Berkeley's Claremont Avenue: Quick fix now, more work later
Share input about Claremont Avenue at a community meeting Oct. 23. Councilman Mark Humbert is also circulating an informal survey.
Plans are moving forward to bolster traffic safety on Claremont Avenue in Berkeley after a fatal crash in July.
In recent weeks, Babak Dorji, who oversees Berkeley's Vision Zero program, described the Claremont Avenue "quick-build" project to officials at a meeting focused on street and infrastructure improvements.
Claremont Avenue is one of Berkeley's high-injury streets in addition to being an evacuation route and transit corridor.
Average daily traffic was recently measured at 9,600 vehicles, with around 5,300 northbound and 4,300 heading south, Dorji said.
Traffic counts found more than 500 northbound drivers on Claremont Avenue during peak travel times and nearly 350 heading south.
To improve safety on the roadway, the city has come up with "a package of quick-build" upgrades, Dorji said: adding "high-visibility markings with shark teeth yield lines" to crosswalks, daylighting intersections by painting curbs red, "hardening" the center line with a new concrete barrier, and extending some of the curbs and medians into the roadway to slow down drivers making turns.
On Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. the Uplands Claremont Area Neighbors group will hold a meeting about street safety on Claremont Avenue. The event will take place in the John Muir Elementary auditorium. Public Works staff will be there.
Councilman Mark Humbert, who will also attend the meeting, is circulating an informal survey to collect input about Claremont Avenue.
City plans also include improved signals and signage, clearing overgrown vegetation and adding a green bike lane at Russell Street, one of Berkeley's bike boulevards.
As part of a separate project, the city is already working to add a flashing beacon at Claremont Avenue and Eton Court, the city said.
Public Works is now wrapping up engineering work on the Claremont Avenue quick-build project and will meet with police, fire and AC Transit to get their input.
The city will also notify nearby neighbors about plans, Dorji said.
"It's going to be an informational process, since these are minor safety upgrades rather than major reconfigurations," he added.
Early cost estimates range from $900,000 to $1.3 million "based on my 2-in-the-morning number crunch," said Wahid Amiri, Berkeley's deputy director of Public Works.
That could change as plans firm up, he told officials: "We'll see where it goes."
The city expects to complete construction on the Claremont Avenue quick-build project by spring, staff said.
Emilie Raguso
Councilman Mark Humbert, who represents the Claremont-Elmwood district, said he looked forward to the Russell Street bike crossing and urged staff to take a closer look at speed data throughout the corridor, particularly during less busy times when drivers go faster.
Humbert also noted that, anecdotally, much of the traffic on Claremont Avenue seems to be from cut-through drivers trying to avoid freeway backups on their way from San Francisco to points east.
"I know that this happens because, when I lived in San Francisco, that's what I would do when I was heading for Walnut Creek," he said.
"I'm not convinced we really need to accommodate this cut-through traffic," he continued. "I don't want to welcome them onto our streets."
Amiri said that would require the city to do an origin and destination study, which would likely add to the scope of the work and take more time. But he said it's something that could potentially happen later.
"The focus that we have right now is to be able to finish the current study and get the improvements out there as soon as possible," he said.
Humbert said he also thought the city's plan to add a "nose" — or curb extension — on Claremont at The Uplands would be a "significant safety improvement."
The nose, or bulb-out, "promotes a slower and more calculated turn movement," Amiri said.
During the meeting, Humbert — who has been keeping constituents informed by email about his Claremont Avenue traffic safety concerns — also thanked staff for getting the project "designed so quickly."
"It's the beauty of having a good program manager," said Amiri, of Dorji, who came on board with the city in January after an extended vacancy in the role. "He wants to get things out there."
Emilie Raguso
Claremont "quick build" will inform "Complete Streets"
Berkeley's latest paving plan sets Claremont Avenue for resurfacing in 2027.
But the time and money allotted for that project to date covers only repaving.
After July's fatal crash, community members stressed the need for a comprehensive plan that takes into account pedestrian and bike safety.
Public Works officials have said they can’t rush a larger process on Claremont Avenue or other big projects.
That's partially due to budget constraints. But Measure FF, Berkeley's "Safe Streets" initiative, approved last year by voters, is expected to help.
Emilie Raguso
To comply with the city’s "Complete Streets" policy adopted in 2012, which aims to make streets safe for all users, the department said it will need to assess Claremont’s current condition over the next year to design the new safety features the public and advocates say they want.
Some of the design work falls under the city’s 2017 bike plan, which will speed up the process, but projects with Measure FF funding will also need council approval.
In mid-September, staff said the quick-build elements on Claremont Avenue would help inform what happens next with the "Complete Streets" curb-to-curb overhaul.
"That's the goal," Amiri said. "Whether we're doing intersection improvements, realignments, whatever it is, we want to go back and see what worked, what didn't work, and actually do some data analysis to better ourselves during the next round and have more information."
Current estimates put Complete Streets project costs on Claremont Avenue at $8 million to $10 million, he said, "depending on what type of treatment" the roadway gets.
Staff noted that the biggest challenge would be green infrastructure: State rules require jurisdictions to include stormwater runoff treatments when an acre or more of pavement is reconstructed.
"We know that it's gonna be tougher and tougher to find the real estate to put all the components … to meet our requirements from the regulators," Amiri said.
Serious and fatal crashes this year in Berkeley
Not counting freeway collisions, Berkeley has had more than 36 serious or fatal crashes this year, through Sept. 10, according to the most recent traffic data from Berkeley police.
Eleven of those crashes involved pedestrians — three of whom were killed.
In January, Elise Lusk died after a driver struck her near Monterey Market.
In July, Roderick Nared died after a driver struck him on Claremont Avenue.
In August, Dinh Le died after a driver struck him by Willard Park.
From left: serious crashes (orange markers) and fatal crashes (red markers) involving pedestrians; those involving bikes and e-bikes; and those involving electric scooters. Purple lines show Berkeley's "high-injury" streets. BPD Transparency Hub
Eight of the crashes involved cyclists, including electric bikes. Four of those were solo collisions.
Five of the crashes involved electric scooters. Three of those were solo collisions.
One was a solo motorcycle crash and the rest involved only vehicles, including several solo crashes.
Nine of the collisions (25%) cited unsafe speed as the primary collision factor while eight (22%) cited pedestrian-related violations.
Five of them (including three of the pedestrian collisions) involved hit-and-run drivers.
Twenty-four of the collisions (67%) listed the driver at fault while six (17%) listed the cyclist at fault. Worth noting: These determinations include solo collisions and do not break them out from the others.
In five of the incidents (14%), police found pedestrians at fault.
Liz Fox
How does this compare to 2024?
Last year, there had been 48 serious crashes over the same period and one that was fatal.
Thirteen of the collisions involved pedestrians — one of whom, Julia Elkin, was killed.
Nineteen involved bikes or e-bikes, six of which were solo.
Five involved electric scooters, one of which was solo.
Three (one solo) involved motorcycles.
Twelve of the collisions (25%) cited unsafe speed as the primary collision factor while another 12 cited pedestrian-related violations.
Thirty-three of the collisions (67%) listed the driver at fault while nine (18%) listed the cyclist at fault. (Again, this includes solo crashes.)
In three of the incidents (6%), police found the pedestrian at fault.
Scanner contributor Liz Fox provided reporting on Complete Streets to this story.
