthur Blvd (December 2008), 3rd to 18th Streets (June 2007), and West MacArthur Blvd and 57th Street (January 2005), and sharrows from 57th Street to the Berkeley border (December 2008). New wayfinding signage was installed along the entire bikeway in December 2008.

See before, after and in-construction photos of the 3rd to West MacArthur segment here (.pdf, 3.9mb).

The completed bikeway is 3.3 miles long, stretching from 3rd Street and Market Street to 61st Street and Occidental, and features video detection for cyclists at the intersection of San Pablo and Market Street and enhanced crosswalk striping to improve pedestrian safety. The street was slurry sealed between 18th Street and MacArthur Blvd (2008), and repaved north to 57th Street (2005). Additionally, new bike route wayfinding signs, based on the standard green "Bike Route" sign, were installed as a demonstration project in 2008. For more details, see the City's ACTIA projects page. For information on the signage system, see the "I [BIKE] Oakland" newsletter, Winter 2009 edition.
Stanford median crossing
Stanford Median Connector

In December 2009, the City improved the Stanford Median Crossing, a well-used connection between Berkeley’s King Street Bicycle Boulevard and Oakland’s Genoa bike route (future bicycle boulevard). The project widened the existing Stanford median bicycle and pedestrian path and three curb ramps, and installed a new bike-only curb ramp onto Adeline St. A bollard was installed at the foot of this ramp to prevent motorists from using the ramp. New bicycle wayfinding signage marking the connection and pedestrian warning signage and new crosswalk striping were also installed. The project was funded by Transportation Development Act Article 3 funds, state gas tax revenues dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

West Street Bikeway, 52nd Street to West MacArthur Blvd

Bike lanes on West Street between West MacArthur Blvd. and 52nd Street, were installed in January 2008. The project extended the existing bike lanes on West Street between West Grand Ave and West MacArthur Blvd as recommended in the City’s Bicycle Master Plan, and responded to neighborhood requests to calm traffic along West Street. The street was also resurfaced. For more information about this project, please see:

For more information about this project, please see West Street Bikeway Project overview (.pdf, 380k)

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Major bikeway completed by other departments/agencies since 2007

Alameda Avenue

In August 2007, bike lanes were installed on Alameda Avenue, Fruitvale Ave to Howard St, extending Oakland’s Waterfront Trail. The project extended an on-street bikeway to over five miles in length spanning from West Oakland BART to High Street, and was completed by the Project Delivery Division.

Doolittle Drive

Two projects by the Port of Oakland installed bike lanes on Doolittle Drive: Hegenberger Road to Airport Access Road (November 2007) and from the Airport Access Road to Eden Road (November 2008). These bike lanes connect to other bikeways that provide continuous connections along the Oakland Estuary from High Street to the Oakland International Airport via the Martin Luther King Jr Regional Shoreline, Airport Drive and John Glenn Drive. The projects were funded, in part, by the City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency, the City of San Leandro, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Lakeshore Avenue Bike Lanes

Funded by Measure DD, and coordinated by the Project Delivery Division, in November 2009 bike lanes were installed on Lakeshore Avenue between E 18th Street and El Embarcadero, with sharrows extending the facility to MacArthur Blvd. The Lakeshore Avenue project also includes a new bicycle path that will eventually encircle the lake and connect to the Oakland Estuary. The bike lanes are one part of a larger Lake Merritt Park reconstruction project that also improved pedestrian facilities and landscaping.

Lakeside Drive, 14th St to Madison St

In August 2009, Measure DD funding was used to reconfigure Lakeside Dr from 14th St to Madison St to include bicycle lanes in conjunction with renovating the Municipal Boat House as a restaurant. The Lakeside Dr project also includes a new segment of path along the lake. For more information on the Measure DD projects, see www.oaklandnet.com/government/ceda/dcsd_currentprojects_measure_dd.asp.

