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Hopkins Street is a major Fire Evacuation route for 24k people living in the Berkeley hills, and even more living in the city of Kensington who evacuate into Berkeley.

Bike lanes on Hopkins Street can slow Fire Evacuation traffic and Emergency Vehicle responses. As the Paradise fire in 2021 showed us, this can be very dangerous to people seeking to evacuate. It can cost lives. Fire evacuation routes are especially important to vulnerable people who may need to evacuate; about 30% in the Berkeley hills are over age 65, as well as families with small children and disabled people.

Moreover, there is a major flaw in Berkeley’s 2017 Bike plan. It is based on interviews with 660 people; and of these ZERO percent were from hill zip code 94708, ZERO percent, and only 7%, that is, 46 people, were from the hill zip code 94707. The 93% of respondents who were reported on in the Berkeley bike plan were from the Berkeley flat lands. The bike report provided no information on those who were not interviewed, the study’s non-response rate.

On the basis of this study, city staff reported to the Council in a May 2, 2017 memo that 71% of Berkeley people were in favor of bike tracks: “A key survey finding revealed 71% of Berkeley residents fall into the “Interested but Concerned” category of individuals; i.e., they are interested in cycling or cycling more often, but are sensitive to traffic speeds and volumes.”

Now, you are planning to spend millions on bike tracks that can be used by limited numbers of Berkeley residents: mainly those who are able and who live in certain areas, not hilly areas.  

Bike tracks on Hopkins Street is a transportation plan that may negatively affect businesses in the Hopkins Street area as people now come from far and wide to shop there. The Berkeley Terner Institute reports this area as a Possible Opportunity Site for future development. Is that the plan, to have more high rise market rate housing there? If the businesses should fail? 

You recently financed a study to recommend evacuation routes for Berkeley, and according to State law, Berkeley’s Fire Chief must approve your plans. I’m sure that the fire chief will strive to see that Berkeley residents will be safe should fires occur.  

I hope you will vote against bike lanes in order to keep Hopkins Street open for fire evacuation and emergency response vehicles.