New Greenways on Doyle Street
A slow street goes from temporary to permanent in Emeryville
Emeryville’s Doyle Street Greenway was first imagined in the early 2000s as a way to creatively reuse an abandoned railroad line which once ran north-south through the city. Plans envisioned Doyle Street as a livable, people-friendly corridor, partly on a separated path and partly on slow, calm neighborhood streets. The separated greenway path has been popular since opening, but the Doyle Street bike boulevard segment, where people who walk and ride had to share the road with car traffic, remained a challenge. It would take many more years, a worldwide pandemic, and a whole community effort before the greenway would reach its goal as an all ages and abilities facility.
Emeryville Senior Civil Engineer Ryan O’Connell recalls “as the pandemic started in 2020, shelter in place restrictions were put on everyone in this area, and people were looking for a safe place to recreate.” The city’s parks and recreation and bicycle and pedestrian committees saw the need for a more bikeable, walkable Doyle Street. Emeryville’s village greens and greenways program recommended reallocating street space away from cars and back to people. The groundwork for a people-first Doyle Street was laid and the need was clear. It was time for action.
Council member Ally Medina, who introduced the village greens program a few years prior, had already been talking about Doyle Street with her fellow council member John Bauters. “If you give the two of us a map and a highlighter bad things happen…I mean, amazing things happen,” she says. The initial concept included temporary barricades which created protected on-street spaces for biking and walking right next to the many parks that line Doyle Street.
By focusing on Doyle Street, the city was able to communicate about the project despite the pandemic limitations. Outreach included taking the time to talk with residents at every address along the street. For council member Bauters “it wasn’t about the number of streets, we wanted to be really deliberate about doing [a project] that would be sustainable, permanently.” Last fall, Emeryville combined funding from a new Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) quick-build program with a paving project already planned for Doyle Street. Temporary barricades were upgraded to a permanent cycletrack with posts and green paint. Additional car diverters and on-street shared spaces for people who walk and bike were added.
Medina was thrilled to observe seniors now using the middle of the completed street to do tai chi in the morning. “It’s amazing to see how people use space when it’s given back to them,” she says. Bauters also sees a shift in how young people interact with the street. “When children start to see that the street is also for them, and they can do things in the street, that’s how we change long-term behavior,” he says.
For O’Connell, the Alameda CTC grant was critical to the project’s success. It involved a streamlined way to get the funds and start construction, and no local match requirement for small cities to contribute some of their own money. “This grant was set up in the best way I’ve ever experienced. I’d love to see it as a model for quick-build grants going forward,” says O’Connell.
Emeryville’s remaining wish list for Doyle Street includes extending existing upgrades such as the cycletrack along more of the corridor, and adding amenities like street art, benches, and planters.
Staff and elected officials have their eyes on other streets for transformative projects to make the city easier to get around by biking, walking, and transit. Have a street in mind? Tweet your ideas to Bike East Bay (@BikeEastBay).
