Guest Column: John Fricke on Emeryville's New Bike/Ped Bridge

The Long and Winding Road to the Bay Street Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge

by John Fricke

Guest Columnist

The pedestrian/bicycle bridge to Bay Street shopping mall will open December 3rd, this Friday evening.  It's been a long time coming.  Formally proposed in Emeryville’s 1993 General Plan, the bridge idea languished until 2002 when the City paid an engineering firm to produce a rough design, which began for me a yearlong effort to torpedo the flawed design, and promote a more functional design.  

By 2003, I had become very familiar with Emeryville’s streets and sidewalks while behind the wheel of a double stroller occupied by my twin daughters.  

Nina Criswell & Lane Fricke
in the Emeryville City
Council chambers

Then (as now), Emeryville city government prioritized the car over pedestrian and bicycle access.  On a typical walk from my house with Lane and Nina in the stroller, we would risk life and limb crossing San Pablo Avenue (or wait an interminable period of time at a traffic signal).  Various routes north (between the railroad tracks and San Pablo) were pleasant enough.  But I heard rumors that there was a place not far to the west with a gorgeous mile-long path along the water.  One need only traverse railroad tracks, and then a ten-lane freeway.  But how to get there on foot?  

The 40th Street bridge, with its four lanes of speeding vehicle traffic, was not the best environment for facilitating a nap.  In 1997, the Emeryville city government had produced at the train station a pedestrian bridge with elevator and stairs, but no ramp. 

 

Prison watch towers in Emeryville?

Setting aside for the moment the neo-prison-watch-tower design and the placing of the elevator doors out of view from the street, the functionality for someone with a stroller (or wheelchair) depended on the whim of the elevator vandals, and the swiftness of the City to repair the broken elevator.  (Suffice it to say that Emeryville city government appears unfamiliar with the US postal service motto.)  Quite a number of times, Nina, Lane, and I would hold our noses going up the elevator on one side, only to be left waiting at the altar for the down elevator to arrive at the other end of the bridge.

Apparently, the folks in Berkeley responsible for designing the I-80 ped-bike bridge took note of the folly of the elevator/stairs design in Emeryville.  Their bridge design was all ramp, no moving parts.  In 2002, five years after Emeryville cut the ribbon at the prison watch tower, the Berkeley bridge over I-80 opened to critical acclaim.  

Berkeley I-80 ped/bike bridge

So what did we, pedestrians and stroller passengers in Emeryville, receive a year later from the high-priced engineers that the City hired to design a second bridge across the RR tracks?  Gentle reader, you can see where this is going.  Incredibly, the city manager was so pleased with the engineers’ elevator-stairs bridge design that he asked the firm to produce a large 3-D physical model of the bridge.  

In Hans Christian Andersen’s folktale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, one small child’s revelation is quickly embraced by the crowd, but the emperor will not acknowledge his error.  He walks more proudly than ever.  So, too, in Emeryville.  At the first City Council meeting on the elevator-stairs bridge design, I stated the obvious flaws in its design, and suggested that the design should model Berkeley’s bridge of gradual, open ramps.  Could we learn from Berkeley’s success?  ‘No’, came the answer from city government.  At the next City Council meeting, the city manager presented an alternate design which eliminated the elevators, but added narrow, steep, stacked ramps with sharp turns, and blind spots.  

2003 City commissioned design by Mark Thomas & Co

I realized that to kill this bad idea would take more than stating the obvious.  I looked up the federal regulations regarding spanning railroad tracks and then went to the Bay Street mall with my 100-foot tape measure.  Lo and behold, it would be possible to replicate the Berkeley Bridge ramps’ five-percent slope with a there-and-back ramp configuration (between mall parking garage and RR tracks), while still providing a generous open-ramp width of ten feet.  On the east side, there was plenty of room for a straight-shot ramp to the bridge span.  I produced very rough sketches of an open, gradual, wide ramp design.

In talking up the alternate design with neighbors, it soon became obvious that my hard-to-read sketches weren’t telling a thousand words.  I needed help.

