Agenda

Agenda

These are the changes Walk Bike Walnut Creek is asking the city, county, BART, Caltrans, and other agencies to make next. Some are specific street fixes, some are policy changes, and some are bigger network ideas, but they all point toward the same goal: streets where walking, biking, rolling, and taking transit are safe, practical, and normal ways to get around.

Outcomes

  • Safe streets: No one should be killed or seriously injured while walking, biking, rolling, taking transit, or driving in Walnut Creek.
  • Useful everyday mobility: People should be able to reach schools, parks, BART, downtown, errands, jobs, medical appointments, and after-school activities without needing a car for every trip.
  • Safe routes for kids, seniors, and disabled residents: The people most exposed to unsafe streets should be centered in street design.
  • A thriving downtown: Downtown should be calmer, safer, more walkable, and better connected to BART, trails, shops, restaurants, and public life.
  • Cleaner, healthier neighborhoods: More walking and biking means less traffic stress, less noise, cleaner air, and healthier residents.

Campaigns

Campaign 1: Fix Walnut Creek's Most Dangerous Streets

Walnut Creek should focus first on the corridors where crashes are most likely to kill or seriously injure people. Safety should come from street design: slower speeds, better crossings, better visibility, and enforcement tools where physical design alone is not enough.

  • Fund physical safety improvements on the High Injury Network.
  • Add raised crossings, bulb-outs, median refuges, traffic calming, and signal changes where risk is highest.
  • Support automated speed enforcement as soon as state law allows Walnut Creek to use it.
  • Expand rest-on-red and other speed-sensitive signal timing where the data supports it.
  • Use targeted police enforcement on high-injury roads and trails.
  • Treat Ygnacio Valley Road as an urgent safety corridor.

Projects

Targeted Police Traffic Safety Enforcement

Focus police traffic enforcement where dangerous behavior puts people walking and biking at the greatest risk.

Cost
Low
Responsible agencies
City of Walnut Creek, East Bay Regional Park District

Walnut Creek should use targeted, visible police traffic enforcement on Ygnacio Valley Road and other high-injury roads, including speed traps where speeding is a recurring safety problem.

Enforcement should also cover the Iron Horse and Canal trails, especially people riding electric or gas-powered motorcycles where they put people walking and biking at risk.

Support Automated Speed Enforcement

Make speed cameras available for Walnut Creek's highest-risk streets as soon as state law allows.

Cost
Low
Responsible agencies
California Legislature, City of Walnut Creek

California's current speed safety camera law is limited to a pilot program in a small number of cities. Walnut Creek should support state legislation that makes automated speed enforcement available to more cities sooner, and should be ready to use the tool locally when it becomes available.

Speed cameras are a better fit for Walnut Creek's most dangerous streets than red-light cameras: they directly reduce dangerous speeds, are less staff-intensive, and can also reduce red-light running by slowing drivers before they reach an intersection. SFMTA reported speeding is down 79% at intersections covered by its speed safety camera program in April 2026.

During the last 10 years, 30% of Walnut Creek's traffic deaths and injuries have happened specifically on Ygnacio Valley Road, and speeding is the biggest contributing factor. Automated speed enforcement would give the city a 24-hour tool for reducing dangerous speeds on its highest-risk corridors.

Fund High Injury Network Safety Improvements

Move Walnut Creek's highest-risk safety corridors from plans into funded design and construction.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

The city should fully fund and construct physical traffic calming on the High Injury Network corridors: Ygnacio Valley Road, Civic Drive, Broadway, California Boulevard, and Mt. Diablo Boulevard.

Treatments should include speed tables, raised crosswalks, bulb-outs, median refuges, hardened centerlines, safer crossings, and related improvements that reduce crash risk through street design.

Designate Safety Corridors

Formally identify the city's highest-risk roads so safety improvements and enforcement can focus where they are most needed.

