What’s New
The Project Team completed a Preferred Design Recommendations Memorandum, which is accompanied by appendices A-G, linked below.
- Appendix A: Options Analysis Matrix
- Appendix B: Corridor Design Options
- Appendix C: Engagement Takeaways and BFD Comments
- Appendix D: Options Analysis Matrix Results
- Appendix E1: Traffic Analysis Framework
- Appendix E2: Traffic Analysis Summary
- Appendix E3: Traffic Analysis Results
- Appendix F: Transit Analysis
- Appendix G: Person Throughput Analysis
On January 27th, 2022, the Project Team hosted an Online Open House to provide a project update and present the recommended design options for each corridor. After the Open House, the Project Team prepared a summary of community engagement conducted as part of the project.
What is the Southside Complete Streets Project?
The Southside Complete Streets project will improve conditions for people walking, biking, riding transit, driving, and delivering goods and services in Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood along Telegraph Avenue, Bancroft Way, Fulton Street, and Dana Street.
Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood has a rich history and a bright future as a community hub that serves many functions. The neighborhood is growing, and more people are walking, biking, taking transit, using rideshare, and having packages delivered. Today, Southside streets provide access to many vibrant local businesses, community and cultural destinations, healthcare, and multi-family and single-family residences. As the main gateway to UC Berkeley’s campus, many students, faculty, and staff rely on the Southside neighborhood for housing, food, and other daily needs.
The Southside Complete Streets Project will apply the vision and goals identified in previous planning efforts to create a cohesive street design. The goals of the project are to improve safety, comfort, and access for all users for decades to come. When implemented, the project will bring improvements for people walking, biking, driving, and taking transit. These improvements will also support economic development and cultural vitality of the district.
Numerous studies, documents, and plans have recommended changes to Southside streets. The City’s Vision Zero Action Plan identifies Bancroft Way as a “High Injury Street” in need of traffic safety improvements, with a history of severe injury and fatality traffic crashes for people walking, biking, and driving. Among other recommendations, the Southside Area Plan recommended conversion of Bancroft Way, Durant Avenue, and Dana Street from one-way to two-way streets to improve transit reliability and pedestrian and bicycle safety; calm traffic; and improve vehicle circulation. The Berkeley Bicycle Plan recommends continuous Cycle Tracks on Bancroft Way, Dana Street, and Fulton Street to close gaps in the proposed citywide Low Stress Bikeway Vision Network. To address chronic transit delays through the Southside, the AC Transit Major Corridors study recommends a continuous Bus Rapid Transit facility on Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way, connecting to Oakland to the south and to Shattuck Avenue/University Avenue to the north. The City of Berkeley’s General Plan Transportation Element Policy T-4 Transit-First Policy gives priority to alternative transportation and transit over single-occupant vehicles on Transit Routes. Policy T-22 seeks to reduce wait times and transfer times for pedestrians taking transit by implementing improvements such as transit-only lanes and traffic signal improvements. Additionally, Policy T-55 designates Bancroft Way, Durant Avenue, and Telegraph Avenue as the “highest priority routes” for transit improvements in the Southside area. The Telegraph Avenue Public Realm Plan recommends a phased approach to improving and increasing pedestrian space along Telegraph Avenue’s relatively narrow existing sidewalks, culminating in a “shared street” configuration; the plan notes that it will need to be updated to include the future possibility of dedicated bus lanes.
The project is funded by Federal Aid grant funding from the Alameda County Transportation Commission and the California Department of Transportation.
Project Goals
- Ensure safety for everyone walking, riding bicycles, riding transit, or driving, consistent with the City of Berkeley Vision Zero traffic safety policy.
- Improve transit reliability and travel times consistent with the City of Berkeley General Plan Transportation Element Policy T-4 “Transit-First.”
- Support the economic and cultural vitality of Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood consistent with the Economic Development goals of the City of Berkeley Southside Plan.
What are Complete Streets?
A “Complete Street” is a street that serves people of all ages and abilities, no matter how you travel. “Complete Streets” is a transportation policy and design approach that states that streets should be planned, designed, operated, and maintained to enable safe, convenient, and comfortable travel and access.
There is no singular way to design a Complete Street. Each one is unique and responds to the surrounding context. A Complete Street may include: sidewalks, bike lanes, special bus lanes, comfortable and accessible public transportation stops, frequent and safe crossings, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, roundabouts, landscaping, and more.


Project Map
This project will focus on Telegraph Avenue, Bancroft Way, Fulton Street, and Dana Street.

Project Timeline

Conceptual Design & Public Engagement
Summer – Fall 2021: Data collection & analysis; begin public engagement
Fall 2021 – Late 2021: Develop and present design alternatives;
Fall 2021 – Late 2021: Ongoing public engagement
Late 2021 – Spring 2022: Finalize alternatives & complete conceptual design; conclude public engagement
Environmental & Detailed Engineering Design
Late 2021-Spring 2022: Environmental analysis and CEQA and NEPA documents
Spring 2022 – Early 2023: Develop detailed engineering design; technical stakeholder engagement; finalize construction plans
2023 – 2024: Construction
Get Involved
We will post updates and materials here as the project progresses. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the City prioritized online engagement for the project.
Past Events
- 2/22/22: Berkeley City Council Meeting (Click here to access council items)
- 1/27/22: Online Open House (Click here to access the meeting slides, click here to access the illustrative concept graphics)
- 1/20/22: Transportation Commission meeting
- 1/13/22: Public Works Commission Special Meeting
- 1/7/22: Institutional Stakeholder Group Meeting
- 12/14/21: Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID) meeting
- 12/08/21: Berkeley Commission on Disability meeting
- 12/05/21: East Bay Transit Riders Union (EBTRU) meeting
- 11/18/21: Berkeley Transportation Commission meeting (Click here to access the meeting slides)
- 11/10/21: Online Open House (Click here to access the meeting slides, and click here to view the video recording)
- 11/03/21: Berkeley Commission on Disability meeting
- 11/01/21: Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) meeting.
- 10/29/21: Institutional Stakeholder Group meeting. This is a group of internal City of Berkeley departments and transit operators (AC Transit, Bear Transit, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) who provide technical expertise.
- 10/21/21: Berkeley Transportation Commission meeting (Click here to access the meeting slides)

