Moving toward a better future for San Pablo Avenue
Caltrans’ repaving project would include safety improvements along San Pablo Avenue
By Steve Price
Caltrans and the City of El Cerrito have a cooperative agreement to do $14 million pavement rehabilitation work on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, called the State Route 123 Pavement Rehabilitation Project. The work was to begin this summer, but Caltrans now wants to delay work until Fiscal Year 2027-2028.
The City of El Cerrito has worked to get safety infrastructure as part of the project, and the need has never been more urgent. Last November, one pedestrian was seriously injured and another killed while attempting to cross San Pablo Avenue in crosswalks, and a few weeks later another pedestrian was killed near San Pablo Avenue on Eastshore Boulevard. Also, on the avenue a car driven by a drunk driver rear-ended a car and then left the roadway, crossed a sidewalk, and hit another car in a liquor store parking lot. The most unsafe street in our area is the biggest one.
If this step to make San Pablo Avenue safer is not to be delayed, we must show our support to the California Transportation Commission, California State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, and California State Senator Jesse Arreguín. (See the contact information below.)
San Pablo Avenue is presently seven lanes for cars: four travel lanes, two parking lanes, and single turn lanes. This project should not be seen as just a maintenance project: Not only are other users (pedestrians and cyclists) unsafe traveling on it but it also is unsafe to walk across. The safety improvements that the city negotiated for as part of the repaving project include: narrower travel lanes (11 feet, from 12 or more), high visibility crosswalks, several rectangular flashing beacons to alert drivers to pedestrians, new safety lighting at intersections, repair of badly damaged sections of sidewalk, and curb and gutter fixes.
Planning for safety
San Pablo Avenue (State Route 123) is a physical barrier to our area’s economic development and the ability of residents of El Cerrito and Richmond Annex to move back and forth between our two communities. It is acting as the proverbial train tracks that divides our area. Because of the numerous T-intersections along its length, this prevents safe travel by means other than by car.
Close to 6,000 people live in the Richmond Annex who want and need to get to destinations in El Cerrito: that includes 2 BART stations, West Contra Costa County schools, preschools, the El Cerrito Plaza Shopping Center with its 75+ businesses, a county library, and the Ohlone Greenway bike path that connects four cities. These are destinations close to where people live, yet because of an unsafe San Pablo Avenue, they feel compelled to drive to destinations that should take minutes to safely walk. In addition, Annex and El Cerrito residents need to safely circulate by walking to retail and services on both sides of the avenue. The street design improvements that the rehabilitation project will implement for slowing cars, improving lighting, and making for safer pedestrian crossing is urgently needed.
The San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan regulating the avenue’s development future calls for it to be a complete street allowing safe use for all: pedestrians, transit riders, bicycle riders, and cars, and Bike East Bay’s Multimodal San Pablo campaign (sign up for updates!) is working toward improvements for the entire 22-mile length of the avenue.
We may wish for an overnight transformation but it will be incremental. Nevertheless, change is happening: the speed limit was reduced to 30 miles per hour, multifamily housing is being built, development rules no longer permit parking lots in front of new buildings, bike racks are on the avenue (although more are needed closer to business entrances), bus service is good, and the El Cerrito del Norte TOD Complete Streets Improvement Project—with protected bike lanes—is nearing completion. We need to maintain pressure to ensure change continues.
Click below to send two emails:
1) California Transportation Commission
2) California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Senator Jesse Arreguin
Be sure to fill in your name and city of residence, and to add your personal comments about safety on San Pablo Avenue.
Or, write directly to:
California Transportation Commission
CTC Executive Director: Tanisha.Taylor@catc.ca.gov
CTC Commissioners: (i.e. Firstname.Lastname@catc.ca.gov)
California State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks
Phone: (510) 286-1400
https://wicks.asmdc.org/email-assemblymember-wicks
California State Senator Jesse Arreguín
Phone: (510) 233-2903
https://sd07.senate.ca.gov/contact