A 1971 study of Berkeley transportation needs including a map of places for bike lanes (not specified whether protected or not). Half-century later Berkeley's come nowhere close to this.
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Berkeley's traffic diverter revolt made a lot of these plans obsolete; traffic is intensely focused on several blvds now. Some visionary ideas like eliminating parking post BART and bike parking in new apts (which ceased to be built in 1973). Other dumb ideas like downzoning.
They really had this ambitious view of BART that it would be so competitive against driving that people would park and take shuttles to BART. Of course this did not happen: people just continued to drive or drove to BART stations. Very few shuttles materialized.
It’s a shame that the Santa Fe ROW south of Bancroft got built on or occupied by other things and the bike path goes kaput at the Strawberry Creek tennis courts.
Didn't Berkeley go down the 'bike boulevard' route instead? Their 'bike boulevards' are often held up as a great example of what to do in towns with relatively narrow streets and substantial pressure for on-street parking.
most of the routes on the map indeed are bike boulevards, and many of the ones that aren't did get shitty 70s style bike lanes (narrow, wiggling back and forth to make room for turn lanes, etc).
but I say that from a South Berkeley perspective – people in North Berkeley who got sharrows on Colusa, a gap on Gilman, and no traffic calming on any hill routes would probably disagree with my feeling that it was actually pretty comprehensively implemented.
Yeah I have to disagree with Darrell on this one. Although Berkeley's current bike network indeed still leaves a lot to be desired, the significant majority of those 1971 route recommendations, plus many more, were indeed implemented. The only major omissions I can see are in NE Berkeley.
WRT whether the 1971 plan (link below) recommended protected bikeways the answer is yes, though w no commitments & also allowing for painted lanes & neighborhood routes. Protected bikeways were prohibited statewide shortly after.
Though it's possible that by "physically separated" they meant off-street trails & not on-street protected bikeways. The same language is used in this section defining trails as "Class 1" bikeways.
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https://newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/1971-Bike-Plan-and-Background-Report.pdf