Comments on: Lanesplitting

By: Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:01:16 +0000

I used to commute up and down Telegraph every day, and now I commute across West Grand every day. My greatest fear is always parked cars, there are a lot of what I call ‘lurkers’ who park on Telegraph and just … wait. Then, just as a bicycle is approaching they spring into action and throw their door open … to organize their handbag/briefcase/bag-of-bottles/whatever. The traffic is generally pretty considerate of bicyclists but I have to agree with Art: You need to be assertive.

The bottom line is that you’re entitled to a lane if the side of the road isn’t a safe place for you to be (I’d say any time between 3am and midnight is unsafe to be on the side).

By: Robert Raburn

Robert Raburn — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:57:35 +0000

The horror of riding on Telegraph Ave below Aileen St to Downtown Oakland--where the bike lanes end and the potholes begin--cannot be ignored any longer by the City of Oakland. The crowded bike parking during the Temescal Festival last Sunday was testimony to the popularity of bicycling in this area. For bicyclists, direct alternatives to Telegraph Ave between Oakland and Berkeley do not exist. Continuous bike lanes would exist today if a group of Temescal residents and merchants had not mounted a legal challenge in 1999, based on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), to the project that was fully funded by the Air District. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition is pursuing two courses of action to improve bicyclist safety and close this gap in the planned bikeway (see: 2009 Campaigns. We continue to push Oakland to invest federal stimulus funds to repair the minefield of hazardous Telegraph Ave potholes, especially between Aileen and 51st Sts. Secondly transportation advocates are campaigning statewide to amend the Transportation Guideline policy in CEQA that legally protects "congestion management" rather than promoting greater utility of our streets for all users.

By: Oakland North » North Oakland Now 6.04.09

Oakland North » North Oakland Now 6.04.09 — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:50:06 +0000

[...] for Living in the O has pledged to drive less than 20 miles this month. An Oakland North reporter tried bicycle commuting in Oakland earlier this [...]

By: Alexia Underwood

Alexia Underwood — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:05:11 +0000

Art, thanks for the info about sharrows – much appreciated. A, I totally agree about the potholes. I’ll check out the alternative route next time I make a trip downtown.

By: A

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:50:17 +0000

Sorry, should be “a nice bike lane on Broadway”, not Telegraph…

By: A

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:49:45 +0000

Yep, Telegraph between 51st and wherever the numbers stop is a horror show. Some of the largest potholes I’ve ever seen…

Lately my preferred route would be to zigzag through the area between Rockridge BART and Temescal, crossing Claremont and going under the 24 on Forest St., then continuing south on Broadway, avoiding the rest of Telegraph completely. There’s a nice bike lane on Telegraph from MacArthur until Grand or so, and then you’re pretty close to the lake.

By: Art

Art — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:56:34 +0000

Just for the record—those arrows with bikes painted on them on West Grand were *exactly* where you were supposed to be—you just had obnoxious drivers sharing the road with you. They’re called “sharrows” and are used in places where the road isn’t wide enough to accommodate a legal bike lane. They’re supposed to be a cue to both bikers and drivers that bikes will be sharing the lane with cars, but sometimes you have to be assertive about taking the lane to make the cars take notice. Definitely scary for a novice biker, but the more you do it the more you’ll get used to it—and so will the cars on those stretches. They’re still relatively new on West Grand, I think. (That said, I always try to make eye contact with drivers on those stretches to make sure they see me—and aren’t going to be aggressive about it when I take the lane.)