San Leandro BPAC Meeting - May 16, 2025: Pedestrian Safety, Bay Fair CBTP, and Bike Lane Projects
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San Leandro BPAC Meeting – May 16, 2025
The San Leandro Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) met on May 16, 2025, at 6:00 PM to discuss pedestrian safety programs, the Bay Fair Community Based Transportation Plan, and several bike lane infrastructure projects. The meeting included public comments, presentations, and commission discussions. Key actions included appointing two commissioners to a steering committee and reviewing complete streets checklists for two projects.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jeremy Johansson (former District One B PAC representative) provided an update on a countywide pedestrian plan update. He announced that planning for the pedestrian plan update is beginning and will take about 18 months, with community outreach to come.
Discussion Items
3A: Community and Pedestrian Bicycle Safety Training Program (Age-Friendly Plan)
- Pedro Bedroanco, San Leandro Human Services Manager, and Mike King of Pear Street Consulting presented on the city’s first Age-Friendly Plan, adopted by City Council on July 15, 2024. The plan was developed through extensive community engagement (700 survey respondents, 100 focus group participants, 53 website inputs). Six priorities were identified; “personal protection” includes senior pedestrian safety.
- A joint program with California Walks and UC Berkeley SafeTREC has been launched. Two sites for walk assessments were selected: Washington Avenue between Lewelling and Spring Lake Drive, and from the Surlee Grant Room down East 14th to Broadmoor (near the Vietnamese American Community Center). The assessments will take place tomorrow (May 17, 2025). A final community workshop is planned for early June 2025. BPAC members were invited to participate.
- Commissioner questions addressed road diet potential, sidewalk conditions, and coordination with county plans. Presenters noted the program aims to build capacity and prioritize senior pedestrian improvements.
3B: Bay Fair Community Based Transportation Plan (CBTP)
- Avalon Schultz, Assistant Community Development Director, presented the CBTP, a grant-funded effort focusing on the rights-of-way near Bay Fair BART. The plan will include multimodal improvements, identified via community outreach, and will be adopted by both the City and Alameda County. A steering committee will guide outreach. BPAC was asked to appoint one member.
- After discussion about meeting times (day vs. evening), two commissioners volunteered: one if meetings are in the evening, the other if daytime. The commission agreed to both. A third commissioner offered as a fallback. The committee will hold four virtual meetings and one site visit beginning in May 2025.
3C: MacArthur Roundabout Complete Streets Checklist
- Anna Fitroy, engineer and project manager, presented the MTC Complete Streets Checklist for the MacArthur Roundabout project (near I-580 on-ramp and Foothill Boulevard). The roundabout is designed to slow traffic and reduce collisions, with protected crosswalks and class IV bike lanes. One approach (Foothill southbound) has a gap in protected bike lanes due to right-of-way constraints.
- Commissioners requested that a green pavement marking or other visual cue be added at the Foothill approach where cyclists merge into traffic. Commissioner also noted the lack of sidewalks on one side of Foothill and expressed interest in future protected bike lanes on MacArthur to Dutton. The checklist was reviewed; no formal vote was taken.
3D: Hisperian Boulevard Bike Lane Gap Closure Complete Streets Checklist
- Robin Chi presented the checklist for the gap closure project on Hisperian Boulevard from East 14th Street to Bay Fair Drive. The project proposes class IV bike lanes, a road diet, pedestrian crossing improvements, and bus stop modifications. The design is highly conceptual; a traffic feasibility study is underway to address queuing at the Hisperian triangle.
- Commissioners commented on the importance of connectivity with the East Bay Greenway and Fairmont bike lanes. Questions were raised about right-of-way constraints near the railroad and about landscaping to improve the streetscape. The checklist was reviewed.