Cost
Low
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should formally designate and sign safety corridors on high-risk roads. Safety corridor designation can help communicate risk, focus traffic safety work, and unlock tools such as doubled fines where allowed.

Expand Rest-on-Red and Speed-Sensitive Signals

Use signal timing to slow high-risk corridors during off-peak and nighttime hours.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek already uses rest-on-red signal timing on Ygnacio Valley Road and downtown. We support expanding this treatment where crash history, speed data, and signal operations show it can help.

On major arterials, signals can rest in red during off-peak and nighttime hours, then give a green phase to drivers traveling at safe speeds while forcing speeding drivers to slow down.

Campaign 2: Complete Safe Routes to School and Neighborhood Sidewalks

People should be able to walk safely in their own neighborhoods, especially near schools, parks, apartments, senior housing, medical offices, and transit stops. Missing sidewalks and unsafe crossings turn basic trips into car trips.

  • Audit and prioritize sidewalk gaps near schools and everyday destinations.
  • Build the highest-risk missing sidewalk segments.
  • Add safer crossings where people already need to cross.
  • Help residents and neighborhoods navigate sidewalk design, funding, permitting, and neighborhood financing.

Projects

Build a Sidewalk on San Miguel Drive Between Milton and Margaret

Fill the most dangerous gap between the San Miguel CDP, Murwood, and the Iron Horse Trail.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
Contra Costa County

This stretch has no shoulder, frequent car traffic, and blind corners at either end. A continuous sidewalk would make a basic neighborhood trip feel possible on foot.

All of the people who live in the red area would use this sidewalk to get to Murwood Elementary or downtown.

San Miguel Drive lacks a continuous sidewalk on either side.
Homes in the red area would use this sidewalk to reach Murwood Elementary and downtown.
Redesign San Miguel Drive and Newell Hill Place

Fix a large, uncomfortable intersection near apartments, doctors' offices, senior housing, and school walking routes.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

There are a lot of apartments, doctors' offices, kids walking to school, and a senior living facility in the vicinity of this intersection, but the nearest marked crosswalk is 400 feet downhill with no sidewalk.

A marked crosswalk alone may not be enough here. The intersection should be redesigned so people walking have a clear, direct, and protected way to cross, with traffic calming, shorter crossing distances, better sidewalk connections, and a full intersection treatment such as a roundabout or other geometric redesign if feasible.

Create Sidewalk Funding and Delivery Tools

Help neighborhoods turn missing-sidewalk problems into fundable, buildable projects.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Missing sidewalks are expensive, and responsibility is often unclear to residents. Walnut Creek should help neighborhoods move from "we need a sidewalk" to a realistic funding and construction path.

Useful tools could include city budget funding for high-priority gaps, grants, neighborhood assessment or Mello-Roos-style districts where residents choose to tax themselves for a sidewalk, and a revolving loan program where the city helps homeowners finance sidewalk construction over time.

The city can also reduce costs by helping with design, bundling small projects together, and coordinating bids so individual homeowners are not left trying to manage isolated, expensive concrete projects alone.

One of many road shoulders that could benefit from a sidewalk.
City Coordination for Sidewalk Design

Help homeowners and neighborhoods get practical design guidance before building sidewalk improvements.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

The city is able to build infrastructure for a reasonable cost by employing people with experience designing infrastructure, and also pooling discrete, small projects together to attract many bidders. This also helps bidders keep costs down by ensuring that crews and concrete trucks do not get wasted on a small, half-day or half-truck project.

The city could help provide design feedback to homeowners looking to build infrastructure improvements in the right of way:

  • Cost feedback - how much does a 4 foot wide sidewalk cost per square foot? A catch basin? Drain pipe under the sidewalk, how big, what material, roughly how expensive?
  • Design feedback - what choices in the design drive up cost? What can be value engineered, removed, or changed to keep costs down?

Finally, the city could pool interested homeowners once a year, and help them put their projects out for bid together. This could attract a wider pool of bidders at more competitive prices.

