Similar changes will come to Park Street later this spring
Traveling down Webster Street will feel a little different starting this week. As part of the next phase of the Commercial Streets Program, the City of Alameda has restriped Webster Street, from Lincoln Avenue to Central Avenue, with a new scheme that will move parking back to curbside, add buffered bicycle lanes, and install concrete barriers around the remaining outdoor seating parklets. The project also will install new disabled and short-term parking spaces along Webster and adjacent side streets. Construction began on Sunday, April 14.
At the request of the West Alameda Business Association (WABA) and Downtown Alameda Business Association (DABA), the previous striping plans were installed in summer 2020 on Webster Street and Park Street in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced travel lanes from two to one in each direction on both corridors. This configuration allowed local businesses to expand dining and retail into new curbside parklets by pushing the parking lane out into the roadway. The move was intended to help restaurants and vendors weather social distancing restrictions during the height of the pandemic and bolster patronage as the health emergency waned.
Approved by City Council in July 2023, this newest striping scheme represents a medium-term design for Webster Street. The four-block stretch intersects key crosstown bicycle lanes at Santa Clara Avenue and will provide connections to future bikeways on Lincoln Avenue and Central Avenue. With the parking lanes returning curbside, businesses had to choose between a parklet or a parking space in front of their establishments. This new configuration no longer allows for both, which will likely reduce confusion for drivers who currently park on Webster Street.
In the long-term, the City of Alameda Active Transportation Plan identifies Webster Street as part of the City’s “Low Stress Backbone Network” of bicycle facilities and prioritizes the design and possible construction of separated bike lanes by 2030 between Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway and Central Avenue. This would transform Webster Street into a critical north-south connection for cyclists between the Cross Alameda Trail and key recreational locations on Alameda’s southern shoreline, including Crab Cove and Crown Beach.
Other elements of the project include new signs, green thermoplastic striping to highlight areas of conflict, and plastic posts protecting newly relocated bicycle racks. A similar striping scheme on Park Street between Webb Avenue and San Jose Avenue will be implemented by later this spring.
Editor’s note: Ken Der is an engineer/planner employed by the transportation consulting firm Fehr & Peers and contributed significantly to the development of the Park and Webster Street Commercial Corridor Restriping Plans.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
