Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Edward D. Reiskin FROM: Ryan Russo
City Administrator Oakland Department of
Transportation Director
SUBJECT: 14th Street Safety Project
(Brush Street to Oak Street)
DATE: March 10, 2022
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution: Approving The 14th Street Safety Project; Approving The 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan; And Adopting California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Findings.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The proposed resolution authorizes the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) staff to complete the 14th Street Safety Project (Project). This Project addresses immediate safety needs on one of Oakland’s highest-injury corridors and improves access for people biking, scootering, walking, driving, and taking the bus. Primarily, this Project will repave the street, remove one lane of traffic in each direction, install physically separated bicycle lanes, make improvements to support safer pedestrian crossing, provide additional vehicle parking in the project area, and improve transit speed, experience, and reliability on the corridor.
This proposed resolution also confirms a 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan to ensure people who drive to 14th Street can readily find parking. The Parking Management Plan includes adding more on-street parking spaces to the 14th Street Project Area, providing subsidized off-street parking for small business owners and employees on the corridor, instituting parking validation for visitors to the corridor, and conducting a comprehensive curb management review and overhaul to ensure that 14
th Street meets the operational needs of
local businesses and institutions.
In 2016, the City of Oakland applied for and was awarded $10,578,000 in Caltrans Active Transportation Program (ATP) Cycle 3 grant funds to design and construct the Project. In October 2018, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 87373 C.M.S., as shown in Attachment A, which authorized the City Administrator to accept and appropriate the ATP grant. Since 2019, OakDOT staff have listened to the concerns and ideas of community members—particularly merchants in the Black Arts Movement Business District—and refined the Project design to respond to this feedback, as discussed below. Staff will return to City Council to award the construction contract prior to constructing the Project.
Mar 11, 2022
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 2
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
In the last fifteen years, improving multimodal access and safety on 14th Street has been a priority in numerous adopted City of Oakland plans and planning efforts. The 2007 Bicycle Master Plan, part of the Land Use and Transportation Element of the General Plan, first identified 14th Street as a priority bike route. Improvements to 14th Street in Downtown Oakland were further clarified in the 2014 Lake Merritt Station Area Plan which called for bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements on the corridor.
In 2015, a design charrette led by the Department of Planning & Building identified potential designs to incorporate a continuous protected bikeway on 14th Street between Brush Street and Oak Street. In early 2016, AC Transit, Oakland’s surface transit operator, approved a system- wide improvement plan that increased service frequency on the Line 14 bus, which operates on 14th Street.
Also, in 2016, Oakland Public Works (OPW) Transportation Planning & Funding staff identified the 14th Street bikeway project as a potential application toward Caltrans’ Active Transportation Program (ATP) grant funding. OPW submitted an ATP application for $10,578,000 in grant funding for design and construction of the project. Following the creation of OakDOT, the department was notified in 2017 of the successful ATP Cycle 3 application. In October 2018, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 87373 C.M.S., as shown in Attachment A, which authorized the City Administrator to accept and appropriate the ATP grant funding.
The City's 2017 High Injury Network Analysis showed that 14th Street is one of the least-safe streets in the city for people traveling by any mode, but particularly for those traveling by bike.
The Let’s Bike Oakland Bike Plan Update, adopted on July 9, 2019 via Resolution No. 87808 C.M.S, further underscored the recommendation to improve 14 th Street for people biking, calling
for fully protected Class IV bicycle lanes on 14th Street from Oak Street to Mandela Parkway.
A key pillar of the Equitable Climate Action Plan, adopted by the City Council on July 28, 2020, via Resolution No. 88267 C.M.S, is to implement the City’s Let’s Bike Oakland Bike Plan and to “allocate curb space for mobility needs for public transit and active transportation, such as walking and biking.” The Equitable Climate Action Plan states that the City recognizes “the importance of significantly shifting people away from private auto trips – one of the top five strategies needed for Oakland to meet its climate targets,” and that “active transportation (walking and biking) and public transportation are the top priorities.”
Finally, the in-progress Downtown Oakland Specific Plan, which will chart the course of development, policy, and change in Downtown Oakland for the coming decades, calls for the City to “Implement the pedestrian and bicycle programs/policies for Downtown Oakland detailed in the 2017 Oakland Pedestrian Plan and 2019 Oakland Bike Plan” (Mobility Policy 1.2).
Overall, this plan established the City priority of "completing a system of integrated walking and biking paths through downtown to link cultural districts, connect people seamlessly to all of the downtown waterfronts (Lake Merritt, Channel and Estuary), and improve access to adjacent neighborhoods and districts.” The 14th Street Safety Project will be the first true connection of this nature within the Downtown core.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 3
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Accepting the staff recommendation and adopting the resolution supporting the 14th Street Safety Project reinforces Oakland’s commitment to the vision of a safer, more equitable transportation system that is articulated in the Equitable Climate Action Plan (2020), Let’s Bike Oakland Bike Plan Update (2019), Lake Merritt Station Area Plan (2014), and Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (ongoing). This Project meets Oakland’s Citywide Priorities of 1) holistic community safety, 2) housing, economic and cultural security, 3) vibrant and sustainable infrastructure, and 4) responsive, trustworthy government, as follows:
1. Holistic Community Safety: 14th Street today is a high-injury corridor where someone is injured in a traffic collision every 10 days and where, tragically, two Asian-American seniors were killed by drivers in the time since the City applied for this safety grant. In Oakland, severe and fatal traffic crash victims are predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). This Project helps solve an immediate and pressing safety need. For information on the safety benefits of this project, please see Attachment B –Safety Analysis.
2. Housing, Economic, and Cultural Security: Many Oaklanders cannot afford access to an automobile. Walking, bicycling, riding a scooter, and taking the bus are often cost-effective means of travel. However, a lack of safe, attractive, and comfortable facilities may dissuade people from walking, biking, riding a scooter or taking the bus. After Project completion, people of varying bicycle abilities and people using scooters and other mobility devices will be able to ride in a protected bicycle lane into Downtown. (see Attachment C – Network Connectivity). This Project will also install transit amenities to help create dignified, reliable, and speedy bus service on 14th Street and improve pedestrian safety along the corridor. To ensure people who cannot or do not walk, bike or bus can still readily access cultural amenities along 14th Street, the Project is also providing additional on-street parking and subsidizing parking. Finally, this Project will fund the City’s Public Art Program, as memorialized in the Public Art Ordinance (No. 13562), to install community-led Public Art to enhance the corridor and reflect the unique history and cultures of 14th Street.
3. Vibrant and Sustainable Infrastructure: 14th Street is the central project in a network of protected bike lanes that will soon stretch from 1st Avenue all the way to the West Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Station. This Project stitches together a world-class network of protected bike lanes that will allow Oaklanders to make sustainable transportation choices when traveling into, out of, or within Downtown. See Attachment C – Network Connectivity. This Project invests in transit infrastructure to ensure Oaklanders have high-quality, sustainable transportation choices. The net improvement in access, particularly via the space-efficient modes of walking, cycling and public transit, will support the economic vibrancy of Downtown.
4. Responsive, Trustworthy Government: In response to stakeholder discussions in late 2019, OakDOT listened and took strides to answer community concerns related to this Project.
The attached resolution approves a Parking Management Plan that directly responds to local business concerns about parking and access changes. This Project will also fund a Public Art process that will highlight the local community of artists that help define 14th Street. Finally, in comments received during public outreach, OakDOT sought and received additional funding to augment the original design to support active pedestrian space in core commercial areas.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 4
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
Design Development
Prior to 2016, Oakland Public Works (OPW) Transportation Planning & Funding staff convened a multi-disciplinary project development team to analyze 14th Street and develop strategies to implement the recommendations of recent planning efforts including the Lake Merritt Station Area Plan and the 2007 Bicycle Master Plan.
The OPW project development team conducted a design decision process in coordination with AC Transit and Department of Planning and Building staff to identify a preferred design. The team concluded that the preferred option was a roadway-level protected bike lane separated from motor vehicles by hardscaped concrete islands with in-lane boarding islands for AC Transit buses. This preferred option was presented to OPW Management, the Department of Planning and Building, the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Commission, AC Transit, and advocacy groups working in the city of Oakland on transportation safety issues. This Project description formed the basis for the successful ATP grant application, submitted in 2016 and accepted by City Council in 2018.
Design Refinement
In 2017, OakDOT analyzed citywide collision patterns to identify the High Injury Network – the 6 percent of City streets that are responsible for 63 percent of severe and fatal crashes Citywide.
This High Injury Network study, which used data from 2012 to 2016, identified 14th Street between Brush Street and Oak Street, as a Multimodal, Pedestrian, and Bicycle High Injury Corridor. Among the streets comprising the Bicycle High Injury Network, 14th Street stands apart - 14th Street is the second least safe street in the city of Oakland for people biking. This analysis further supported the design decision to pursue bike lanes that are physically separated from motor vehicles. In addition to providing a safer and inviting place for people of varied abilities and comfort levels to ride a bike, scooter or mobility device, protected bike lanes improve safety for all roadway users. A 2019 study which examined 13 years of crash data in 12 large cities concluded that “building safe facilities for cyclists is one of the biggest factors in road safety for everyone. Bicycling infrastructure -- specifically, separated and protected bike lanes -- leads to fewer fatalities and better road-safety outcomes for all road users.”1 Finally, the 2017 High Injury Network Study pointed to a high prevalence of injuries on 14th Street resulting from red-light running and dangerous driving. This reinforced the need to use street design—not traffic enforcement—to reduce the prevalence of dangerous driving actions like unsafe passing, red- light running, and double-parking.
Following the development of the High Injury Network and pursuant to City Council direction, OakDOT engaged an engineering consultant to begin design of the 14th Street Project. Today, 14th Street is a four-lane, two-way roadway with parallel parking and loading on both sides of the street. Unlike other major bicycle route corridors in the City of Oakland, 14th Street has regularly-spaced intersections about 300 feet apart – all with traffic signals that control intersection movements and reduce conflicts between people walking or biking and people driving. 14th Street is not a truck route and large trucks are prohibited on 14th Street east of Webster Street. A traffic operations analysis conducted with counts from 2019 showed that 14th Street is overbuilt for the vehicle traffic it carries, especially at off-peak times and in the
1 University of Colorado Denver. "Cycling lanes reduce fatalities for all road users, study shows:
Roads are safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in cities with robust bike facilities." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 May 2019. < https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.03.004>.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 5
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
evenings (see the Traffic Operations Analysis Memo as Attachment D). Given the excess vehicle capacity on 14th Street, the Project will reduce the number of motor vehicle travel lanes from four to two (one lane in each direction), from Brush Street to Oak Street. To accommodate higher-volume right turns at key locations (for instance, turning right onto northbound Castro Street to access the Interstate 980 freeway), the Project would retain a right-turn lane.
The 2019 Traffic Operations Analysis Memo concluded that “all study intersections will continue to operate below capacity with the reduction in vehicle lanes” and “with the planned vehicle lane reduction, the level of service for all study intersections is expected to be LOS C or better in the weekday AM and PM peak hours.” Level of Service, or LOS, is a traditional model of gauging the operations of an intersection, with “LOS C” referring to a stable intersection. Furthermore, when viewed from a “person throughput” perspective (measuring the amount of people that can safely and efficiently move along the roadway), the improvements to pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and transit reliability have the potential to increase the number of total users of 14 th
Street.
In addition to refining the design to improve safety and ensure adequate vehicle operations, OakDOT staff have incorporated community feedback into the design. Outreach meetings in late 2019 brought up important concerns related to the displacement of small businesses along 14 th Street, the redevelopment of surface parking lots to accommodate Oakland’s growing population, and gentrification. As a result of fall 2019 outreach, OakDOT took steps to address immediate concerns by right-sizing street sweeping regulations on 14th Street to accommodate more late-night and overnight parking and stepping-up permit enforcement to ensure access to businesses is maintained during utility construction activities. OakDOT also is in the process of relocating the bike share station at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and 14th Street to improve access to the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.
Since 2019, OakDOT staff have also heard requests to increase pedestrian space, especially on the densely-packed commercial block from Webster Street to Harrison Street. This block is a hub for dining, socializing, and nightlife, with regular packed crowds on sidewalks on Friday and Saturday nights. Since the onset of the pandemic, two dining and entertainment establishments – the Kon Tiki and the Dinner House - have constructed outdoor dining Flex Street program spaces on the south side of 14th Street on this block. On the north side of the block, sidewalk crowding is an issue late at night when pedestrians often spill out in the roadway. Businesses raised questions about how this Project could add more pedestrian space, enhance the informal nighttime ambience of this block, and underscore this block’s importance as a central commercial hub of the Black Arts Movement Business District. Based on this feedback, OakDOT altered the design of the Project on this block and raised the bike lanes to sidewalk level. This means that during the day and busy commuting hours, this raised bike lane will provide a safe path of travel for people biking. At nighttime, this space effectively becomes an expanded sidewalk to foster the vibrant pedestrian activity that occurs here.
Conversations with the Hong Fook Center on the south side of 14th Street between Harrison Street and Alice Street highlighted an opportunity to better accommodate paratransit loading on 14 th Street. The 14th Street entrance to the Hong Fook Center is used by approximately 300 seniors per day, often by people with mobility devices, canes, or walkers. To accommodate the unique needs of the senior center, and to coordinate with the AC Transit boarding area sidewalk extension already planned for this block, the Project team sought and received additional funding to build a wider sidewalk/raised bike lane. For more information on the specifics of Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 6
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
OakDOT’s public outreach process for this project, who staff spoke to and what was heard, see Public Outreach / Interest section below.
Public Art
To hire local artists, invest in place-keeping, and help reinforce the identities of 14th Street, the City is commissioning Public Art to accompany this Project. Located within the Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWD), the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Division administers the Public Art Program which commissions, acquires, installs, and supports Public Art across Oakland. The Public Art Ordinance (No. 13562), updated in June 2019, “authorized the allocation of 1.5 percent of the City’s capital improvement projects costs for the commissioning of Public Art works and artists’ services in the construction of public works.” Public Art staff, with guidance from the Public Art Advisory Committee, are tasked with administering these funds and providing vision, planning, and project management for Oakland’s Public Art collection. Starting with the 14
th Street Safety Project, OakDOT is working
with the Public Art Program to set up a framework for transferring 1.5 percent of the capital improvement cost of the Project to EWD for the administration of a Public Art process, as stated in the Public Art Ordinance. Such a process would provide a pipeline for community members and artists to participate in and help re-envision 14th Street in a transparent and representative manner. The Public Art program will work to engage the communities of artists connected to the corridor, to select an artist or artists to perform design and fabrication work, and to install the art on the corridor. OakDOT and EWD will evaluate this process and make changes if necessary, to improve the process for future opportunities to add Public Art to large capital street projects.
Parking Management Plan
Finally, to ensure that people who need to drive can continue to access community destinations along 14th Street, OakDOT developed a parking management plan, based on feedback from merchants along 14th Street. The 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan includes the following elements (more detailed information can be found in Attachment E):
1. Repaving and restriping 13th Street between Franklin and Oak Streets to remove a lane of travel and add angled parking on the south side of the street to add up to 53 parking spaces to the small business core of the 14th Street Project Area
2. Providing subsidized off-street parking in the Frank G. Mar parking garage at 13th and Harrison Street to local small business owners and employees
3. Conducting a comprehensive review of curb colors, signage, metering, and parking regulations to ensure that the street efficiently accommodates all loading activities and meets the operational needs of residents and businesses, without reliance on enforcement and ticketing
4. Providing validated parking for visitors to businesses along 14th Street in the 17th & Franklin parking garage
5. Relocating existing Flex Street parklet dining areas on 14th to new floating parking areas, where feasible
6. Modifying street sweeping regulations to promote availability of parking for nightlife uses and for residential overnight parking (complete)
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 7
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
Policy Alternatives
The 14th Street Safety Project is a complete streets project at its fullest. Early conceptual design centered on transportation planning best practices. Design refinement—guided by engineering analysis and community perspectives and priorities--led to wider sidewalks where they are needed most, better transit and paratransit access, public art, a robust parking management plan including adding more parking, and a high-quality protected connection for people who choose to bike or use a scooter.
Staff recommends approval of the proposed resolution approving the 14th Street Safety Project.
Not accepting the staff recommendation to support the 14th Street Safety Project directs OakDOT staff to either return the Caltrans ATP grant or seek revisions to the scope of the ATP grant. The Caltrans ATP grant funds the Project’s design and most of the Project’s construction.
The grant requires that the City construct protected bike lanes to improve safety and to encourage more walking and biking. In the past, Caltrans, at the staff level, have not encouraged scope revisions from protected bike lanes to buffered bike lanes. If Caltrans does not approve the scope revision, the City may need to refund grant funds spent to-date. Similarly, if City Council directs staff to return the grant, the City could be required to refund design funds spent to-date. More importantly, the No Project Alternative would delay important safety improvements on one of Oakland’s Highest Injury Corridors.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of this resolution directs staff to finalize design of the 14th Street Safety Project and issue construction bid documents for advertisement of this project to potential bidders. OakDOT staff will return to City Council prior to constructing the project and award the construction contract. As of November 2021, the estimate for construction costs of the 14th Street Safety Project is approximately $18.3 million. This project is fully funded in the Fiscal Year 2021-2023 Capital Improvement Program through a combination of Active Transportation Program, Measure KK, Transportation for Clean Air, and Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act funds.
In the event of a No Project Alternative, the City could be forced to refund money that has been spent on design to date. This may also compromise the City’s ability to secure future grants from funding partners at the local, state, and federal levels
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
Pre-Covid-19 Pandemic Outreach
Starting in early 2019, OakDOT began targeted outreach and engagement with 14th Street merchants, residents, and other users of the corridor. OakDOT staff engaged business owners and workers regarding their safety concerns and parking and loading needs. OakDOT conducted door-to-door site walks, distributed detailed merchant surveys to each business, and met with representatives from local Neighborhood Council groups, the Uptown/Downtown Business Improvement District, and the Black Arts Movement Business District (BAMBD) Community Development Corporation. OakDOT engaged Oaklanders for this Project through one-on-one conversations with local business, public “town hall”-style meetings, and Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 8
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
presentations to local Neighborhood Councils. Based on robust merchant feedback, OakDOT hosted a small local business task force in 2019, which discussed concerns regarding gentrification, displacement, identify, and parking and access needs.
Overall, the top two community priorities that arose from these discussions in 2019 were the need for solutions to enable Oaklanders to continue to be able to drive and park downtown to access regional cultural and commercial destinations, and the desire to empower the community to implement artistic elements to highlight the history and cultures of the corridor.
OakDOT began a process to respond to these two main issues, as well as other feedback gathered in 2019, as discussed above in the Design Refinements section.
2020-to-Present Outreach
OakDOT worked closely across City departments to meaningfully address what staff heard from merchants in 2019 (see Design Refinements section above) and to share the proposed modifications with those most impacted by changes to 14th Street: people who live and work on the corridor. OakDOT relied on in-person, masked, and socially distanced site visits to local businesses, virtual stakeholder meetings with larger groups/local institutions/Oakland Neighborhood Councils, emails blasts, and postcard mailings. Staff met with small-business store fronts on 14th Street, in some cases multiple times, to go over questions and concerns related to the Project, talk through recent safety data for and experiences along the street, and generally keep in contact about the Project. In March of 2021, staff set up cones and closed a lane of traffic on Webster Street at 14th to illustrate how the project could create flexible pedestrian space. OakDOT staff met on-site with staff from The African American Museum and Library at Oakland, the Main Library Branch, and the Hong-Fook/Family Bridges Senior Center.
Staff presented at virtual meetings for the Oakland Chinatown Coalition, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland Cabaret Owners, and several Neighborhood Councils, including Chinatown, Downtown/Uptown, Cleveland Heights, Greater San Antonio, and beat 2X/5X.
OakDOT staff created an online presentation with updated design components and Parking Management Plan information. Additionally, staff created a full corridor plan of the Project with legible, labeled diagrams of each block of the corridor. Both presentations were translated into Spanish and Chinese and posted to the Project website. To get the word out about these changes to the wider 14
th Street community, OakDOT staff mailed 12,800 postcards to all residential and commercial addresses roughly bound by Adeline Street to the West, 18th Street to the North, 11th Avenue to the East, and 10th Street to the South. This mailing area was meant to target the local 14th Street community living in Downtown, as well as communities in West and East Oakland that would use 14th Street as a direct access point into Downtown.
Overall public feedback from the 2020/2021 outreach has been positive, with appreciation for the updated expanded sidewalk designs and the Parking Management Plan’s proposal to add parking spaces to the local Project area, to provide validated parking to customers, and to provide subsidized off-street parking to local business owners and employees. The Project team also noted the public’s strong reaction to the updated safety analysis presented at this time, with the information that almost 200 people have been injured and two people walking have died while crossing the street in the time that this project has been in the design phase.
OakDOT staff will continue to work closely with local businesses, residents, and stakeholder groups to fine-turn the design and implement the Parking Management Plan.
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 9
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
COORDINATION
OakDOT staff has worked with the Office of the City Attorney, the Budget Bureau, the Department of Economic and Workforce Development, the Department of Planning and Building, and AC Transit in the development of this Project and preparation of this report. This Project directly responds to the recommendations of the Lake Merritt Station Area Plan (2014) and the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (ongoing). Additionally, the Public Art component of this Project will be the first such partnership between OakDOT and the Cultural Affairs Division of the Economic and Workforce Development Department and will establish a framework for meeting the mandate of the Public Art Ordinance for large capital projects to contribute 1.5 percent of the total construction costs of a project to furnishing community-led Public Art.
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
OakDOT will continue to study and monitor traffic collisions on High Injury Corridors in the city of Oakland as part of an ongoing effort to update this analysis, consistent with the Safe Oakland Streets Initiative. Safe Oakland Streets is a Citywide initiative to analyze safety data and research/implement best practices to prevent serious and fatal traffic crashes and eliminate crash inequities on Oakland's streets. Data particular to 14th Street will form the basis of a Safety Evaluation of the 14th Street Safety Project, to be conducted within 3 years following construction completion to allow time for Oaklanders and visitors to adjust to the new configuration. In addition to this Safety Evaluation, staff will work with local bicycle and pedestrian safety advocates, AC Transit staff, and the public to evaluate the utility, perceived safety, and convenience of the Project. This work will be packaged into a project evaluation report to be finalized within 4 years of Project construction completion.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: Evaluations of similar projects find that people on foot and on bike shop more frequently and spend more money overall at local businesses after investments in pedestrian and bicycle safety are made. Providing safer, low-cost transportation options can also increase access to jobs and economic opportunity, an item of particular importance on streets like 14 th
Street which connects Downtown to both West Oakland and Eastlake/San Antonio. The design changes to support more pedestrian space on the Webster to Harrison block will support the continued vibrant nightlife district at that location, while new paving, Public Art, and pedestrian lighting along the entire corridor will reinforce the position of 14th Street as the central east-west commercial corridor in Downtown Oakland.
Environmental: Safer streets for walking and bicycling can help reduce environmental impacts associated with transportation by helping shift people’s trip choices away from single occupancy vehicles and towards walking, bicycling and transit.
Race & Equity: 14th Street is one of the least-safe streets in Oakland. Providing protected bike lanes is an engineering tool to separate roadway users; reduce conflicts between people walking, biking, and driving; and reduce speeds so that when conflicts do occur, they are less severe. In 2018, the Oakland Equity Indicators Report found troubling disparities in traffic deaths Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 10
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March 22, 2022
in Oakland.2 The City experiences approximately two severe or fatal traffic crashes each week, with crashes disproportionately impacting BIPOC and high priority communities. Public improvements to improve safety and prioritize people walking and biking also allow for more convenient, affordable, and safe forms of transportation. Spanning West Oakland to Lake Merritt, the 14th Street Safety Project travels through either Highest, High, or Medium priority neighborhoods in the city with higher concentration of low-income households with limited English proficiency, BIPOC residents, people with disabilities and seniors3. Providing protected bike lanes improves safety, helps address collision disparities by race, reduces barriers to accessing active transportation.
CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA)
The Oakland Bicycle Master Plan Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR), initially certified in 2007 and reaffirmed in 2019 via Addendum, found the recommendations of the Plans— including a protected bicycle facility on 14th Street between Brush Street and Oak Street—would result in less than significant impacts under CEQA. The Project would have no new or substantially more adverse severe impacts, nor would there be any potentially significant off-site impacts, cumulative impacts, or previously identified significant effects not discussed in previous environmental documents. Also, there are no previously identified significant effects determined to have a more severe adverse impact than those discussed in previous environmental documents.
Furthermore, the Project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Sections 15183 (Projects Consistent with a Community Plan, General Plan or Zoning), 15301(c) (Existing Facilities, Highways and Streets), 15302 (Replacement or Reconstruction), 15303 (Small Structures), 15304(h) (minor alterations to land), and/or 15061(b)(3) (No Significant Effect on the Environment). Each of the above exemptions provides a separate and independent basis for CEQA compliance.
2 Oakland Equity Indicators Report. 2018. https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/2018- Equity-Indicators-Full-Report.pdf
3 OakDOT Geographic Equity Toolbox: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/oakdot-geographic- equity-toolbox
Edward D. Reiskin, City Administrator
Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
Date: February 1, 2022 Page 11
Public Works Committee
March 22, 2022
Ryan Russo (Mar 10, 2022 15:15 PST)
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Adopt A Resolution: Approving The 14th Street Safety Project; Approving The 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan; And Adopting California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Findings.
For questions regarding this report, please contact Charlie Ream, Transportation Planner, at 510-368-3596.
Respectfully submitted,
RYAN RUSSO
Director, Department of Transportation
Reviewed by:
Fred Kelley, T.E.
Assistant Director
Department of Transportation
Amit Salwan
Great Streets Division Manager
Department of Transportation
Emily Ehlers
Senior Transportation Planner
Department of Transportation
Prepared by:
Charlie Ream
Transportation Planner
Department of Transportation
Attachments (6):
Attachment A: Resolution No. 87373 C.M.S
Attachment B: Safety Analysis
Attachment C: Network Connectivity Summary and Map
Attachment D: Traffic Operations Memo
Attachment E: Parking Management Plan