3E: Fairway Drive Traffic Calming (Separated Bike Lane)
- Robin Chi provided a 65% design update for a separated bike lane on Fairway Drive from Doolittle Drive to Nicholson Street. The design includes a 4-foot buffer, in-lane bus stop coordination, and parking removal on a residential segment. Coordination with Union Pacific and CPUC is ongoing for the grade crossing. The project is a truck route with a 30 mph speed limit.
- Commissioners expressed support for the project, noting it is a popular bike route. One commissioner raised the issue of a gap in protected bike lanes between the driving range and Doolittle, but acknowledged that area is part of the Shoreline redevelopment plan.
Key Outcomes
- Appointed Two Commissioners to Bay Fair CBTP Steering Committee: One volunteer for evening meetings, one for daytime meetings (conditional on final meeting times). A fallback was also identified.
- Reviewed Complete Streets Checklists: BPAC reviewed checklists for the MacArthur Roundabout and Hisperian bike lane gap closure projects, providing feedback on design details (e.g., bike lane markings, pedestrian access).
- Fairway Drive Project Update Received: No formal action, but the commission endorsed the design direction.
- Commissioner noted ongoing issue of cars parking in protected bike lanes on Farallon Drive, and encouraged use of SeeClickFix to report enforcement concerns.
- Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:37 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Okay, now we are checking public comments. This is the time when any person may address the question we matters not listed on the agenda. Okay. Sarah, if I can say word. Yes. So Jeremy Johansson, who used to represent District One on B Pack? Cool. Thanks. So hello everyone. And yeah, mainly I wanted to just give a a quick little update from the countywide B Pack. We had our meeting last week. And the one interesting item of importance is the planning for the pedestrian plan update is beginning, and that will basically uh take over about a year and a half for completion. So in the next year, there's going to be outreach. Stay tuned for that because we want to have the community involvement from this area to give input on the pedestrian plan. Thank you. Thanks, Jeremy. Any other public comments? No. So let's move on to number three. A we were going to hear from Mike King from Pear Street Consulting, who will present the community and pedestrian bicycle safety training program. Hello. I'm not Mike. This is Mike, I would just like in a second, but I want to push ahead and provide some context if it's okay. So first of all, thank you for uh inviting us to uh meet with you and to tell you a little bit about uh our age-friendly work. Uh my name is Bedroanco and I serve as the city's human services manager here with the the city of San Diego. Uh and with me today is Mike King who will introduce himself uh in a little bit. Um I want to provide some context regarding the project that he's gonna be telling you uh about shortly. Um so I'm excited to share that last July 15th, 2024, our city council adopted the city's first ever a-friendly plan. Okay. Great. Show of hands, huh? Who is ever who here has ever heard of an H-friendly plan? I yeah? Yeah, I I think I might have even read it. That's actually great news because most of the time we talk to people and they say, what is that? Um I honestly did not know about it until probably just about two and a half years ago when I started working on this project. Um so I've learned that it's um it's actually one of AARP's primary initiatives, uh, and with the idea of understanding and addressing the needs of older adults through this lens, right? Of if our communities are better for older adults, they're really better for everyone, right? Um so we embark on the journey uh I would say um back in 2018, spearheaded through our senior circle, uh our senior commission, uh, who has been a major driver for us. So I always kind of started with the question of why, like why do we need an age-friendly plan in San Diego? And one of the first answers that comes up for me is I feel like it's the right thing to do, right? For a for a community to be able to take care of its elders of its older adults, it's it's a it's the right thing to do. Um second thing it's a smart thing to do because um it's you know given the financial situation that we many of our cities in are in right now in our communities. I think it's smart to have a plan that provides some guidance and and a direction um so that we can go out and identify funding to support this work. Also with the plan, we're not all over the place, right? We have some direction and guidance, and therefore we can have more impact. Um then lastly I would say that um we in San Diego as well as really across the nation are experiencing a demographic shift. Um just in the United States, you know, there's approximately 45 million Americans that are over the age of 65, and we project that by 2030 the number's gonna go grow up to 73 million people. Okay.
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