The Milvia Street Bikeway Project covers 12 contiguous blocks of Milvia Street from Hearst Avenue to Blake Street. The objectives of the project were to improve safety for everyone traveling along Milvia Street, provide a more comfortable bicycling and walking experience for people of all ages and abilities, encourage trips made by bicycling and walking by improving connectivity and accessibility, and maintain and support the economic vitality of the corridor. Berkeley has the highest rate of bicycling to work in the United States among cities with over 100,000 residents, and Milvia is the City’s primary north-south bikeway.

Parametrix (as Parisi Transportation Consulting) led the initial planning and final design of a separated Class IV bikeway facility with separation from motor traffic by way of a vertical element, intersection treatments and traffic calming features, and elimination of the slip lane at Milvia and Center Street. The planning work involved public outreach including two open house workshops, where the public was invited to comment on preliminary concepts. A robust data-driven alternatives analysis involved the technical analysis of vehicle traffic and parking impacts.

Parametrix prepared final design plans for the preferred alignment that included two one-way separated Class IV bikeways. The corridor has sections of one-way and two-way vehicular traffic with raised buffer and parking-protected separations. The design incorporates pedestrian circulation enhancements, including curb bulbs and refuge islands, an emergency access lane, two blocks of transit boarding islands, traffic signal upgrades, and landscaping.