TL;DR: Hopkins repaving is coming to Berkeley city council on July 28.

But first, a quick update from April 15

Our Hopkins page was updated but here’s a summary: FITES members rejected the “pave Hopkins with pedestrian safety features only” proposal unless it was altered to include protected bike lanes on Hopkins from at least Sutter to Gilman with direction to explore extending the bike lanes further west. Basically, the authors of the original item were told that they needed to add bike lanes to their item before it goes to council.

And Now:

Hot off the presses! CM Kesarwani (D1) has just submitted a new item with protected bike lanes on Hopkins! Read the agenda here, the Hopkins item starts on page 63. The proposed design has 1-way protected bike lanes on each side of the street from The Alameda to Peralta to connect to the Ohlone Greenway. It also proposes unprotected lanes and traffic calming from The Alameda to Sutter and traffic calming from Peralta to San Pablo. So while there’s room for improvement, this is a huge step forward.

From The Alameda to California/Monterey, the new protected bike lanes will require removing car parking from the north side of the street. From California/Monterey to Peralta, car parking will need to be removed from both sides. The item also includes strategies for curb parking management, to make more car parking available when it's needed.

With so much support for safe streets among most city councilmembers and the mayor, the prognosis is good for protected bike lanes on Hopkins becoming reality. However, with one councilmember still opposed* and a pro-parking group planning to oppose bike lanes no matter what, we still need to show up and fight.

*- Folks who attended FITES saw firsthand that O’Keefe is not pro-bike lane, but her constituents already knew that.

Next Steps

• Send a quick email to council@berkeleyca.gov showing your support for protected bike lanes on as much of Hopkins as possible. The opposition has already started their email campaign and it'd be good to remind all of council how much support there still is for protected bike lanes on Hopkins.
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• Put your support on a postcard! We are going to put these in the mail before July 28 to make sure councilmembers get a stack of them before the meeting. Add your voice! Come to these upcoming postcard-writing opportunities, all ages are welcome:
  • NBNow Second Sunday: July 12 at Headlands Berkeley from noon-2pm
  • BNHCA’s Saturday in the Park: July 18 at Strawberry Creek park from 10am-noon
• Get a new yard sign. Use our new form here.
  • If you also support more homes on Berkeley’s shopping streets, use this form instead to get 2 signs in 1 delivery.
• Keep an eye on this list for upcoming actions you can take, in-person and virtual
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• Clear your evening on July 28 for the city council meeting. Even though some of their complaints have been addressed, those who are opposed to this bike lane are definitely going to show up.
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• Can’t show up on July 28? Forward this email to your neighbors, friends, families with kids who go to BUSD schools and encourage them to sign up for this list. They can do so here: Sign Up​

Before you go

Get a radical bike lobby shirt featuring the same characters from the Hopkins yard signs. These are printed on demand and as of now it is not guaranteed that your order will arrive before July 28. But you can try anyway! Order a shirt here.