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Hopkins is a high-injury street and it needs safety for ALL.
Let's prevent the next tragedy instead of simply responding to it.
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Our kids need safe routes to schools: King Middle School, Saint Mary’s, Crowden, and Ruth Acty Elementary. Not to mention all of the daycares and preschools in the area.
We want a protected bike lane (aka, “two-way cycle track”) that encourages car-free travel. There was a plan to add one to Hopkins that was approved by Berkeley city council years ago, but for many reasons the project was paused.
Now it's back and we need to remind the city council that there’s still a lot of support for this plan.
Safe Routes to Schools
Barrier-protected bike lanes on Hopkins will:
Keep the sidewalk open for people walking and those moving at slower speeds
Boost local businesses by making the location accessible to all
Create a safe route for students to get to school independently
Connect West Berkeley to the King pool, the shops at Monterey & Hopkins, and other amenities
Slower Street = Safer Street
Pedestrian improvements (like bulbouts) make crossing streets safer, but the narrowing effect protected bike lanes provide will slow down traffic, and that makes the road safer for everyone traveling on it. In fact, after New York City added more protected bike lanes they saw a reduction in fatalities and injuries in general but especially senior pedestrians (link).
No matter how you go — driving, walking, biking, or scooting — protected bike lanes have been shown to prevent injuries or death from collisions with cars. That goes for everyone using the road, not just the ones using the lane.
Safety > Parking
Parking isn’t worth risking more lives.
Plus, providing protected bike lanes actually reduces the need for parking spaces because more people feel safe biking instead of driving. Not everyone can swap their car for a bike, but for everyone who does there is one less car on the road.
The plan that we’re supporting also includes accommodations for folks who have limited mobility, and who have to drive: it adds new accessible parking spaces and new loading zones. Learn more of the details about the plan here.
What about access for first responders?
With some minor tweaks, the approved plan will maintain or even improve emergency response and evacuation.
February 2026
There’s a proposal by Councilmembers Rashi Kesarwani (District 1) and Shoshana O’Keefe (District 5) to repave Hopkins without the planned bike lanes (Item 14 here).
Hopkins needs the two-way cycle track that was approved by council because repaving without essential safety improvements like bike lanes would run counter to every council vote on this topic + several city plans and policies, and not do much for street safety.
The next step is for this proposal to go to FITES (Facilities, Infrastructure, Transportation, Environment & Sustainability, a council subcommittee made up of 3 councilmembers). This item is not scheduled yet but will be soon. Stay tuned for info on how to participate.
Want to know the whole story? Check out Walk Bike Berkeley's page about the Hopkins Corridor Safety Improvements
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Talking Points
When they start building homes at North Berkeley BART, bike lanes on Hopkins will help the new residents get around
Repaving with pedestrian improvements only is inadequate to calm traffic on Hopkins
Proposing alternative bike routes (or making Rose a real bike blvd) is inadequate to calm traffic on Hopkins and does not get people to all of the amenities on Hopkins
If Berkeley residents wanted repaving without bike lanes, they could have voted for Measure EE. But they didn’t. We want safer streets so we showed up for Measure FF!
Not only did FF win, 73% of Berkeley residents surveyed are supportive of adding bike infrastructure to our streets.
The Kesarwani/O'Keefe proposal is not fiscally responsible
Scrapping the approved plan means throwing out hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money that was spent on consultants, workshops, staff time, plus spending even more to pull apart the plan and re-design it
Paving without bike lanes means spending a lot of funds on something that won’t be effective for making the street safe
and Don't Forget
Bike lanes are good for everyone! In addition to providing a safe route for cyclists, drivers benefit too because there will be fewer crashes and less traffic
Protected bike lanes are safer than painted bike lanes or cyclists mixing with cars on the street
Studies show protected bike lanes encourage people to cycle more
Protected bike lanes help adjacent businesses
Repaving without robust safety improvements will lead to more speeding, more crashes, more injuries
The original plan was a compromise that tried to balance different priorities as much as possible. It was approved by council 8-1 — let’s stick with it
It is not equitable to give historically wealthy neighborhoods safe facilities while cutting off access to the wealthy neighborhood’s amenities for those in West Berkeley
At one of the meetings about Hopkins safety improvements in 2023, a public commenter who was opposed to the plan called supporters the "Radical Bike Lobby."
We are Berkeley residents who want better transportation options in our city, not lobbyists. Still, it's pretty catchy.
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