City Decides Behind Closed Doors to Stop Conducting Traffic Counts Meant For Bike Safety

 Bi-Annual Traffic Count for Bike Safety Quietly Ended

Done Without Public Input

City Won't Say Why 

(But Councilman Priforce Knows Why)

Sometime between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2021, government officials at the City of Emeryville secretly met behind closed doors to stop and retract long standing bike safety public policy spelled out in the City’s Bike Plan that counts the number of vehicles using the bike boulevards in town, the Tattler has learned.  City Manager Paul Buddenhagen revealed in a recent email to the Tattler, there was a private meeting or series of meetings between undisclosed City employees at City Hall that took place where the decision to overturn the City’s Bike Plan and stop the bi-annual vehicle counts was made.  The meeting(s) were conducted before Mr Buddenhagen was hired he noted and he said he had no knowledge of of it until recently, regardless that the Tattler inquiry request for information started a year ago.  Mr Buddenhagen did not offer anything more about the meeting(s) but he did say he thinks the traffic counts are unhelpful because bike boulevards are not very good and that he prefers protected bike lanes. 

From Emeryville's Last Official Traffic Count, 2019
Every bike boulevard was unsafe because of too many cars.  It's gotten a
lot worse since then.  The City can't be held to account if it doesn't take account. 
Business owners' concerns take precedence over bike safety.

The counting of vehicles on the bike boulvards is meant to provide a Bike Plan backstop over which a regimen of traffic calming provisions are to be implemented for bike safety, often seen as an inconvenience for vehicle drivers and anathema to businesses. 

The Bike Plan was certified by the City Council in 2012 at a cost of $200,000. However bike boulevards have been ignored by the City since the beginning, as the bi-annual traffic counts show.

Council Member Kalimah Priforce
Traffic data is no longer being collected
because it shows too many cars on the
bike boulevards is "bad data" and is
 "embarrassing" for Emeryville.

Bike boulevards are described as streets where cars are allowed but bikes are preferred.

The surprising email from the City Manager came after a protracted year long Tattler fight to learn why the City’s bike boulevard bi-annual traffic count policy was not being followed anymore.  During that time, nobody at City Hall could or would answer our questions about it.  The last time the bi-annual traffic count was conducted (2019), it showed an excess of traffic on all five Emeryville bike boulevards and consequently, the City is on the hook for providing more traffic calming infrastructure.  Increased traffic calming measures on the bike boulevards have been strenuously objected to by several businesses in town, especially Wareham Development who have offices on the Horton Street Bike Boulevard.  Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham, has been a contributor to many City Council members' re-election campaigns over the years.

Mayor John Bauters
Our bike boulevard network is not a priority,
"I've been doing a lot of other things" he said.

Use of the California Public Records Act has not brought any documents to light, bolstering Mr Buddenhagen’s suggestion that the non public meeting(s) conducted were meant to be secret.

Bike Safety is the stated reason why no bike boulevards should exceed 3000 vehicle trips per day according to Emeryville’s $200,000 Bike Plan.  The City says the 3000 number was incorporated by recommendations from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities.  The Horton Street Bike Boulevard had 4127 vehicle trips per day on it in 2019.  With the Sherwin Williams housing project now nearing completion and over 1000 new renters using Horton Street, that number has likely gone up considerably and bike safety has commensurately suffered.  But because the City has stopped the traffic counting, it remains an unknown quotient. 

Emeryville’s Bike Plan makes it clear that bike safety goes down on bike boulevards as the volume of car traffic goes up. From the Bike Plan:  

Volumes of motor vehicles determine the frequency of passing events; at 1,000 vehicles per day, cars pass a bicyclist approximately every two minutes, while at 3,000 vehicles per day, cars pass a bicyclist every 46 seconds. The rate of automobiles passing a bicyclist indicates the number of potential conflicts and affects the comfort of the bicycling environment.  Bicycle boulevards with volumes higher than 3,000 vehicles per day are not recommended.

