Roadway changes supporting outdoor dining and retail being expanded
Published on March 31, 2021
On Thursday, April 1 and Friday, April 2, the City is restriping Park Street from Encinal Avenue to Clinton Street, extending existing Park Street roadway changes to the south. The re-striping work will start at 8:00pm on Thursday and end early Friday morning, and may cause some noise. While there will be no parking allowed along this segment of Park Street from 10:00 pm to 3:00 am, there should be little to no disruptions during the day.
Between Encinal and San Jose, the street will be restriped similar to the section to the north, with space for outdoor dining and retail added along the western curb, 2-lanes instead of 4-lanes, parking, and a left turn pocket at San Jose. Between San Jose and Clinton, the street will transition to match the 2-lanes with one center turn lane further south on Park Street.
This new re-striping will create additional opportunities for Alameda’s small businesses and improve safety by reducing pedestrian crossing distances, creating painted bulbouts, and slowing speeds. Unsafe speeds are one of the top two causes of severe and fatal traffic collisions in Alameda.
In addition, the City will add additional bollards and flex-posts to better demarcate the parklet areas and the no parking zones on both Park and Webster Streets. This work is expected to be completed on Friday, April 2. The City will also upgrade the parking signage, making it clearer where parking is restricted to 15 minutes for pick-up and drop-off only, in support of restaurants and retail establishments offering to-go or pick up options.
Bicycle parking will also be installed in select former parking spaces on Park and Webster Streets within the next eight weeks. All bus stops will continue to remain in place.
BACKGROUND
Last March, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Alameda restaurants and many businesses. In July and August 2020, the City, in partnership with the business community, implemented a “quick build” project that created more space for people to shop and dine while physically-distanced along Park and Webster Streets. This Commercial Streets program added a curbside area for outdoor dining and retail by reducing the core segments of these streets from four to two travel lanes. With these changes, many businesses have been able to remain open through these challenging times.
Since Park and Webster Streets were restriped in 2020, over 25 parklets have been established on these two streets, with more being planned. A short segment of Alameda Avenue off of Park Street was also closed to traffic to allow for physically-distanced dining, as the request of the business district.
Last October, the City Council approved extending this pilot program through October 2021, at the request of the business community and in acknowledgement of the continuing pandemic-related restrictions. In May and June, the City will evaluate the overall program and solicit input from the community. In September, staff will bring a recommendation to the City Council on how the streets should function in the future.
This project is funded with local and grant Measure B and BB transportation sales tax dollars (www.alamedaCTC.org).
Read more about the Commercial Streets program and look for surveys in the future here: www.alamedaca.gov/commercialstreets.