Recently, the city had lots of success with a liaison for outdoor dining improvements - a dedicated staffer to answer questions about the process and permitting. It would be great to implement a similar program for sidewalk improvements.

Upgrade Unsignalized School-Area Crossings

Make school-area crossings safer where kids and families need to cross without a traffic signal.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should install Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons, high visibility crosswalks, advance stop bars, daylighting, and other crossing improvements near schools where warranted.

Campaign 3: Build a Low-Stress Bike Network

Biking should not require bravery. Walnut Creek needs routes that normal people can use comfortably: kids, families, commuters, downtown visitors, and people connecting to BART or the Iron Horse Trail.

  • Build connected low-stress bike routes between neighborhoods, schools, downtown, BART, parks, and trails.
  • Use protected bikeways or shared-use paths on higher-speed streets.
  • Designate useful slower streets as Class III bike routes, with bike route signs, sharrows, and traffic calming where they help make the network legible.
  • Put a modern walking and biking priority list into the General Plan, CIP, and future grant applications.

Projects

Designate Slow Streets as Class III Bike Routes

Make useful slower streets legible as comfortable bike routes to schools, downtown, BART, parks, and trails.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should identify slower streets such as Walnut Boulevard, Lincoln Avenue between the Iron Horse Trail and Main Street, Walden Road between Jones Road and Civic Drive, Peachwillow Lane, and other school-, trail-, and downtown-adjacent streets as Class III bike routes where the context fits.

Bike route signs, pavement markings, and sharrows can help people find lower-stress streets and make the bike network easier to understand. They also remind drivers that people biking are expected to use the lane.

This should be treated as a connected network project, not a one-off sign request. The best opportunities are during repaving and redesign projects, when the city can add markings, narrow lanes, calm traffic, and fill smaller gaps without creating a large standalone construction project.

Give Downtown's Ring Streets the Newell Treatment

Calm the high-risk streets around downtown and create protected ways to cross and bike along them.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Today, there is not an easy way to get to downtown destinations by bike. Downtown is surrounded by big, stressful streets such as California Boulevard, Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Civic Drive, Newell Avenue, Broadway, and Ygnacio Valley Road. Those streets are both barriers to downtown and destinations in their own right.

Walnut Creek should give each of these downtown ring streets the Newell treatment: protected bikeways or shared-use paths where traffic speed and volume call for protection, safer intersections, fewer high-speed turn conflicts, calmer vehicle lanes, better crossings, and clear connections to the low-stress streets on either side.

The goal is not just to thread people through gaps in the ring. The goal is to pacify the ring itself so nearby neighborhoods can safely reach downtown, BART, errands, restaurants, schools, parks, the Iron Horse Trail, and housing.

Existing bike routes across downtown Walnut Creek: green routes are good, yellow routes are OK, but there are large gaps in the network.
Study Low-Stress Connections South and East of Ygnacio Valley Road

Find realistic ways to connect southeast Walnut Creek neighborhoods to Shadelands, the hospital area, parks, restaurants, and after-school programs.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

As the crow flies, Shadelands - home to kids activities, a brewery, restaurants, and other amenities - is about a 15-minute bike ride from the San Miguel and Walnut Heights neighborhoods. In practice, parents and kids often only feel comfortable making the trip by car. Ygnacio Valley Road is a frequent source of traffic complaints for residents and many trips just do not happen as a result.

There are no paved paths crossing the red lines on the map, which means trips from southeast Walnut Creek to Shadelands or the hospital area require long detours on roads that frequently lack a shoulder.

This is a clear gap, but the solution is not obvious. Some possible connections may be steep, winding, indirect, or on private roads. Walnut Creek should map the existing bike network, study practical options such as a wider Ygnacio Valley Road path or smaller neighborhood connections, and identify the best tradeoff between directness, comfort, cost, and feasibility.

