Fruitdale Avenue Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Project
The City of San Jose plans to make Fruitdale Avenue a safe street for you and your family to walk, bike, and drive. In the summer and fall of 2021, the San Jose Department of Transportation plans to redesign the street between Southwest Expressway and Meridian Ave. This project is a continuation of the bike lanes that were installed on Fruitdale Ave in spring 2021 between Bascom Avenue and Southwest Expressway. The segment of Fruitdale that we plan to redesign this year is shown as a blue and yellow line in the map below.
The project plans to repair the pavement, repaint the crosswalks, and add a buffered bikeway. The picture below shows an example of a buffered bikeway in San Jose.
Fruitdale Avenue consists of two through lanes in each direction plus a concrete median. Multiple traffic lanes tend to increase speeding and increase the likelihood and severity of crashes. Reducing lane width and the number of lanes generally reduces speeding, improves safety, and creates space to better accommodate people biking or walking.
Before developing plans for this project, the City of San Jose evaluated existing and future projected traffic volumes on Fruitdale Avenue and found that those volumes can be accommodated with fewer motor vehicle lanes. The City of San Jose has successfully implemented similar Lane Reduction Safety projects on more than 30 city streets. The picture below shows what this would look like on Fruitdale Avenue.
