This Wednesday evening, the city Transportation Commission will hear a presentation from staff and consultants to address ongoing safety issues at Lincoln Ave. and Walnut St.
Like a sleeper wave, that intersection appears placid — until it's not:
- In 2019, the East Bay Times reported "Six-month-old Alameda twins escape injury when SUV plows into their home" with a subhead of "The babies and their mother had to be extricated from the home by firefighters"
- In 2021, a driver hit and killed Alameda resident Fred Zehnder while he was walking in one of that intersection's crosswalks.
In response, city staff restriped the lanes leading to the intersection in 2020 and in 2023 city staff presented "immediate safety improvements at Walnut Street" to City Council. But unfortunately the latter set of changes were neither immediate (they were completed in early 2025, due to contractor delays) nor were they apparently sufficient as safety improvements.
However, contracts of a certain size are always submitted to Council for approval, often under the consent calendar — that's likely why the 2023 set of quick build improvements appeared on the Council consent calendar.
For this evening's TC meeting, the staff report describes a dangerous pattern at that intersection that is ongoing: broadside crashes, in which one driver darts across the intersection and is pegged by another oncoming driver.
I waited around with the dazed but unhurt driver and an Alameda Free Library staffer until we could all give our statements to an APD officer. A few weeks later I got a phone call from an insurer and was asked to give a recorded audio statement as part of their investigation.
Traffic safety improvements do consume public funding, but they benefit all of us by reducing costs we may be asked to assume in the flash of a moment. For the worst crashes, it's saving lives, pain, and medical expenses. For these more mundane crashes, better designed streets reduce the odds of all that hassle for the impacted driver, the library staffer, the APD officer, however many insurance staffers, and myself who all had to put in our time to just make sure that the driver who was not at fault could have the front side of his car replaced by his insurance policy.
To reduce future odds of more vehicle-on-vehicle broadside crashes, staff and consultants are proposing to implement a "diverter island" at this intersection:
My kids have recently been creating doohickeys with the 3D printer we gave them for Hanukkah, so that's what pops into my head when looking at this shape.
As professional engineers always do, this draft street design has been measured against "design vehicles" — including a fire truck. The staff report further discusses how this plan is inline with overall fire response routes:
While I'll save any actual substantive questions and comments about these plans for the TC meeting, let me share in advance that these changes are hardly unprecedented. The City has a history of closing this intersection to certain vehicular movements to reduce points of conflict and to increase safety. Here's the view this past 4th of July when I biked through the parade staging area on my e-cargo bike with my kids (so my daughter could get to the Girls Inc. parade contingent):
As always, the Transportation Commission is open for public comment in person, via Zoom, or sent in advance by email.