48% Want On-Street Parking for Somerset Avenue

Will Somerset Avenue become a bicycle-friendly, tree-lined street? Or will parking remain a priority for “car-is-king” California?

At their Monday night General Purpose meeting, the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) heard an update from the Alameda County Public Works Agency (PWA) on the Somerset Avenue Improvement Project.

The stretch of that road between Redwood Road and Stanton Avenue is among the busiest in town, with several schools and churches, as well homes and nearby Eden Hospital bringing in 10,000 cars, bikes, and pedestrians throughout the day.

PWA Director Daniel Woldesenbet says that the county is currently grappling with creating a “multi-modal” plan for Somerset that improves walkability and access for all types of transportation.

“We want to improve bicycle safety,” said Woldesenbet. “We want to improve traffic safety. We want to improve corridor aesthetics.”

The county added that they want to improve drainage and repair pavement as well. Woldesenbet said that proposed improvements include a mix of street trees, high visibility crosswalks, and continuous standardized concrete curbs and gutters.

Woldesenbet said that the trick will be to find a balance—and that dedicated bike lanes would mean reducing parking spaces on the street.

“We live in a world of compromise,” said Woldesenbet. “We all need to strive for a win/win solution. We are trying to get a consensus-based solution. This is a balancing act.”

The PWA has done polling about three proposed alternative plans for the street.

• Alternative 1 would include shared bike/ car lanes and on-street parking on both sides of the street. This iteration would not include bike-only lanes and street trees.

• Alternative 2A would include a bike lane on one side of the street and street parking on the south side of the street. Alternative 2B would switch the parking to the north side and the bike to the south side.

• Alternative 3 would include buffered bike lanes on both sides of the street and no on-street parking on either side of the street.

Woldesenbet told the MAC that 48 percent of those polled at a community meeting in April preferred Alternative 1, which would preserve parking but leave cyclists sharing the road with cars. In all scenarios, there would be sidewalks on both sides of Somerset for pedestrians.

Bicycling advocates speaking during public comment lobbied for a dedicated lane, but the PWA’s data indicated that there simply aren’t that many people cycling on Somerset. 

The PWA counted cyclists on Somerset for a 24-hour period on May 3 and found 40 riding eastbound and 49 riding westbound, with roughly half of those traveling during what seems to be school commuting hours between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

An observation of parking that was also completed in May indicated that demand varied, but if parking spaces were reduced, the demand for the remaining spots would exceed the number of spaces available.

Several commentators—including some young students—called into the meeting to advocate for bike lanes as a safety measure, adding that the number of cyclists would eventually increase once Somerset Avenue is turned into a more bicycle-friendly area. 

Others said that the reality is that more people are driving, so the majority would be benefited from street parking.

“Why would we remove 100 parking spaces to accommodate 40 bicycles?” asked former MAC member Marc Crawford, who spoke during the comments.

The PWA presentation was an informational item only, so the MAC took no vote, but the board agreed with Woldesenbet that the matter is a “balancing act.”

MAC member Chuck Moore said that factors needing consideration include homes with additional dwelling units or with multi-generational families living in one home (meaning they’d have more adults driving and therefore need more parking), kids walking to schools, and more.

MAC Chair Ken Carbone said that he wished Castro Valley could have had a master plan for more bicycle-friendly streets decades ago, but the reality is that Somerset Avenue is a major thoroughfare for cars with dozens of homes, the high school, and other uses nearby.

“I enjoy riding, but I make logical choices about where I ride,” said Carbone. “If we could start over and have a plan, that would be ideal, but we also have to be realistic about our entire community.”

The next steps for the Somerset Avenue Improvement Project include more public outreach, another meeting with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee for feedback, and an internal discussion at the county level. The MAC could potentially be asked to take a vote on the matter at a future meeting.

At Monday’s meeting, the MAC also briefly discussed a return to in-person meetings moving forward, having previously indicated frustration with the Zoom meeting model. The MAC, like other Alameda County municipal bodies, is looking at a hybrid model where some MAC members and the public could choose to meet physically for the meeting and others could teleconference if that is what they are more comfortable with.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is exploring the hybrid method and the MAC said they foresee the practice working its way to their level in the coming weeks.

Finally, the MAC also completed its annual selection of a new Chair, with Carbone stepping down from the position and Bill Mulgrew being unanimously voted in as the new Chair for 2022/2023.