The Bike Plan continues,

Counts should be conducted every two years. If a bicycle boulevard goal is not met, the City should consider treatments that will allow the bicycle boulevard to meet goals. If additional treatments are not possible, or if treatments are unlikely to result in conditions that meet the above goals, the City should consider a different type of bicycle facility.

Mayor John Bauters, who regularly likes to display how much he likes bicycling on his X (Twitter) feed, told the Tattler he doesn’t take our bike boulvards very seriously.  After he was informed at a recent public bicycling event, bicyclists are unsafe because of too many cars, he indicated he had other priorities, “I’ve been doing a lot of other things” he said.  He said he didn’t know why the bi-annual traffic counts had been stopped and didn’t express any interest in finding out.  Council member Kalimah Priforce on the other hand was quite forthcoming.  He said the traffic data is embarrassing for the City and that’s why the traffic counting has been stopped.  “Showing too many cars on bike boulevards is bad data for the City” he said.  He added, “It would be embarrassing if we’re telling a narrative that’s different than what the data reveals.”

Mr Buddenhagen for his part refused to say if the City would go back to following the City’s Bike Plan and resume the traffic counting. 

History of Bad Bike Policy Nets the City of Emeryville a Countdown Clock

Introducing:

The 53rd and 45th Street Bike Boulevards 

Countdown Clock

City Council: Be Warned

The policy makers at Emeryville City Hall have a way of forgetting about programs they don’t much care for and insofar as these programs are mandated by the General Plan and have a prescribed implementation timeline therein, the Tattler has always been there to gently remind them.  However, even our rigorous oversight has not been enough to coerce the decision makers to implement the Bike Plan, the part of the General Plan that City Hall historically has had the biggest aversion to.  

Owing to this intolerable situation, the Tattler now introduces the 53rd and 45th Street Bike Boulevards Countdown Clock.  The clock will be located at the bottom of the front page of the Tattler (phone users will have to load the web version to see it).  It will remain until the City places the traffic calming measures on these two streets the Bike Plan mandates.  Alternatively, the City Council could amend the Bike Plan to remove the traffic calming requirements for these two streets and then the Clock would be taken down.

Every Two Years

The 53rd and 45th Street Bike Boulevards Countdown Clock is set to run out to zero on September 14th, 2019 at 5:00 pm, the latest possible time the City has to implement the next required level of traffic calming measures placed on the two streets.  The clock began on September 14th, 2017 after the required official traffic count was completed when the City became aware that there is too much vehicle traffic on the two streets.  The City conducts the traffic counts on every Bike Boulevard every two years as the Plan stipulates and if an “overage” of traffic is found, the City is required to emplace traffic calming measures, after which a new countdown begins.

It is hoped the City Council will look to the Tattler 53rd and 45th Street Bike Boulevard Countdown Clock in place of their staff who has been negligent in reminding them of their duties regarding the Bike Plan.  Since the staff has opined that temporary traffic calming measures need to be emplaced for at least six months before a new traffic count can be considered reliable, the Council is reminded the clock only records the actual time when the measures need to be on the roadways and it doesn’t take into account any internal scheduling policies.  
The City needs to do its due diligence and make sure the clock doesn’t run out without the next traffic calming measures in place on 53rd and 45th Streets.  Additionally, the Clock will not be reset except insofar as duly prescribed Bike Plan traffic calming measures are implemented.  And warning to the elected officials: the Clock will help serve as the people’s accounting device at election time.

Grand Bargain Fails For Horton Street Bike Boulevard

City Hall Reneges on Bike Boulevard Deal

News Analysis
Emeryville's Transportation Committee, made up of two council members, blocked the implementation of traffic calming for the Horton Street Boulevard in January*, negating a requirement of the city's own Bike/Pedestrian Plan and welshing on a side bargain struck between City Hall and the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee.
It's the latest salvo in a multi-year conflict over Horton Street traffic calming proposals between the Bike Committee and City Hall.  Twice before over the years, the Bike Committee unanimously voted to recommend traffic calming measures for Horton Street to increase safety for bicyclists and both times the City Council overruled the Bike Committee. This time the Bike Committee had a much stronger hand; the rule of law with the recent passage of the new Bike Plan and a grand bargain struck with City Hall involving the giving away of bike lanes in trade for implementing the traffic calming.