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Bikeway Types

The proposed bikeway network in Oakland’s Bicycle Master Plan includes bicycle paths, lanes, and routes. Designated bikeways improve safety by concentrating cyclists, building awareness amongst drivers to expect cyclists on those streets. The overall goal of the network is to provide safe and convenient bikeways such that the majority of any bicycle trip could be made on a designated facility. Bicyclists may cycle on any road in California unless it is specifically prohibited. The following bikeway type definitions are found in Oakland’s Bicycle Master Plan (2007):

  • Bicycle Paths (Class 1) provide for bicycle travel on a paved right-of-way that is completely separated from the street. Bicycle paths are often located along waterfronts, creeks, railroad rights-of-way (active or abandoned), or freeways where there are a limited number of cross streets and driveways that create conflict points. They are typically shared with pedestrians and often called mixed-use paths.
  • Bicycle Lanes (Class 2) are striped lanes on streets, designated with specific signage and stencils, for the use of bicyclists. Bicycle lanes are the preferred treatment for all arterial and collector streets on the bikeway network. Bicycle lanes should not be installed on low-volume, low-speed residential streets where, because of driveways, bicyclists are safer riding in the middle of the travel lane.
  • Bicycle Routes (Class 3) designate preferred streets for bicycle travel using lanes shared with motor vehicles. While the only required treatment is signage, bicycle routes are designated because they are suitable for sharing with motor vehicles and provide better connectivity than other streets.

The following three bikeway types are variations on the standard bicycle route and provide tools for addressing the following issues that are commonly found in Oakland: (1) limited right-of-way width may preclude adding bicycle lanes; (2) parallel streets may not provide an alternative bikeway alignment; (3) bicycle lanes may not be feasible due to diagonal parking; and (4) neighborhood streets may provide good bicycle connections and could be marked as bikeways.

  • Arterial Bicycle Routes (Class 3A): Bicycle routes may be used on some arterial streets where bicycle lanes are not feasible and parallel streets do not provide adequate connectivity. These streets should promote shared use with lower posted speed limits (preferably 25mph), shared lane bicycle stencils (aka “sharrows”), wide curb lanes, and signage.
  • Bicycle Boulevards (Class 3B): Bicycle boulevards are bicycle routes on residential streets that prioritize through trips for bicyclists. The route should appeal to cyclists of varied skill levels by providing direct connections on streets with low traffic volumes. The route should reduce delay to bicyclists by assigning right-of-way to travel on the route. Traffic calming should be introduced as needed to discourage drivers from using the boulevard as a through route. Intersections with major streets should be controlled by traffic signals with bicycle actuation. Oakland’s Bicycle Boulevards will be marked with shared lane bicycle stencils (aka “sharrows”) and signage.
  • Neighborhood Connectors: While most of the designated bikeways provide connections between neighborhoods, there are numerous streets that currently provide good connections within neighborhoods. These streets could be mapped to improve their public visibility without installing the standard bicycle route signage. This map-only designation would provide community benefit through identified routes while allowing the City to focus physical improvements on the other bikeway types that provide the key links in the bikeway network.

What is a sharrow? In September 2005, Caltrans approved a new pavement marking to indicate shared use lanes. The new "sharrow" (pictured right) has been used on 20th St (San Pablo Ave-Telegraph Ave), Foothill Blvd (36th-41st Aves), MacArthur Blvd (Lakeshore Ave-Park Blvd), Market St/61st St (57th St-Occidental), and W Grand Ave (Telegraph Ave-Webster St). The City will install sharrows where bike lanes are not feasible and where a Class 3 route is not adequate as defined by the Bicycle Master Plan. For more information about sharrows, read the Sharrow FAQ flyer (.pdf).

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Oakland Design Guidelines for Bicycle Wayfinding Signage

bikeway confirmation guide signIn July 2009, Oakland adopted a new system for bicycle wayfinding signage. The system was developed by staff in the Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities Program and reviewed over a four-month period by the community and staff from other agencies. The signage is based on the standard green bike route sign, with a little bit of an Oakland twist (see image). The numbered bike route signs will no longer be installed.

Download (all .pdf format):

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Proposed Bikeway Network

Map of the draft proposed bikeway network (2007 Bicycle Master Plan)

For more information about the Proposed Bikeway Network, see the Bicycle Master Plan page.

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San Francisco Bay Trail in Oakland

As of February 2008, approximately 19 miles of the 33 miles of the planned Bay Trail in Oakland have been completed. Completed Bay Trail facilities are reflected on the Existing Bikeway Network map above, as well as on the Walk Oakland! Map and Guide and maps produced by the SF Bay Trail Project. Region-wide, approximately 290 miles of a 500-mile system have been completed. Bay Trail staff estimate that it will take 15 years to complete the system.

City staff regularly seeks and receives grant funding to complete the Bay Trail in Oakland. For more information about the Bay Trail system, go to http://baytrail.abag.ca.gov/.

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    This page was last updated or reviewed on: Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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