Public Comment

I live in Oakland and drive through Berkeley a lot. I take Martin Luther King on my way back to go to Fat Apple's restaurant. Now MLK is being turned into an obstacle course like other streets in Berkeley and Oakland.

It doesn't make sense. Look at Milvia Street from University Avenue to Haste. I used to get supplies at Ace Hardware when I was in that area but don't any more because Milvia is one way and hard to use. Most of the time there is nowhere to park. So where are all the bikes? There are hardly any.

In Oakland the City acts like the only thing they care about is bicycles but the number of bikes is tiny compared to people driving. You hardly see bikes on big green stripes on 40th Street and Park Blvd. Wide bike lanes on West and Market Street are mostly empty, but how we drive is being controlled by the idea of bicycles. 

On Telegraph Avenue business owners didn't want four lanes on Telegraph with lots of parking to be reduced to two lanes and a lot less parking but the City did not listen. White posts and restaurant tables occupy what used to be parking spaces for customers.  

Now cars pile up behind buses stopped in the one lane each way while people get on and off. Can this be unintentional? If there is any amount of traffic fire trucks and ambulances can't get through. Someone could die waiting for help. 

I live not far from Telegraph. The number of people riding bikes on the main street is really small. There are no more people on bikes after cement islands and white posts were put all over the place than before. Now Telegraph is harder to get around on, harder or impossible to park on. This can't be good for the businesses on Telegraph or the people who want to use them and it has made the street really ugly.