Richmond Street Redesign
Despite broad support for making Richmond Street safer, many residents are unhappy with the design proposed for their street. Residents who oppose the plan said they expressed their dismay at a community meeting on Dec. 7, 2024, and again in emails since then, but received no response.
Removing Parking and Adding Chicane Bike Lanes
The most controversial part of the proposal would remove about half the parking on the eight blocks of Richmond Street north of Moeser Lane and add a dedicated, chicane bike lane that would curve along next to the curb and around a limited number of parking spaces. Clusters of parking would alternate from one side of the street to the other.
This would be a big change from the current bicycle designation for Richmond Street which is a “sharrow” – a white-painted bicycle image which indicates that cars and bikes need to share the road.
At left, proposed redesign image by CSW. At right, a sharrow has been the marking on Richmond.
Concerned residents have formed a group, the Richmond Street Neighbors Association, and drafted a petition asking the city to stop design work and address their concerns. They are collecting signatures.
Jessie Maran, project manager for consultant CSW/Stuber Stroeh Engineering Group, said on Jan. 13th that the project team is moving forward with the 35% design phase, and no further public meetings are planned at this time. She said the project team will respond to individual property owners. The consultant will work with city staff and seek their approval as it moves to 65% design and beyond.
There seems to be broad agreement that riding a bike on Richmond Street is challenging. At the same time, there is strong disagreement about whether the chicane bike lane design is necessary and appropriate.
Bike lanes are only planned for the eight blocks from Moeser Lane to Hill Street.
No bike lanes are currently planned for Richmond between Fairmount Avenue and Moeser. The street there is steep in parts and narrows to about 35 feet at one point, project manager Maran said. Otherwise it is 40 feet wide from curb to curb, she said.
Bulb-outs that would eliminate some parking are planned for the full length of Richmond Street. Between Fairmount and Moeser, they will look something like this.
At a Jan. 11 meeting of residents, Inge Brust said Richmond Street is an official evacuation route and the proposed design "creates an obstacle course." She said residents need to talk with the fire chief about safety, especially in light of the hugely destructive fires in southern California.
Brust said she would like to see more of a win-win approach to the street design.
"I am Dutch, hence a bicyclist from birth, and clearly not against bike lanes," Brust said. "But this design will imprison my elderly and disabled neighbors and increase pedestrian traffic across the street. Think of moms and dads with kids, people with groceries. Then add delivery vehicles double parking, etcetera. So the city is making the street more dangerous, not less."
In a separate interview, Ben Chuaqui, an architect who lives on Richmond Street, said he would like to see a design that works better for all users.
"This is a big ask,"he said. "I'm willing to make the sacrifice but I am concerned about my neighbors. Is there another way to make the street bike-friendly?"
Chiaqui said Richmond Street isn't wide enough for conventional bike lanes and parking on both sides. "So they came up with this chicane idea, and switching the parking back and forth every block. You don't see many places that have this design."
What about the Ohlone Greenway?
At least a dozen residents said the Ohlone Greenway is nearby and can be easily reached via side streets for bicyclists traveling north or south.
Kina, a bicyclist who lives on Richmond Street and asked that only her first name be used, thinks the sharrow designation is safer for the busy street than the type of bike lane being planned. She said not a lot of cyclists use Richmond Street, and those who do "know how to handle traffic."
For families and children, Kina said the Ohlone Greenway is the safe route. Kina is concerned that the planned new bike lane is being called “protected,” but it is risky because it puts cyclists on a busy street between street traffic and parked cars. At times cyclists will ride along very close to the curb where residents will need to pull out of driveways. In Kina's view, it should not be “promoted as safe for families and children."
Advocating for the Design
At the Dec. 17, 2024 City Council meeting, six speakers supported the planned chicane bike lanes during public comment. They said research shows that streets with dedicated bike lanes are safer for everyone.
Rihanna, a Richmond Street resident who gave only her first name, said she wholeheartedly supports the design.
"We need slower speeds," she said. "We need streets that support safety for all of our users...I applaud the design that is in the works...I applaud the chicane structure to slow the traffic throughout the street so cars just literally cannot drive the speed that they are driving now." she said.
Janet Byron, co-founder of El Cerrito-Richmond Annex Walk and Roll, said the proposed design is in keeping with "complete streets" planning that El Cerrito has undertaken for more than a decade.
Said Steve Price, also a co-founder of Walk and Roll, "The Ohlone Greenway cannot take cyclists safely to all destinations in town and it shouldn't have to...Making Richmond Street safe is especially important considering that north-south travel east of Richmond is obstructed by the Rose Park Condominium complex and the PG&E substation. These obstructions force bicycling onto Richmond Street. I definitely support separated bike lanes whatever the implementation."
El Cerrito resident Kyle Burnell said he is an experienced cyclist but he is "intimidated" by riding on Richmond Street.