There are no paved paths that intersect any of these red lines.
Put Walking and Biking Priorities in the General Plan

Use the General Plan update to set Walnut Creek's modern walking and biking investment agenda.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek's bike plan was adopted in 2011, and the pedestrian plan was adopted in 2016. Both still contain useful ideas, but neither reflects the full set of priorities Walnut Creek needs now: protected bikeways, sidewalk gaps, low-stress downtown access, bike parking, maintenance, school travel, safety metrics, and programming.

The General Plan update should include a clear walking and biking agenda with maps, priorities, and policies that can feed the Capital Improvement Program, future grant applications, paving projects, and any future bike, pedestrian, or active transportation plan update.

Build a Two-Way Protected Bike Lane on Rudgear Road

Create a low-stress route from Broadway to Vanderslice for people traveling between San Miguel, Walnut Heights, and the Iron Horse Trail.

Cost
High
Responsible agencies
City of Walnut Creek, Caltrans

Rudgear is a key connection for anyone who lives in the San Miguel CDP and wants to reach the Iron Horse Trail. Today, the route forces riders into stressful crossings, curb gaps, and fast turning traffic.

  • There is no curb cut at Bishop Lane for sidewalk riders.
  • Cars turning left from Rudgear onto side streets often travel at high speeds.
  • Eastbound riders have to cross at the park and ride, then cross back across three lanes of traffic.

Rudgear Road is very wide. One possible configuration keeps four driving and turning lanes, a parking lane, and two bike lanes within 72 feet of right-of-way; the road itself is roughly 75 to 80 feet wide.

Concept rendering of a two-way protected bike lane.
Example cross-section showing how the street could fit bike lanes.
Add Automatic Bike and Pedestrian Detection at Iron Horse Trail and Mt. Diablo Boulevard

Give trail users an automatic call phase at one of the busiest trail crossings in Walnut Creek.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agencies
City of Walnut Creek, East Bay Regional Park District

Walnut Creek already uses automatic detection for approaching pedestrians and bicyclists at Walden Road and Hillgrade Avenue. The same treatment would be useful at Mt. Diablo Boulevard.

The Mt. Diablo crossing at the Iron Horse Trail.
Add a Bikes OK Sign at Milton Avenue and San Miguel Drive

Clarify that people biking may legally use the existing gap where cars are banned from turning from San Miguel Drive onto Milton Avenue.

Cost
Low
Responsible agency
Contra Costa County

There is a sign banning cars from turning from San Miguel onto Milton. While a wide gap exists for pedestrians and cyclists, no signage indicates it is a legal turn. As a result, Google Maps and other tools encourage cyclists to take Rudgear, which has more traffic and higher vehicle speeds.

County staff indicated they could not put a sign here, but California MUTCD section 9B.02 indicates that an EXCEPT BICYCLES sign can be placed underneath DO NOT ENTER signage.

The Milton/San Miguel intersection where an EXCEPT BICYCLES sign could go.

Campaign 4: Make Downtown Safer, Calmer, and More Walkable

Downtown should be Walnut Creek's most walkable place. It should be easy to reach from BART, comfortable for families and seniors, good for restaurants and shops, and safe for people crossing streets or arriving by bike.

  • Improve the walk and bike connection between BART and downtown.
  • Expand leading pedestrian intervals and use targeted turn restrictions where conflicts justify them.
  • Remove or redesign high-conflict slip lanes.
  • Create people-centered downtown streets and public spaces.

Projects

Better BART to Downtown Connectivity

Make the trip between Walnut Creek BART and downtown obvious, comfortable, and safe.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agencies
City of Walnut Creek, BART

Walnut Creek BART is close to downtown, but the connection can still feel fragmented, uncomfortable, or unclear. There is practically no nice way to walk or bike from the station into downtown today. The city should improve crossings, wayfinding, bike access, and the walking environment between the station and downtown destinations.

A protected intersection at California Boulevard and Ygnacio Valley Road would be a major step. After that, Walnut Creek should create a continuous low-stress route from BART into downtown. Oakland Boulevard and Trinity Avenue can be useful, but they should not substitute for a direct, comfortable connection on or near California Boulevard, where more housing, shops, and downtown destinations are located.