The blocking maneuver by the Transportation Committee was a clear violation of the requirement, spelled out in the new Bike Plan to move up a chain of increasingly vigorous traffic calming measures meant to reduce traffic volume to below 3000 vehicle trips per day (VTD).  Horton Street is now at 'Level Three' and since the traffic volume keeps increasing, it's time to move to 'Level Four'.  Level Four requires locating traffic calming devises on the street in two strategic locations spelled out in the Plan. The City Council can pick between two options:  'chicanes', a forced weaving of traffic, side to side or 'chokers', a neck down of the street to one lane over a short distance.  The Tattler reported on this requirement last fall.

The Horton Street grand bargain is an agreement the Bike Committee made with the Council last fall to try to force Level Four traffic calming.  The Bike Committee agreed to allow the removal of bike lanes required by the Bike Plan for Horton Street in trade for City Hall not obstructing the Plan's requirement to install the Level Four traffic calming measures.  A sort of extra kick in the pants.

The Background:
Traffic Calming
Horton Street has been a very contentious thoroughfare as it turns out.  Automobile interests have been vying for increased use of Horton, prompting the City Council to widen the street.  One developer in particular, Wareham Development, told the Council that the street should not even have bikes on it at all.
The Bike Committee recognized Horton Street to be the best option for bicyclists traveling north/south through Emeryville and they sought to increase bike safety by getting bike lanes requirements into the previous Bike Plan, as a place of refuge on the increasingly dangerous street.  The City went on to paint most of the required the bike lanes on the street, skipping the area from 45th Street south to the Oakland border.  The Bike Committee also suggested that the City Council install a choker on the street to make it more bike friendly, an option on which the Council voted NO.

The problems arose later when City Hall, under pressure from the Bike Committee declared Horton Street to be a 'Bike Boulevard', or a bicycle preferred street, strongly suggesting that traffic volumes should be lowered.  Again the Bike Committee implored the Council to install a choker on the street but they were rebuffed by the Council.
This was further exacerbated after the Council signed the new Bike Plan into law last fall.  With its program of increasingly rigorous traffic calming levels and its strict time lines to accomplish it, the Bike Plan has ostensibly tied the Council's hands, forcing traffic levels to stay below 3000 VTD.
Of course a law is only relevant if there is political will to enforce it, a fact not lost on Wareham.  With its many buildings on or near Horton Street and its most favored developer status at City Hall, Wareham intervened and told the Council they don't approve of traffic calming past Level Three for Horton Street.

The Grand Bargain
City Hall has been positioning itself to increase vehicle traffic on Horton Street even as the Council voted to implement bike boulevard status for the street and the Bike Plan with its necessity for fewer cars.  There has been much pressure on the south end of Horton Street to maximize the street for cars there.  The City physically widened the street in anticipation of adding another lane of traffic south of Park Avenue, a move not yet made.  The City Manager is trying to create a place holder with the street widening to accommodate the anticipated gush of cars when the Sherwin Williams site gets developed, a position he expressed publicly.
But the most pressure has come to bear on the Bike Committee to give up the required bike lanes on the section of the street north of Park Avenue to 45th Street, to allow for more parking for Peet's Coffee and other businesses there.  Some have postulated that the parking there is temporary, also meant to serve as a place holder to allow an extra travel lane to be added for the future Sherwin Williams project.

Ever since the Bike Committee wrote bike lanes for Horton Street into the first Bike Plan in 1998, the lanes were meant to serve as a bargaining chip to be given away only with assurances for real traffic calming to reduce traffic volumes.  The Committee discussed at length how the most preferable option would be to have no bike lanes, but only if Horton Street had far fewer cars; a condition that could only be had with traffic calming such as a choker or traffic diverter.
Finally, the Bike Committee did relent and gave away the bike lanes on this section of Horton Street and the vote included the provisions that the Bike Plan be obeyed and the proper traffic calming delivered.  The idea is that the bike lanes would go but Horton Street would get Level Four traffic calming.  The elimination of bike lanes on Bicycle Boulevards without traffic calming represents a scam perpetrated by City Hall documented by the Tattler.
The Transportation Committee vote to block Level Four traffic calming in January* is a City Hall welshing of the grand bargain.