"I’m not asking for it to be made safer for me," Burnell said. "I’m asking for it to be made safer for everyone – for families, for children, for people who want to travel across El Cerrito who are currently afraid to use Richmond Street because of the traffic volume and speed.”
Traffic Volume Data
A workshop presentation in November 2024 stated that traffic volume on Richmond Street was 6,000 vehicles/day north of Moeser Lane and 6,800 vehicles/day south of Moeser Lane as of October 2024. However, after the project website was updated in January 2025, the traffic volume for all of Richmond Street was listed as 8,400 vehicles/day.
Traffic volume affects what "best practices" apply in designing a street.
Maran said the Safe Streets for All grant requires that "we follow best practices." With a daily traffic volume around 6,000 vehicles, whether to include separate bike lanes "is a gray area," she said. With a volume of 8,400 vehicles, Maran said, the best practice is to separate bike and vehicle traffic, It was not clear what was the source of the 8,400 figure or whether new traffic data was collected recently.
Ruth Amernick, a long-time resident, said traffic volume is not always high. It varies dramatically depending on time of day and whether local schools are in session, she said, with the highest volume occurring between about 7:30 and 8:45 a.m. on school days.
Parking Data
A parking inventory was done by CSW in October 2024 to determine how many spaces exist and how many were being used. Because spaces are not marked on the pavement, a standard space length was used to calculate. Parked cars were then counted at three different points in time on two different days. As a result, the project team concluded that less than half the on-street parking is used. Therefore, they concluded, all the parking spaces are not needed.
Several residents said the inventory didn't accurately capture parking occupancy. Parking varies throughout the day and from block to block. (Richmond Street is in poor condition because it was excavated for the Wildcat Pipeline project. Repaving will be done once plans for the street are final.)
Is Grant Money Driving the Design?
Larry Amernick is one resident who believes the project design is far beyond what is necessary. He and his wife, Ruth, were looking forward to a canopy of street trees and instead learned on Dec. 7 that parking would be removed from their street to make room for a curving bike lane.
"This is not what we want," Amernick said. "This is all being driven by a federal grant." He compared the bike lane to the one on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge that has recently been studied to see if the number of cyclists justifies taking a lane from traffic.
(The Richmond Street Complete web site says the total budget for the project is $11 million, with 93% coming from outside grants. These include an $8 million Safe Streets for All grant from the federal government. The city will pay $700,000 using funds from the Measure A Street Maintenance Fund. The rest will be covered with funds from county, regional, and state agencies.)
Amernick said the loss of parking will be a hardship for people with mobility problems and will make activities of daily life like grocery shopping or going to the doctor more difficult.
Lynn, a resident who did not want her last name used, said that she was frustrated when she attended a November workshop because it consisted of a presentation and stations around the room one could visit. It didn't seem that alternatives were presented or that residents could be heard.
‘We’re invited to these meetings but I don’t think they’re set up in a way that there’s any dialog," Lynn said. "I don't know what the motivation is for this project. If it is for safety I think there are multiple other ways to achieve safety without doing this project. Speed bumps, another 4 way stop. Do a bump out to make the curb bigger."
Maran, the project manager for CSW, said the project design reflects input gathered from participants through surveys dating back to summer 2024 and El Cerrito’s 4th of July celebration, and workshops held in September and November. A meeting planned specifically for Richmond Street residents was held in early December.
Other Traffic Calming
Maran said other traffic calming strategies will also be used. These include corner bulb-outs, raised intersections and crosswalks, flashing beacons, night-time lighting, and street trees. Not included in the design so far are additional four-way stops or speed bumps. As design progresses, the plan for specific intersections may differ, she said.
Kathy, a Richmond Street resident who did not want her last name used, said she had not had time to study the specific design, but traffic calming is needed.
"I've been here 12 years and the traffic has grown so much," she said. "It's the El Cerrito superhighway,"
One suggestion she has, which she emailed to the project team, is that the city prohibit right turns on red for drivers turning from Potrero Avenue onto Richmond Street during the morning rush hour. She has not received a reply.
"I am not for or against this design," Kathy said. "This is not easy to solve. If a lot of people are upset maybe they need to slow this down. Maybe there are some other scenarios that could work. It would be nice to have Plan A, B, and C."
Contact Information:
To reach Richmond Street Neighbors Association email: <RichmondStreetNeighbors@gmail.com>
To send comments to the project team you can email: <RichmondStreetComplete@gmail.com>
Email addresses for City Council members are posted here.
You can visit the Richmond Street Complete project website here.
Post your comment below or email a letter to the editor of up to 200 words.
Thank you for giving us this important information. We love our community, but considering the fact that most El Cerrito residents, including bikers, do not find this complicated and expensive plan to be safer or more livable, I would hope that the city would please stop to reconsider, and perhaps put the vast thought, time and money into plans that could truly help make our community safer and more vibrant.
Thank you for the information. Very helpful, really thorough. This is the first time I’ve understood what the city is planning to do there.