Description

This section of Spruce was resurfaced in 2016 using chip seal asphalt. The initial application was quite bumpy, especially for bike riders coming down the steep section south of Los Angeles Ave at speed. The thermoplastic sharrow markings also add more bumpiness for high pressure bike tires, especially for the southbound section approaching the stop sign at Eunice Street. I was initially told by Berkeley staff that the new asphalt would smooth out over time, but this has not yet happened and the bumpiness in the downhill direction still feels hazardous. In addition, more sharrow markings were added recently further up Spruce, south of Grizzly Peak Blvd, adding more bumpy roadway areas for bike riders to deal with, distracting them from traffic. As such I recommend the following: 1) Replace all of the sharrow stencil markings with one-piece preformed sharrow installations, either green backed or black backed (like those manufactured by Ennis Flint). This will help encourage drivers to look for bike riders in the roadway, without creating bumpy surface hazards in the process. 2) Look into ways to proactively smoothen the part of Spruce chip sealed in 2016, especially in the downhill direction south of Los Angeles Ave. Also make it a Berkeley policy to only use one-piece preformed sharrow markings going forward, and prohibit chip seal asphalt on bike routes, especially on hilly segments with a 3% or greater grade.