On March 16th, there were a few historic events at Bakersfield City Council. First, the city council voted to support the ”Unity Map” that would keep communities together while splitting the Bakersfield Auto Mall. Secondly, at the Bakersfield City Council’s 3:15 meeting, California Transportation Authority (CalTrans) District 6 Deputy Director of Maintenance and Operations, John Liu, made a presentation to the council on the plans for Union Avenue, aka Route 204 or Golden State Highway in response to the city council resolution, and support from Kern Council of Governments, wanting a solution for the serious safety concerns along Union Avenue including the recent death of cyclist Raven Mora who was killed March 7 on Union Avenue. Changes to Union can’t come soon enough.

CalTrans has allocated $5 million from the Clean California Program to address the needs of people on Union Avenue by not only cleaning it up but also closing sidewalk gaps, adding bike lanes, landscaping and artwork. They are also spending more $5 million on adding ADA curb and vehicle ramps, pedestrian hybrid beacons like that on Pine Street and 24th, and further studies to reduce speeds and the number of traffic lanes. CalTrans is planning to use innovative traffic calming measures including mid-block crosswalks with curb extensions, leading pedestrian intervals that give pedestrians a head start at an intersection, and green bike lanes to guide users around right-turn lanes and through major intersections.

CalTrans is understanding the impact of the highway on the small town and how these roads tend to act as main streets, often divide neighborhoods, and inhibit safe conditions for vulnerable roadway users (pedestrians, active transportation users). From Route 204/Union Avenue in urbanized Bakersfield to Highway 184 in Lamont, CalTrans is examining the impact of state highways on the individual by promoting safety first and implementing their brand new complete streets policy.

“We want to mend the communities back together by providing opportunities for vulnerable users, particularly those who walk, those who bike, those who scooter to get around their communities. And we want them to do it safely.”

John Liu, CalTrans District 6 Deputy Director of Maintenance and Operations

Union Avenue used to be our town’s vacation destination, a strip of resort motels and sparkling pools that was soon zoned for industry. As Bakersfield industrialized, so did Union Avenue which became a main thoroughfare that facilitated the growth of local industries and workforce. It was last widened in 1947 before the interstate came along. When the 99 Freeway (built in 1963) and 178 Freeway diverted vehicular traffic, Union Avenue still remained an industrial zone but had people living, working, and traveling around its high speeds, freight trucks, and wide travel lanes.

Today, Union Avenue is not the industrial zone that many still think. Based on daily traffic volume, “It really isn’t an important inter-regional route south out of State Route 178,” says Liu. Sadly, the area where Union Avenue has the most traffic lanes and greatest potential for drivers to speed, is the same area where it functions as a neighborhood main street: south of 21st Street past the 58, all the way south to Greenfield.

CalTrans has a vision zero goal to implement strategies that will eliminate fatalities and serious injuries “not just on state highways but all California roadways by 2050,” according to Liu.

“We want to lift up the areas that have been harmed by the state highways system in the past, so we want to focus on improving a state highway that is in disadvantaged areas.”

John Liu, CalTrans District 6 Deputy Director of Maintenance and Operations

In analysis of the Transportation Injury Mapping System’s (TIMS) collision data and mapping tool for Union Avenue from Panorama Drive to Casa Loma Drive for the years 2014-2018: 

• 103 crashes of bicyclists and pedestrians along Union Ave (with a 100 foot buffer from the street)
• 12 fatalities of pedestrians and 105 pedestrian or cyclists injured of killed
• 17 felony hit and runs resulting from the collision involving a pedestrian or cyclists
• 8 misdemeanor resulting from the collision involving a pedestrian or a cyclist.

A study on the active transportation and land use conditions of Union Avenue is certainly needed to address the people living, working, walking and riding along this historic and still very much alive stretch of Union Avenue from Panorama Drive to Casa Loma Drive.

Bike Bakersfield’s Recommendations:

• Include 21st Street. Based on Liu’s presentation, changes to Union Avenue will be primarily between 18th street south to East Brundage Lane. The 21st and Union Avenue intersection is particularly useless for pedestrians and cyclists trying to legally cross it. The five-way intersection of Union Avenue/Route 204 (technical term here) is a jurisdictional crapshoot, where CalTrans state highways, interstate routes, and city streets meet to the detriment of these vulnerable roadway users. Continuing to 21st and Union will allow for seamless connectivity between the wide bike lane/parking lane from downtown and Old Town Kern and help guide active transportation users through this complicated intersection.

• Look to the people on South Union. Route 204/Route 99B includes the city of Bakersfield but also unincorporated pocket communities like Casa Loma, Southgate, Rexland Acres, and Greenfield: all communities who are built on and bisected by – sometimes trisected – state highways and railways. These communities rely on South Union Avenue to travel, get groceries, and live around freight movement, industrial zones, and the city municipal airport. Continuing this important work south of the 58 will impact so many residents of Kern County who live outside of City limits.

• Pedestrian Hybrid Crossings with activated beacons: Make sure they are not constant blinks but activated.

• Add more crossings and straighten offset crossings. Just assume that people cross at every single intersection between East California to East Brundage Lane. The 8th and 3rd Street crossings are so offset they need median refuge islands or a complete overhaul.

• Ensure safe crossings near bus stops. Texas Street may need a midblock crossing because of the bus stop location right across the street.

• Connect to the Garces circle. Between Union Avenue and the Garces Circle are many social services that are integral to the unhoused community in Bakersfield from the Housing Authority, the Gleaners, County Veterans Services, and a number of affordable housing locations including converted motels. These projects should not aim to remove them. The County/CAPK homeless navigation center is right off the traffic circle at M Street. Weill Park (an unofficial resource for homeless residents) at Golden State Avenue and the 178 interchange is a public space where people live in tents so they can be close enough to social services and still on the fringe of society.

• Do we need another speed study? The speed limit is 40 mph currently on Union Avenue, 5 miles less than the base requirement of 45 (based on the 85th percentile rule that CalTrans uses). The sheer number of incidents and the lane reductions planned should be enough to reduce the speed to 35.