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City News

Proposed I-80 Bike-Pedestrian Bridge Shot Down After Residents Protest

Bil Paul
The Emeryville Connection Staff
May 2007

A plan to study the feasibility of constructing a bicycle and pedestrian bridge across Freeway I-80 has been shot down after Emeryville residents complained about the plan’s need to close a popular freeway onramp. Instead, the city council will conduct a study of locating a similar bridge in the vicinity of the Ashby Avenue and I-80 interchange.

Councilman John Fricke, himself a cyclist, asked for the original study, along with Councilman Ken Bukowski. They wanted to expand upon the possibilities offered by a bicycle-pedestrian bridge across railway tracks (already approved by the city council) which will connect the western end of 53rd Street with Ohlone Way and the Bay Street shopping area. The council has appropriated approximately eight million dollars for this project, being planned by Biggs-Cardoza of San Francisco, an engineering and architectural firm.

Fricke and Bukowski proposed an additional bridge which would cross Freeway I-80 in the vicinity of Temescal Creek. This new bridge would’ve enabled cyclists and pedestrians living or working east of the railroad tracks – and using the planned railroad bridge – to continue onto the second bridge to reach the Bay and the Emeryville peninsula. Conversely, such a bridge would allow peninsula residents to walk or ride to Bay Street and stores such as Trader Joe’s.

Fricke felt the existing I-80 undercrossing at Powell Street wasn’t pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly enough.

Part of the proposed I-80 bicycle-pedestrian bridge idea soon ran into controversy, though. On the western end of the bridge, due to concerns about encroaching upon Temescal Creek and a tidal-flats bird sanctuary, Fricke and Bukowski proposed that an existing I-80 onramp be closed to vehicles and used instead as the western bicycle-pedestrian connection to the bridge. Their expectation was that the other nearby freeway onramp, often referred to as the “J-hook,” would offer sufficient freeway access for peninsula residents.

However, residents of the Watergate apartment complex, usually not considered to be very politically involved, took notice. One resident, Virginia McNeil, broker at All Emeryville Properties, jumped into action, phoning other Watergate residents. Fliers were posted on bulletin boards.

It turns out that the onramp proposed for closure offers a time advantage for those peninsula residents who commute to San Francisco by vehicle. Using that convenient onramp, they avoid having to wait at a traffic light to make a left turn onto the J-hook onramp. Also many residents use a casual carpool system where solo drivers from other areas voluntarily stop to pick them up to qualify to use carpool lanes. Many believe that the success of this carpooling depended on drivers having easy access to the freeway’s far-right-side commute lane.

At a city council study session on February 20, residents showed up en masse to protest the idea of the onramp closure. Joe Lutz announced that the Watergate board of directors had unanimously voted against closure of the onramp, and he threatened recalls if city council members proceeded with the idea. He said that the J-hook onramp already had many accidents and was often congested.

Many commented that a survey councilman Fricke conducted – to see how many drivers used the easy onramp and to gauge residents’ attitudes toward a closure – didn’t actually represent the community as a whole. A representative from the Sierra Club worried that a bicycle-pedestrian path and accompanying lighting at the proposed location could interfere with the shoreline bird population.

Susan Hinchman, a Watergate resident said that having to use the J-hook onramp would add 12 or more minutes to a typical commute to San Francisco.

The Powell Street underpass was frequently mentioned, with many saying it was entirely suitable for bicycle and pedestrian travel, while a few others disagreed. Approximately 30 spoke against the onramp closure, and two for.

Several who spoke at the study session had further comments about the bridge afterwards. Virginia McNeil said that “closing the onramp would serve a very small special interest group … and take away too many necessities for too many people – for example, the casual car pool. It’s been a grass-roots institution for years.” She also estimated that the casual car pools remove as many as 600 car-trips per day off I-80 (when considering morning and evening commutes).

When asked about the feasibility of having a tunnel underneath the freeway, as had been proposed many years ago, she said it would be unsafe, saying, “I would be afraid to use it.”

McNeil generally feels that councilman Fricke’s bicycle-related initiatives are too pushy and don’t reflect what the bulk of Emeryville’s citizens want. “We have to fight against apathy,” she said. “People don’t care unless a proposal touches them personally.”

Legal secretary and Watergate resident Fran Chiappetta, a casual car pool user, says that she doesn’t have a problem with the proposed I-80 bicycle-pedestrian bridge per se, but doesn’t want to see the onramp closed. As it is now, she can arrive at the San Francisco drop-off points in a mere 12 minutes thanks to the casual car pool. If the car pool system wasn’t in place, there are no direct bus links in the Emeryville peninsula area to San Francisco such as AC Transit, she said.

At the council’s study session, Chiappetta received applause for typifying the proposed onramp closing as “ridiculous … frivolous … unconscionable … self-serving (and) unfathomable.”

The Watergate pro-onramp contingent carried the day, as councilman Ken Bukowski quickly reversed his support for the proposed Temescal Creek-area bridge over I-80, and the city council voted to withdraw the $200,000 they had budgeted to study it. Instead, they re-appropriated it to look at a similar bicycle-pedestrian bridge over I-80 at the Ashby Avenue interchange.

Just goes to show - there are certain things Americans consider sacred: mom, hot apple pie, and an easy commute.

Bil Paul is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com.