Title
Public Hearing to Consider Adoption of Resolution Approving the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project Final Concept and Adoption of Environmental Findings. (Planning, Building and Transportation 91815)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Central Avenue corridor between the Main Street/Pacific Avenue intersection in west Alameda and the Encinal Avenue/Sherman Street intersection in central Alameda is a high injury corridor. Despite the 25-mile per hour speed limit, average speeds on this 1.7-mile corridor are over 30 miles an hour. Over a five-year period, prior to the pandemic, 63 collisions occurred on this public roadway that is a main thoroughfare for over 4,000 students who attend at least 10 schools in the project vicinity and for people bicycling to the ferry terminal, Alameda Point, Webster Street area and along the San Francisco Bay Trail. Twenty nine of these collisions resulted in injuries. Six collisions were between automobiles and pedestrians, and five were between automobiles and bicyclists.
In accordance with City Council direction, City of Alameda (City) staff has been working with the community, a team of nationally respected design and safety consultants, and Caltrans for eight years to develop a plan to improve the safety of the Central Avenue corridor for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and automobile drivers. As a result of this collaborative work, staff is now recommending a redesign of the street that is projected to reduce the number of collisions by almost 35 percent on the corridor. The proposed reconfiguration will reduce speeding while also reducing travel time for automobiles and buses, due to the improved design of the public right-of-way, including the intersections. At this time, staff is recommending that the City Council approve the final concept, and direct staff to complete the design work, which would allow construction to begin in 2022. ...
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