At Wednesday evening's Alameda city Transportation Commission meeting, city staff provided an update regarding Otis Drive:

Caltrans staff reached out to us and said they were willing to rethink the configuration for that stretch of Otis from Bay Farm Bridge to Broadway and to bring alternatives to the public workshop here in Alameda.

So right now we are working on setting up a time to work with them on what those alternatives should be. And then we would co-host a public workshop and then looking at coming to the Transportation Commission maybe later in this year [or] early next year. And then [to] City Council towards spring.

Congratulations to everyone who has been involved in making this happen.

Instead of a highway-rebuilding project simply running on autopilot, we now have an opportunity for genuine public consideration of designs that promote traffic safety and usability by everyone along this key street.

We don't know what those "alternatives" will be. Will the alternatives seriously engage with the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and neighbors of all ages? Will the alternatives follow the full letter and the spirit of Caltrans's current complete-streets policies? Will the alternatives follow the current best practices for safe street design from NACTO? Will the alternatives be presented in a manner that highlights their advantages (including their safety advantages for motorists)? Or will this just be some lipstick added to a pig, graded against overly-simplistic and outdated criteria, offered as part of a diplomatic exercise? We'll just have to see...

For now, we can all be pleased that an opportunity for public visibility and input is coming. Thank you to the many neighbors, school parents and staff, traffic safety advocates at the local and regional and state levels, and elected officials who have combined their voices to request this opportunity to seriously engage with Caltrans about the future of Otis Drive.