El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

BART and the city of El Cerrito are planning a mixed-use development around the EC Plaza BART station. They have asked the community for slide-by-slide feedback on their plans. Learn more about the plans and submit comments by September 6.

Big changes are coming to El Cerrito Del Norte! The City of El Cerrito is developing plans for a major remake of the streets near the Del Norte BART Station: safer pedestrian crossings, separated bike lanes, wider sidewalks, one-way streets converted to two-way, better access to BART, and more. Click on READ MORE below to access a PDF of the Del Norte Complete Streets Presentation. El Cerrito Del Norte Complete Streets Presentation

Catalin Kaser from Richmond's Bicycle / Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) shared the attached article demonstrating that businesses can flourish with customers accessing them by bicycle—it's not all about car access. On San Pablo Avenue, it shouldn't be an either/or choice—bicycles or cars. Whether it makes sense to remove on-street car parking is open to debate, but it is certainly not good business to ignore the access needs of bicycle riders. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-13/every-study-ever-conducted-on-the-impact-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes-has-on-businesses

Strange Vehicle Spotted Locally We spotted this vehicle in Berkeley this past week. It is an Electra Meccanica , one of a new breed of electric microcars that are gaining in popularity in Europe and Asia, although this one comes from nearby British Columbia. It is 10 feet long and 5 feet wide, that's 5.25' shorter and 1 foot narrower than a Tesla Model 3, yet is fast enough to be driven on freeways. Its curb weight is 1735 lbs, which is less than half of the weight of a Tesla 3 (3,648 to 4,250 lbs). With half of all trips in America being under three miles, what would El Cerrito be like if a good share of the automobiles on the streets of were replaced by vehicles this small? There are even smaller ones being manufactured in Italy, China, and Switzerland. The Swiss Microlino is 8.25 feel long and 4.8 feet wide, and weighs 1,179 lbs. The Microlino is limited in speed for local urban errands—25 to 30 mph. With these taking up less than half the length of a standard 8' x ...