FAQ
- Why is the City doing this project?
- Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood is experiencing continued growth in both commercial activity and residential occupancy, with increased walking, biking, transit use, ride-hailing, and freight and small package delivery. The Southside Complete Streets project will meet these challenges by taking the visions laid out in City plans and other documents and coupling them with a community and data-driven approach. The project will repave and make changes to streets in the Southside. Some of the changes and new facilities being considered include protected bikeways; bus-only traffic lanes; wider sidewalks; safer pedestrian street crossings; better street and sidewalk lighting at night; street trees and green infrastructure; improved loading zones for local businesses and passenger pick-up and drop-off.
- How is this project funded?
- This project is funded by Federal Aid grant funding from the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans):
- $1,000,000 for Public Engagement, Conceptual Design, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance, and Final Construction Plans
- $7,335,000 for Construction
- Matching funds for the Federal Aid grant are provided by University of California Berkeley Long Range Development Plan settlement funding and by Alameda County Transportation Commission Measure B and BB transportation sales tax funding.
- This project is funded by Federal Aid grant funding from the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans):
- When is construction?
- The project will be advertised for construction bids in Spring 2023, and after a contractor is selected, construction would start in late 2023, finishing in 2024.
- When is the deadline to submit comments and feedback on the project?
- The deadline to complete the first public survey is November 28, 2021. Additional written comments can be submitted by the same date.
- Why is there only one option for Dana Street?
- AC Transit has designed a street reconfiguration for Dana Street from Bancroft to Dwight Way as a pilot project. AC Transit will construct a bus passenger boarding island, a temporary two-way protected bikeway, and make traffic signal improvements in 2022. Pending evaluation of the pilot project, the Southside Complete Streets Project will make those elements permanent or modify them based on public input.
- For more information, see AC Transit’s Dana Complete Street Pilot Project webpage.
- What about all the other busy streets in Southside?
- For Durant Avenue, the City of Berkeley is working with AC Transit on a quick-build transit lane project. AC Transit received a grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Safe & Seamless Mobility Quick-Strike program to paint a bus-only lane on Durant.
- The City will be repaving Durant Ave from Shattuck Ave to Fulton St in 2022. The City is also looking into changing parallel parking to angled parking on Durant Ave between Telegraph Ave and Bowditch St to better accommodate parking and loading activities.
- The City is similarly considering changing parallel parking to angled parking on the north side of Haste Street across from People’s Park.
- Telegraph Avenue south of Dwight Way will receive transit improvements under AC Transit’s Telegraph Avenue Rapid Corridors project. The Telegraph Rapid project will enhance reliability and reduce travel time by improving traffic signals and upgrading or relocating bus stops.
- The City of Berkeley was recently awarded grant funding from the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) for a multimodal corridor study for Telegraph Avenue from Dwight Way to the Berkeley-Oakland border. The Telegraph Avenue Multimodal Corridor Study will kick off in late 2021.
- Why is the project on such a fast timeline?
- The Southside Complete Street Project is on an accelerated project timeline due to COVID-related delays and inflexible Federal Aid Funding deadlines. City staff anticipates taking the conceptual designs for Southside to the Berkeley City Council on February 22, 2022. Approval of the conceptual designs will keep the project on schedule for detailed engineering design in 2022, allowing the City to meet a January 2023 Federal Aid construction funding allocation deadline and receive $7.3M in Federal Aid construction funds. Staff anticipates advertising for construction bids in 2023, followed by construction of the project in 2023 and 2024. The Berkeley City Council could opt not to approve the conceptual designs for the project in February 2022, and instead defer the item to a future Council agenda. This decision would delay the subsequent detailed engineering design and endanger $7.3M of Federal Aid construction funds. The City would then need to reapply for these highly competitive construction funds, alongside all other Bay Area local agencies, with no guarantee that the project will again receive funding.
If you have more questions that aren’t answered here, please email the project manager, Eric Anderson, Senior Transportation Planner, Southside Complete Streets Project Manager.

Stay updated on the project
Past Project Updates
- 12/02/21: https://mailchi.mp/a5f0254fa66c/berkeleysouthsidedec2021update
- 01/13/22: https://mailchi.mp/d3bcfb009bf9/berkeleysouthside011322
- 01/20/22: https://mailchi.mp/43db7fae846b/berkeleysouthside012022
- 01/26/22: https://mailchi.mp/c9fa3efa511b/berkeleysouthside012622
- 02/17/22: https://mailchi.mp/1298d3c7a356/berkeleysouthside021722
- 02/25/22: https://mailchi.mp/8643958bc5d5/berkeleysouthside022522

Project Funding Provided By: