Oakland’s Slow Streets and Essential Places Program
February 22, 2022
Oakland Department of Transportation, Safe Streets Division https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/oakland-slow-streets Attachment A
2 slow streets overviewslow streets overview
Timeline – Slow Streets and Essential Places Program
Phase 1:
Initial Roll-out
April to July 2020:
Installed Slow
Streets Corridors
May to July 2020:
Installed Essential
Places Locations
Phase 2:
Evaluation &
Modifications
Evaluated the
Program and
initiated changes to
maintain it for the
ongoing pandemic
Phase 3: Sustainable
Strategies
1. Expand Essential
Places
2. Neighborhood Bike
Routes Slow Streets
3. Pop-Up Slow Streets
March 16, 2020
Shelter-in-Place
orders begin
Restrictions adjust
to allow new
activities
Schools open, travel
patterns begin to
resemble pre-pandemic
Spring 2020 Fall 2020 2021
External Factors Slow Streets
Shafter Ave
2022
Priority efforts from before and during the pandemic:
• Safe Oakland Streets Initiative: Responding to traffic violence with inter- departmental, equity-focused strategies
• Five Year Paving Plan: Fixing Oakland’s streets, delivering cost-effective safety improvements to many streets, achieving the goals of Measure KK • Pedestrian Plan & Bicycle Plan: Promoting safety and access to encourage and support walking and biking
• Rapid Response Program: Investigating and responding to severe and fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes with quick-build safety improvements • Grant-funded Capital Projects: Bringing outside resources to Oakland for major street upgrades
• Emergency Preparedness & Response to wildfires, power shut-offs, sideshows, community violence, and crowd control
3 slow streets overviewslow streets overviewAlmost 2 Years Later - From Temporary COVID-19 Emergency Response to Sustainable Institutionalization in OakDOT
OakDOT’s mission is to envision, plan, build, operate and maintain a transportation system for the City of Oakland—in partnership with local transit providers and other agencies—and to assure safe, equitable, and sustainable access and mobility for residents, businesses and visitors.
Slow Streets Corridors: 21 miles of soft street
closures to repurpose local streets for socially
distant walking, biking, and other physical
activities, alleviating sidewalk crowding
and helping residents shelter-in-place.
program purpose slow streets overviewprogram goals slow streets overview Phase 1 – Initial Roll-Out (April to July 2020)
4 Essential Places Locations: temporary pedestrian
safety improvements at 15 locations to support access to essential services including grocery stores, food distribution sites, and COVID-19 test sites on high-crash corridors and in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Slow Streets Corridor on Wisconsin St and 35th Ave
Essential Places Location at San Pablo Ave and Myrtle St • Oakland Slow Streets created space for physical activity without impeding necessary street functions. • Oakland Slow Streets received a lot of positive support. • Support and use of Oakland Slow Streets varied by demographic and geographic group with the highest levels from higher income, White, and North Oakland residents. Essential workers and Deep East Oakland residents expressed that the program was not meeting their needs and conflicted with public health messaging. • Oakland Slow Streets communications did not reach enough Oaklanders. • For many Oaklanders, traffic safety was a more important transportation issue than creating space for physical activity, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods with less telecommuting. • Cones and barricades were not sustainable materials, requiring extensive maintenance and generating significant replacement costs.
program purpose slow streets overviewprogram goals slow streets overview Phase 1 – Evaluation Findings (April to September 2020) 5 Full Report Available at: https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/oakland-slow-streets
311 Requests for Permanence311 Requests Comparatively Positive 6 Regular maintenance (five days
per week) to keep cones and
barricades in place.
Corridor-specific outreach
garnered mixed responses.
Multiple modifications to
improve and sustain the program:
•U s e dmore durable materials
(mounted to the ground)
• Accommodated schools re-
opening & AC Transit
• Additional treatments at major
intersections (turn restrictions,
setting barricades further back)
Phase 2 – Maintaining the Program (Fall 2020 through 2021) slow streets overviewprogram goals slow streets overview Phase 2 – Challenges (Fall 2020 through 2021)
7 Brookdale Ave
~2 years of a “temporary” program where temporary
materials = high maintenance
Declining use through time, even on popular corridors,
as California reopened, schools resumed, residents
began driving more again, and the virus was better
understood
Waning support and growing complaints, especially
from neighbors on nearby streets:
• “I supported during shelter-in-place but now…”
• Slow Streets criticized as “privatization”
• Diverted traffic unfairly affecting others
• Safety concerns at major cross-streets
• Drivers unable to use key traffic signals
Competition with other demands as OakDOT staff
work to deliver safety improvements and respond to
resident concerns
Slow Street on E 16th St at 28th Ave
slow streets overview
8 Phase 3 – Sustainable Strategies (beginning 2022)
Redirect staff efforts by removing all temporary Slow
Streets and Essential Places materials and shifting to
longer-term improvements. The removal of temporary
materials, including the temporary street closures, will start in late January 2022.
1. Expand Essential Places: Prioritize essential services for quick build and permanent pedestrian safety
projects.
2. Neighborhood Bike Routes Slow Streets: Build a
network that serves pedestrians, bicyclists, and micro- mobility users, and advance these streets as
community space.
