Battle over bike lanes on Berkeley's Hopkins Street heads toward a City Council vote

Take a drive down North Berkeley's Hopkins Street, and it won't take you long to find strong opinions on both sides of a City Council-led project that could transform the busy road into a bike and pedestrian-friendly corridor.

For cyclists like Eric Fuller, the proposed changes are a step toward rethinking how the street is used.

"Why should you have free parking? I mean you have to put your car somewhere, but people expect there to be a free spot to do it," Fuller said.

But longtime Berkeley resident Joel Meyers believes the proposal would create more problems than solutions.

"Yeah, it's going to cause headaches for people on Hopkins, but that isn't the main point. I think it's a dumb idea for the city and a dumb way for them to spend their money," Meyers said.

The proposal, called the Hopkins Street Project, would remove hundreds of parking spaces stretching from Peralta Avenue to The Alameda. It would then add bike lanes on either side of Hopkins, protected by posts, barriers, or parked cars.

After years of back and forth, a vote by Berkeley City Council would set the three-phase project into motion.

For advocates of the project, like Bike East Bay's Justin Hu-Nguyen, approval would be a victory for pedestrians and cyclists alike.

"We know that everyone can't bike, but it feels like it would balance things out. We have overprioritized cars in the past instead of thinking, do we need these cars for all these journeys," Hu-Nguyen said.

But for those against the project, like the leader of the "Save Hopkins" movement, Donna DeDiemar, an approval from council would feel like the system failed them.

"City council, we didn't elect you to help us decide how to enter our roads. We elected you to help us make policy," DeDiemar said.

The bottom line is that both sides believe their vision for what Hopkins Street should look like moving forward is the right one.

But after years of debate, a decision either way seems long overdue for a corridor depended on by many.

The Berkeley City Council was expected to vote on the Hopkins Street project during its meeting on Tuesday which begins at 6 p.m.