Repaving San Pablo Ave. without traffic calming is a huge mistake
By Stuart Sonatina
I think repaving San Pablo Avenue without any significant changes is a huge mistake. El Cerrito/Richmond Walk & Roll is launching a campaign to get Caltrans to change their plans, and here’s why and how.
This is a summary of the Dec. 2nd El Cerrito city council meeting, agenda item E.
Haleh Hakimi is the senior project manager for Caltrans.
This is a $14 million pavement project just for the 2-mile El Cerrito section – San Pablo Avenue from Cutting to Cerrito Creek.
It is part of SHOPP (State Highway Operation and Protection Program), applying Caltrans’s Preventative Maintenance (CAPM) strategy.
The City of El Cerrito will provide up to $400,000 for curb and gutter, sidewalk and street trees, road safety and Complete Streets features, including two new flashing beacons at Sacramento and Carlos avenues, high visibility markings, and safety lighting.
Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2026 and lasts a year.
El Cerrito owns the sidewalks on San Pablo Avenue; Caltrans is responsible for the roadway.
CAPM strategy does not include road geometry changes.
Hakimi says Caltrans cannot spend money on narrowing lanes, narrowing the median for bike lanes, etc.
Caltrans is spending this money to smooth the street out without making substantial changes to how it is designed. The lines will go back exactly to how they are now. With repaving, cars will go faster, creating an even more hostile environment. Businesses that rely on pedestrian traffic like the theater, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and shops will not benefit, along with the residents who live nearby, or cross frequently.
Plans for traffic calming in El Cerrito’s San Pablo Avenue specific plan (p. 339).
This is despite the fact that a third of the El Cerrito San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan is dedicated to Complete Streets. The Caltrans Bay Area Bike Plan (project CC-123-C01) specifically calls out a class IV bike lane as a Contra Costa County “Top Tier Project Highlight.” Citizens, city councils, planners, and staff have been hyping up how great they're going to make San Pablo Avenue for literally decades, and Caltrans is about to cast the old design in stone again.
Caltrans plans to spend $14 million to completely revamp two miles of San Pablo Avenue without incorporating changes that slow personal vehicles and speed up buses. With the passing of SB960 in 2024, the Complete Streets law, California voters have made it clear that we want more bike/pedestrian/transit facilities, not faster cars in our business districts. San Pablo Avenue is being treated as an extension of the eight-lane highway 500 feet to the west; if cars want to go fast, they can use I-80.
I think this is our opportunity to get a bus or bike lane on San Pablo Avenue, including traffic calming measures such as narrower travel lanes, more-frequent pedestrian refuges and bump-outs that also slow down traffic, a 25 mph speed limit, enforcement of speeding and red-light running, pedestrian scrambles, no rights-on-red. There are so many things that can be done that we should be doing. I'm not talking about spending a single dollar more than is already planned to be spent. I'm talking about using all the available traffic calming tools to speed up buses and make El Cerrito's worst street its best.
Adding a Class IV bikeway on San Pablo Avenue is as a Top-Tier project in the Caltrans Bay Area Bike Plan, updated in 2025.