* Correction: previously the Tattler reported the Transportation Committee meeting happened last week. Council member and Transportation Committee member Jennifer West instructs us that the meeting where they blocked the traffic calming actually was in January.

Will Emeryville's New Bike Plan Be Ignored?

Major Traffic Calming Long Past Due For Horton Street

Opinion
Emeryville's premiere bicycle thoroughfare, the Horton Street Bike Boulevard, has so much high speed traffic that it has become unsafe for bicycling.  So says Alta Planning, a Berkeley based urban bike network design firm that was commissioned by the City of Emeryville to study bicycling in town.  The $200,000 study, now incorporated into Emeryville's Bicycle/Pedestrian Plan and adopted into law by the city council lays waiting, ready to be implemented.
The question is, will it really be implemented or will it languish in some dusty corner at City Hall as so many other expensive studies have done?  Given the city council's baleful history of failing to calm the traffic on Horton Street for bicycle traffic and working to improve the street for vehicle use at the expense of bicycling, it seems likely it will be ignored and will remain a major automobile thoroughfare, unsafe for bicycles and becoming increasingly more so over time.  


Central to the Alta study is a limit on the number of cars that may use Horton Street, set at 3000 vehicles per day, before a mandatory set of traffic calming procedures kicks in.  The idea is that the traffic calming fixes will lower the number of vehicles that use the bike boulevard down below the 3000 maximum.  It should be noted Emeryville's 3000 number earmarked for bike boulevards is larger than any other city in the Bay Area. 

A choker is an example of a 'neckdown'
called for by level 4 traffic calming.

The prescibed traffic calming comes in a series of increasingly interventionist levels, one through five, that reduces traffic volume and speed, the last such level resulting in a total diversion for through traffic.  Each level requires two years to adequately assess its efficacy.  

At this point, Horton Street has already gone through the first three traffic calming levels; these involve street stenciling, signage and intersection "bulb-outs".  Now, since traffic has not subsided on Horton (it's actually increased), it's time for level 4 traffic calming to be implemented according to the Plan.
Level 4 calls for "significant traffic calming", specifically, 'neck downs' or traffic limiters such as 'chokers', designed to act like a one lane bridge permitting only one car through at a time.

Here's what the Bike Plan calls for on Emeryville's bike boulevards:

Level 1 Basic Bicycle Boulevard- signs, pavement markings

Level 2 Enhanced Bicycle Boulevard- wayfinding signs, reduced delays at intersections

Level 3 Limited Traffic Calming- intersection bulbouts

Level 4 Significant Traffic Calming- neckdowns

Level 5 Traffic Diversion

Level 5 calls for diverters: This
is called out only if level 4 doesn't
work after two years.

The problem is the Bike Committee has already twice voted on significant traffic calming for Horton Street in years past.  Both times the city council has overridden the committee's findings.  The last time the committee voted unanimously to add such calming, councilwoman Nora Davis explained her veto to the committee, "I have no problem putting paint on the asphalt [pavement markings]" but anything more dramatic than that would draw a veto from her and consequently also from the council majority.

In the intervening two and a half years since the last council veto shutting down Horton Street traffic calming, the city has commissioned and now encoded the $200,000 Alta study.

While we acknowledge Ms Davis' forthrightness in explaining to the people why they shouldn't expect safe biking routes in town, we call on the rest of the council to abide by the new Bike Plan they have adopted.  The fact that other such documents have been subverted in the past by the council should not serve as a precedent for inaction on Horton Street.  It's never too late to start working towards livability and rational public policy.  Let's make bicycling safe on the Horton Street Bicycle Boulevard.  It's time for a choker on Horton Street.