The City of Emeryville is small in area (1.2 square miles) and population (7,000), but it is one of the most regionally connected cities in the Bay Area (California). Emeryville is situated at the eastern end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, contains the intersection of Interstate Highway 80 (I-80) with several regional and other interstate highways, and has extensive transportation access by Amtrak Rail, Alameda County (AC) Transit and heavy cargo facilities at the nearby Port of Oakland. The city has many large employers and several large shopping areas, and the daytime population swells to over 20,000. These factors produce a very high vehicle volume.
Additionally, Emeryville is an important segment of a number of regional pedestrian and bicycle trails including the future Union Pacific right of way (Emeryville Greenway) and the Bay Trail, which will extend across the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge.The completion of planned regional trails in the area will place Emeryville at the nexus of recreational pedestrian and bicycling activity for the area. These factors mean that pedestrian and bicycle travel is likely to increase dramatically.
The combination of very high traffic volume and increasing pedestrian and bicycle traffic raise concerns about safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Taking a proactive stance, the City has decided to intensify analysis and planning for pedestrian and bicycle safety. As part of this effort, the city contracted with the Traffic Safety Center at U.C. Berkeley to conduct an in-depth review of pedestrian and bicycle safety issues at four key intersections in the heart of Emeryville:
• Powell Street and Frontage Road
• Powell Street and I-80
• Powell Street and Christie Avenue
• Christie Avenue and Shellmound Street
These intersections were selected because they are on major arterials in the city that connect the waterfront, shopping areas, eating areas, residential complexes and business sites, and they are expected to experience increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The resulting report includes: (i) methods, (ii) major issues, (iii) approaches to countermeasures, and (iv) a detailed description of issues and recommended countermeasures.
