This project aims to update Fernside Boulevard from Tilden Way to San Jose Ave, aiming to reduce auto speeds and increase safety and mobility for all road users, as well as develop design concepts to implement Active Transportation Plan bikeways. It has also developed a near-term striping update for Fernside from Tilden Way to High St that can be implemented with pavement resurfacing planned for 2026.
March 2025 Update
After over a year of work, two phases of outreach and analysis, and an additional phase of public hearings, on March 18, 2025, the City Council approved the design concepts described below.
Near-Term Design Concept: Quick-Build Pedestrian Median Islands with Buffered Bike Lanes
The project will improve safety in the near term on Fernside Blvd from Tilden Way to High St in 2026, as part of a planned pavement maintenance project for this roadway segment. This interim design features the following:
- Traffic calming: Reduces speeds and illegal passing with the removal of the center turn lane west of High St, narrower travel lanes, and median islands. However, buffered bike lanes would not prevent drivers from using the bike lane for illegal passing maneuvers.
- Pedestrian safety: Shortens crossing distances with quick-build median islands and curb extensions, and new marked crosswalks improve yielding.
- Bikeways: Continues the painted buffered bike lanes currently east of High St, with vertical hardening in the buffer at some intersections. Opportunities to harden the bike lane are limited due to the number of driveways.
- Driveway access: Two motor vehicle lanes (one in each direction). Driveway access will be similar to the current experience.
- On-street parking: Retains curbside parking on both sides of the street with about 24% parking removal for daylighting and pedestrian medians (peak parking occupancy is less than 50%).
- Accessibility: Bus stop and visitor loading accessibility would largely be unchanged.
- High St/Gibbons Dr: No traffic flow changes due to the need for further study, but near-term design may include a larger paint-and-post bulbout to slow auto movements.
Near-term design concept (quick-build pedestrian median islands not shown in the photo rendering)
Long-Term Design Concept: Pedestrian Median Islands with Two-Way Protected Bikeway
This concept applies to the full corridor from Tilden Way to San Jose Ave, with an implementation goal of 2030, pending funding. The design concept features the following public safety benefits and improvements:
- Traffic calming: Reduces speeds through narrower travel lanes, new median islands, and curb extensions. A separated bikeway prevents illegal passing in the bike lane.
- Pedestrian safety: Shortens crossing distance with new median islands and curb extensions and adds new marked crosswalks and flashing beacons.
- Bikeways: Creates low-stress, two-way separated bikeway connecting to the Cross Alameda Trail and the Bay Farm Bicycle Bridge. (The preferred design, shown in the concept, is raised to sidewalk level. Pending funding and civil engineering considerations, part of the project may need to be constructed with median-protected bike lanes at the roadway level.)
- Driveway access: Provides two travel lanes (one in each direction) with improved driveway sightlines due to a wider buffer strip.
- On-street parking: Retains curbside parking on both sides of the street with 23% parking space reduction with the raised bikeway option (for daylighting and pedestrian median islands) or 35% parking loss with the median-protected option. (Engineering design guidance for median-protected bikeways requires that cars leave more space before and after a driveway entrance when vehicles parked on-street are ‘floating’ from the sidewalk-adjacent curb.)
- Accessibility: Upgrades bus boarding islands, allows for visitor loading, and will design a new accessible passenger loading zone at the Marina Garden Nursing Center.
- High St/Gibbons Dr Intersection: Pending further analysis, proposes removal of the northeast corner right-turn slip lane and partial traffic limitations between Gibbons Dr and the High St Bridge, creating shorter pedestrian crossings, simpler geometry, and reduced vehicle speeds.
Long-term design concept (pedestrian median islands not shown in the photo rendering)
One-Way vs Two-Way Bikeways
In the long term, a two-way bikeway is recommended instead of one-way bikeways because it:
- Avoids bikeway crossings of 10 side street approaches at three-way intersections.
- Provides bicyclists of different speeds space to pass.
- Connects seamlessly to existing two-way bicycle facilities.
- Removes less parking and limits curbside changes to one side of the roadway.
- Reflects the user experience of other existing San Francisco Bay Trail segments.
- Accommodates a wider buffer between the bikeway and the roadway, which results in a larger area for improvements such as accessible loading zones, bus stop amenities, trash staging locations, landscaping, and space for pedestrians to wait prior to crossing the street and vehicles to wait prior to merging into travel lanes.
- Costs somewhat less to construct than one-way bikeways.