Better BART-to-downtown connectivity would help residents, workers, visitors, and transit riders reach shops, restaurants, offices, events, and housing without needing a car for the last mile.

Turn a Block of Locust Street Into a Downtown Promenade

Create a downtown shared street or promenade for walking, biking, outdoor dining, play, and public life.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should study turning one block of Locust Street into a downtown promenade where people walking and biking have priority and cars are not allowed through, except where access is truly needed.

Restaurants and cafes could use more of the street for tables and chairs, with room for a small play space where kids can stay busy while adults sit nearby. The goal is a lively downtown street that supports local businesses and gives families a comfortable public place to spend time.

The design should preserve emergency access and necessary driveway or garage access, but the street should feel like a people-first place: a continuous raised surface, fewer curbs and lane markings, slow vehicle access only where required, and a layout that makes walking, dining, and lingering feel natural.

Use Leading Pedestrian Intervals and Targeted Turn Restrictions

Give people walking a head start and reduce the specific turning conflicts that create the most risk.

Cost
Low
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek already uses Leading Pedestrian Intervals downtown and at other key locations. We support keeping them, expanding them where needed, and making them the default treatment where turning vehicles conflict with people walking.

No Turn on Red should be targeted rather than blanket. Where a specific turn creates recurring danger, Walnut Creek should use turn restrictions, protected turn phases, or blank-out signs that apply when people are crossing. The goal is safer crossings without adding signs or restrictions where they are unlikely to improve safety.

Eliminate or Redesign High-Risk Slip Lanes

Remove or redesign downtown turn lanes that create high-conflict crossings.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should audit downtown slip lanes and physically close or redesign the highest-conflict locations. Slip lanes can encourage fast turns and make crossings longer and less predictable for people walking and biking.

Add More Bike Racks in Broadway Plaza

Make it easier to bike to Broadway Plaza and reduce car parking demand at peak times.

Cost
Low
Responsible agencies
City of Walnut Creek, Macerich

Adding more bike racks at Broadway Plaza can help ease demand for car parking at peak times and encourage people to commute downtown without adding traffic to our roads. Convenient, visible bike parking at a major destination sends a clear signal that biking is a welcome way to arrive.

Campaign 5: Make Safe Street Delivery the Default

Walnut Creek should not need to refight the same safety conversation project by project. City policy, planning, paving, budgeting, and grant work should make safer street design the normal outcome.

  • Make Safe System design the baseline for street projects.
  • Include walking and biking improvements in repaving and capital projects.
  • Make it clear when residents can support projects at council, in grant applications, or during design.
  • Coordinate across the City, County, Caltrans, East Bay Regional Park District, BART, and state agencies.

Projects

Adopt Safe System Design as the Default

Require Walnut Creek street projects to start from the city's adopted Safe System approach.

Cost
Low
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should use its adopted Safe System approach as the baseline for future roadway and street design projects. Safety should be designed into the street rather than depending on perfect behavior from drivers, pedestrians, or cyclists.

Adopt Protected Bike Infrastructure by Default

Make protected bikeways or shared-use paths the expected treatment on appropriate arterial projects.

Cost
Medium
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should make Class IV separated bikeways or shared-use paths the expected treatment on arterial repaving and redesign projects where traffic speed and volume make painted bike lanes insufficient.

Paint-and-post projects can be faster and useful in the right context, but higher-speed streets should move toward protection by default whenever the city is already redesigning, repaving, or rebuilding the street.

Fund Local Road Safety Plan Priorities

Move adopted safety priorities into budgets, grants, design, and construction.

Cost
High
Responsible agency
City of Walnut Creek

Walnut Creek should fund the Local Road Safety Plan's priority projects and include walking, biking, and traffic safety upgrades in routine paving, maintenance, and capital projects.