        .                                  .                                 .  

Look! Up in the sky!  Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  No, it’s Philip Rostonovitch!  

From: Philip Rostonovich Sent: Wednesday, Jun 4, 2003 10:41 AM PDT To: John Fricke Subject: question about Pedestrian bridge designs

Hello John,

My name is Philip.  I'm on the Triangle Neighborhood mailing list.  

You've probably seen me around the neighborhood - big guy, long hair, beard, backpack.

Anyway, long intro short: I'm aware of the recent proceedings about the 

proposed pedestrian bridge, but I'm unsure of its current status.  My reason 

for asking is that I have some new free time (recently laid off), and I 

might be able to contribute some 3D computer graphic renderings.

Perhaps my skills can be applied in some helpful way to this or future endeavours.

Thanks for your time, John.  Let me know if I can still be of help.

Sincerely,

Philip Rostonovich

Philip and I went to the site to take photos, and then Philip worked his magic:

These renderings of Philip's told a thousand words.  I met with various groups in Emeryville who endorsed this alternative.  I kept adding neighbors to my email distribution list.  

At the next City Council meeting, several neighbors and I spoke up in favor of the gradual ramp design.  But the emperor kept parading around in his new clothes.  Years later, I was told by someone in the room where it happened that the city manager instructed his city staff members to see to it that my design be undermined.  I was invited to a meeting at city hall with the city engineer, the chief building inspector, and the city’s building code compliance consultant.  Each in turn raised technical objections to my proposed ramp configuration.  I was not good at sketching, but my law degree came in handy in researching the building code, fire code, and RR regulations.  I refuted each of their objections.  

At several City Council meetings throughout 2003, more neighbors advocated for the open, gradual ramp design.  By December’s meeting, the City Council cried uncle.  The bad design was shelved, for lack of funding.  The emperor took his ball and went home.  

Two years later, I was sworn in as a member of the City Council, having included in my campaign platform a promise to fund livability projects like the bridge, the public park at Doyle and 61st streets (now called the Doyle/Hollis Park) and the bike lanes plus traffic calming measures on Adeline Street.  One year later, the Council voted to fund these projects.  I chaired the design committee that selected the engineering firm and the architect, sponsored community meetings, and eventually approved a detailed design that was finally constructed.  

Despite the design-by-committee aphorism, the bridge survived the design process.  My fellow committee members were a pleasure to work with -- they deserve credit:  Ken Bukowksi, Charles Debbas, Brian Donahue, Joseph Mudd (Novartis representative), Tim Doran (Novartis representative who replaced Joseph on the committee), John Scheuerman, Ann Weber, and Cedric Young (Bay Street mall representative).  The city staff member assigned to the committee, Ignacio Dayrit, was excellent.  Lastly, the chief engineer, Mahvash Harms, and the architect, Rick Phillips, were outstanding.  They produced a great bridge.

When I was elected to the City Council on a campaign platform of improving access for pedestrians, bicycles, and public transit riders, I proposed a number of other public works projects to make it easier for future parents with strollers to safely and comfortably walk to the Emeryville Marina from any Emeryville neighborhood.  These proposals included two bridge spans across I-80:  one at Temescal Creek, and another just south of Ashby Avenue.  The Temescal Creek bridge would complement the Bay Street bridge.  (Without a Temescal creek bridge across I-80, pedestrians heading west are still relegated to negotiating the Powell Street freeway interchange to get to the marina.)  For the proposed bridge near Ashby, an additional design committee was formed and held meetings.  When the City Council chose not to fund further design work (over my dissenting vote), the committee was disbanded.  

My daughters are now seniors in college.  I look forward to crossing the new span with them and their brother, Dean, and not having to hold our noses in an elevator.  Maybe someday, we will make it all the way to the Emeryville marina on foot without stepping into the Powell Street vehicle vortex.  

John Fricke is a longtime Emeryville resident, father of three, husband, lawyer, former Chairman of the South Bayfront Bike/Ped Bridge Committee as well as a former member of the Emeryville City Council.