3. Pop-up Slow Streets: Support resident-initiated use of streets as neighborhood space for community-building.
Bancroft Ave at Avenal Ave Slow
Streets Essential Places
pedestrian crossing treatment
being upgraded to concrete
slow streets overviewprogram goals slow streets overview Phase 3 – Expanding Essential Places
9 • Install pedestrian safety
improvements at essential
services, especially those serving
our most vulnerable residents
• May include safety islands,
hardened centerlines, bulb-outs…
• Prioritize using High Injury
Network and equity factors like
income and race
• Continue to use temporary
materials for rapid installation
• Continue systematically
upgrading these locations to
permanent treatments (like
concrete safety islands).
Adeline St and 18th St
14th St and Market St
Bancroft Ave and Avenal Ave
slow streets overviewprogram goals slow streets overview Phase 3 – Sustaining Essential Places
10 Bancroft Ave at Avenal Ave Slow
Streets Essential Places
pedestrian crossing treatment
being upgraded to concrete
Location Essential Service Temporary Improvement (*) Permanent Status 14th St at Filbert St food distribution Cone Lane Closure Pending West Oakland Transit Access project 14th St at Myrtle St food distribution Cone Lane Closure TBD 14th St/Market St food distribution "Go Slow" Signage Concrete bulbouts installed 18th St west of Adeline St food distribution Cone Lane Closure Hardened centerlines installed 18th St/Adeline St food distribution Automatic Walk Phase Hardened centerlines installed 73rd Ave/Garfield Ave food distribution, grocery store Automatic Walk Phase High-visibility crosswalk installed Bancroft Ave at Avenal Ave grocery store Cone Safe ty Island Upgraded to concrete safety island Bancroft Ave/73rd Ave food distribution, grocery st ore Automatic Walk Phase Pending 73rd Ave project Bancroft Ave/Church St food distribution, grocery stor e Automatic Walk Phase HSIP upgrades pending construction Fruitvale Ave at E 15th St testing site, grocery stores Cone Lane Closure Permanent road diet installed Fruitvale Ave at E 16th St health clinic Cone Lane Closure Permanent road diet installed Fruitvale Ave at E 17th St grocery store Cone Lane Closure Permanent road diet installed plus RRFB Fruitvale Ave at E 18th St food distribution Automatic Walk Phase Permanent road diet installed Fruitvale Ave at E 19th St community services "Go Slow" Signage Permanent road diet installed plus RRFB San Pablo Ave at Myrtle St grocery store Cone Lane Cl osure & Bulbout Pending ACTC San Pablo Ave project (*) "Go Slow" Signage was installed as a temporary improvement at all locations. • Partner with the BPAC Infrastructure Committee to update the Neighborhood Bike Route Implementation Guide to be a “Slow Streets Implementation Guide”.
• Proactively address nearby residents’ concerns for diverted traffic and safety at major cross-streets through planning, outreach, and context-sensitive design.
• Implement permanent Slow Streets through the City’s Capital Improvement Program and the Five Year Paving Plan.
• Near-term opportunities include 8th St West Oakland, paving projects, and the East Oakland Neighborhood Bike Routes ATP grant. • Design elements include new signage and markings (to be developed), speed humps, traffic circles, improvements at major street crossings, and context-sensitive diverters at key locations. 11 slow streets overviewslow streets overview
Phase 3 – Neighborhood Bike Routes Slow Streets
Proposal: Build a Slow Streets Network that serves pedestrians, bicyclists, and micro-mobility users, and advances these streets as community space.
Phase 3 – Pop-Up Slow Streets
• Support neighbor-initiated use
of streets as community space
by advancing opportunities
for Pop-up Slow Streets.
• OakDOT is participating in a
multi-department effort to
improve special events permits
in support of neighborhood block
parties.
• "Pop-Up Slow Streets" is a way
for residents to use their streets
as community space by
experimenting with temporary
street closures.
12 Plymouth St
311 Requests for Permanence311 Requests Comparatively Positive 13 Building a Slow Streets Network is in tension with
resident-initiated Pop-Up Slow Streets that are
unlikely to result in a connected network.
• Proposal: Develop a naming convention to
clarify this distinction.
Many existing and proposed Neighborhood Bike
Routes are on “collector” streets that are intended
to be through streets for drivers.
• Proposal: Seek opportunities to reclassify these
streets as local streets.
Per State law pedestrians do not have right-of-way
in the street except at crosswalks.
• Proposal: Use Oakland’s authority for traffic
calming and temporary street closures to
support pedestrian activity.
Phase 3 – Policy Issues for Further Discussion
Alice St
City of Oakland staff including OakDOT Safe Streets Division, Nicole Ferrara, and Warren Logan
Local organization members and volunteers from Bike East Bay, Cycles of Change, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, East Oakland Collective, Just Cities, Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Outdoor Afro, Reginald “RB” Burnette Jr., TransForm, UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning, and Walk Oakland Bike Oakland
Over 2,000 survey respondents and 311 commenters
Metropolitan Transportation Commission staff including Nicola Szibbo, Toshi Shepard-Ohta, Vicente Romero de Avila Serrano, PlaceWorks staff including Michael Nilsson, Toole Design staff including Kerry Aszklar Jessica Zdeb, and
so many others. Thank you!
We couldn’t have done it without your support!
Thank you
Credit: Dave Campbell