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Three West Berkeley businesses say that recent changes in the signage, traffic signals and road striping at three Berkeley intersections—Ashby and 7th, Ashby and 9th and 7th and Murray—have created hazards for drivers and pedestrians and at the same time made it extremely difficult to get to their stores without breaking the law. 

The three businesses—Urban Ore, MacBeath Hardwood and Artisan Burlwood—are all located just southeast of Ashby and 7th Street [see map]. 

Until about a month ago, the businesse s could be reached by turning left off 7th Street onto Murray Street, a passage facilitated by the KEEP CLEAR sign that was painted on 7th just west of Murray. In late May, however, the KEEP CLEAR sign was replaced by double yellow lines that made it ille gal to turn left off 7th into Murray. At the same time, at the intersection of Ashby and 9th, a sign was hung over westbound Ashby forbidding left-hand turns onto Ninth.  

These changes were part of a larger, $1.3 million project that involved restriping Ashby, widening 7th at Ashby and Potter, and installing pedestrian-oriented signals at Ashby and Potter, Ashby and 7th, and Ashby and 9th. The purpose, say staff from both the City of Berkeley’s Transportation Office and Public Works Department, was to ease traffic flow onto and off of the freeway and Ashby and to make the area generally safer. The Transportation Office and Public Works Department are jointly responsible for the project. 

By “encourag[ing] left-turn movement in and out of Murray at 7th,” says Supervising Traffic Engineer Hamid Mostowfi of the Transportation Office, the old KEEP CLEAR sign “was either causing collisions or potentially hazardous, especially as it would impact Ashby….The current design is one which should operate safely.”  

Not so, says Urban Ore Operations Manager Mary Lou Van Deventer.  

“Murray St. is now far more congested and dangerous than before,” wrote Van Deventer in a May 25 letter to Peter Hillier, Director of the City’s Office of Transportation. “During deliver ies to MacBeath Hardwood, for example, large industrial trucks, forklifts, and public traffic mix in a narrow street, blocking access while creating new safety problems….We have never seen an accident at 7th and Ashby resulting from the previous access co nfiguration.” 

Safety issues aside, Van Deventer and her neighbors say that the new design is interfering with business.  

“People looking for us can see us,” wrote Van Deventer—and indeed, it’s hard to miss Urban Ore’s big sign on its very big building—“but can’t get in.”  

Van Deventer’s concerns are echoed by Jim Parodi, whose Artisan Burlwood has occupied its Ashby location for 28 years. “We lure customers in by showing our wares”, he observes. “Now that same guy (who would have pulled over in the past) is going to find it very difficult to stop.”  

That, says MacBeath Hardwood manager Rick McDaniel, is partly because when Ashby was restriped, “they moved the center line toward our side of the sidewalk about three feet.” Parking on Ashby in fron t of MacBeath is still legal but in McDaniel’s view now unsafe. True to his trade, McDaniel measured the precise distance from the new center line to the curb. “It’s 15 feet, 8 inches,” he reports. “If you put two cars side by side, they would barely fit.” 

Since the changes, Urban Ore and Artisan Burlwood have both seen traffic and revenue fall. The first Saturday after removal of the KEEP CLEAR sign and the new striping on 7th, “we took in $4200,” says Van Deventer, “when $6500 is what we would expect.” Parodi’s sales have declined 65%. During the Memorial Day holiday, ordinarily a big weekend for him, “we were just dead….we didn’t do any business because people can’t stop.”  

At MacBeath, business hasn’t dropped, but McDaniel says that his customers a re talking about “how they got here and what laws they broke to do it. The majority are actually just breaking the law to get here. When somebody gets a ticket, it’ll have an adverse effect.” 

Van Deventer, McDaniel and Parodi say they were not notified a bout the problematic changes, much less consulted in the planning stages. In her letter to Hillier, Van Deventer asked that the City immediately install a left-hand run lane for westbound drivers on Ashby at 9th, reinstall the KEEP CLEAR text on the 7th S t. roadway where Murray enters, and provide a break in the double double yellow lines on 7th so drivers can turn left from southbound 7th through the KEEP CLEAR zone onto Murray. 

On June 24, a month after Van Deventer hand-delivered her letter to Hillier’s office, she, McDaniel, Parodi, and MacBeath assistant manager Alan Ross met at Ashby and 9th with Mostowfi and three CalTrans staff. Also present were four representatives of the West Berkeley Association of Industrial Companies (WeBAIC). The CalTrans staff and Mostowfi said that CalTrans has verbally approved the installation of a left-hand turn lane and signal at westbound Ashby at 9th. It should take about two more weeks for the modifications to work their way through the CalTrans bureaucracy; then the City’s Public Works Department will set up a contract to implement the changes. After a final safety inspection, the new signal and signs will be activated.  

“I’m trying to get this result as quickly as possible,” Mostowfi said. 

The group then walk ed over to Ashby and 7th/Murray. WeBAIC Board member John Curl asked if restoring the KEEP CLEAR sign and removing the double double yellow lines as requested was a possibility. Mostowfi was not encouraging. “This intersection has one of the highest acci dent rates in the city,” he said, “60 accidents in five years.” When pressed, however, Mostowfi allowed that the data doesn’t indicate whether those accidents happened at 7th and Ashby or at 7th and Murray. He observed that the restoration “wouldn’t be cheap.”  

“What about the lost business taxes?” wondered McDaniel.  

“That needs to be taken into consideration,” said Mostowfi. 

It was agreed that he and WeBAIC consultant Christopher Krohn would stay in contact while Mostowfi evaluates the situation. 

Even while the group surveyed the scene, several vehicles drove across the double double yellow lines. One driver turned left off westbound Ashby into the northbound lane of 7th and then into the westbound lane of Murray in order to reach Urban Ore’s front entrance. 

“KEEP CLEAR would be the best way to go, and provide a break in the double double yellow,” said CalTrans staffer Steve Simmons, perhaps unaware that that was what had existed before.?r