South Berkeley

When Caltrans repaved the intersection at Ashby and King St in South Berkeley (very nice, thank you) they neglected to repaint one of the yellow crosswalk lines at the south side of this intersection, and the traffic signal loop detector bicycle stencils which were half covered up by the paving work.

Regardless of who ends up performing this work please make sure Caltrans is charged for it, since they should have taken care of it initially after completing their paving work.

Karim's bike shop is a fire hazard and can in no way pass fire safety inspection. In addition, there are numerous accounts of people finding their stolen bikes there and seeing the owner deal with bike thiefs. How is this commercial establishment allowed to stay on business?

Caltrans did a great job paving Ashby Ave and then repainting the crosswalks at the intersection with King St. However, the loop detector bicycle stencils on the south side of the intersection were half paved over but not repainted. Please send Caltrans back to this intersection to complete the job correctly.

The intersection of Alcatraz Ave and King St in south Berkeley has a 2-way stop for traffic on King St, but no stop for traffic on Alcatraz going east or west. Alcatraz is a car arterial but King St is a highly trafficked bike boulevard and pedestrian corridor.

Even with the existing flashing beacons on the crosswalk pedestrians still find it very difficult to cross Alcatraz here because drivers just don't yield, and with the poor sightlines due to all the curbside parking and the fast vehicle speeds on Alcatraz, cyclists on King St also find it very difficult and dangerous to cross here, even after stopping and yielding to cross traffic.

I think the solution to this problem would be to either turn the 2-way stop into a 4-way stop at this intersection, or install a traffic signal that is timed to coordinate with the one at Alcatraz and Adeline. During the busiest hours Alcatraz traffic backs up all the way past King St, but motorists continue to block the intersection and fail to let cross traffic through. As such, a stop sign or traffic signal here would allow the bike boulevard traffic to make it past Alcatraz usually without even impacting the vehicles on that street at all.

The house on the corner of Ashby Ave and King St (northeast side) has some plants abutting the sidewalk along their property. Unfortunately a couple of these plants close to the corner have long spikes, and pedestrians walking along the north side of Ashby Ave and the east side of King St here are regularly poked and scratched. Ideally these plants should be removed entirely, or at least cut back considerably as to not create a danger to passers-by.