AGENDA REPORT
TO: Steven Falk
Interim City Administrator
FROM: Fred Kelley, Director
Oakland Department of
Transportation
Darren Allison, Interim Chief
Oakland Police Department
Darlene Flynn, Director
Department of Race and
Equity
Joe DeVries, Deputy City
Administrator
City Administrator’s Office
SUBJECT: 2022 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS)
Initiative Annual Report
DATE: May 11, 2023
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive The 2022 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report From The Department Of Transportation, In Coordination With The Oakland Police Department, The Department Of Race And Equity, And The City Administrator’s Office.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Severe and fatal crashes in the City of Oakland (City) are unacceptably high. To address this public safety epidemic, Oakland launched an interdepartmental partnership, the Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) initiative, in 2021. This report serves as the annual SOS status update on activities for calendar year 2022.
This year’s SOS Annual Report includes a high-level summary of the City’s investments in traffic safety, including:
1. W
here dedicated transportation dollars come from to the City;
2. How much in funds by category of projects is spent each year, over the past four years;
3. How much in funds is spent on transportation projects whose primary purpose is to s
ubstantially enhance pedestrian safety, substantially enhance bicyclist safety and/or implement safe routes to schools;
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
May 11, 2023
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 2
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4. How much time and financial resources are spent on evaluation and delivery of constituent 311 requests that encompass pedestrian safety, bike safety, and/or safe routes to schools traffic safety improvements;
5. Recommendations on how to expedite delivery of such requests;
6. Status updates on the OakDOT recommendations from the February 25, 2021 SOS i
nitiative staff report; and
7. A breakdown of responses to all the traffic-related fatalities from 2022 and what safety c
hanges were made.
Nationwide, traffic violence, and the accompanying deaths, have increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to higher traffic speeds and dangerous driving; Oakland, like many other cities, is experiencing this trend. This tragic loss of life due to an epidemic of traffic violence demands attention and resources to effectively address the challenges faced by the City. The SOS initiative’s novel approach and targeted solutions require the support of elected officials and City departments in the form of concrete actions to increase the delivery of traffic safety improvement projects, policies, programs and partnerships. City efforts to address staff vacancies, recruitment, and retention are critical to sustain and increase this work, as is the work to address the backlog in contracting and streamlining contracting processes and grant acceptance processes for projects in OakDOT’s Capital Improvement Program. The Mayor’s proposed budget for FY2023-2025 recognizes some of these structural challenges OakDOT faces and includes a number of proposals to aid OakDOT in overcoming these barriers, including: an addition of 10 capital delivery engineering positions; streamlining acceptance processes for state and federal funds secured for already-identified CIP priority projects; and committing 4 FTE in Human Resources Management to support the “vacancy strikeforce.” In addition, staff believe that one of the most effective solutions to combat the most dangerous driving behaviors that contribute to the loss of life – an automated speed enforcement program with strong equity and privacy protections, operated by OakDOT – remains an untapped tool due to existing state-level statutory prohibitions.
The SOS initiative has made tangible progress on the six strategy areas of work: 1) Coordination and Collaboration; 2) Engineering; 3) Policy; 4) Planning and Evaluation; 5) Engagement, Education, and Programs; and 6) Enforcement during 2022. The SOS approach is to focus available resources on the solutions with the most impact to save lives, at locations that are disproportionately impacted by traffic violence. For this reason, the City prioritizes traffic safety investments in High Priority Equity Communities
1 and on the High Injury Network (HIN),2
and traffic safety enforcement operations to address the most dangerous driving behaviors.
Citywide strategies include lowering speed limits in School Zones and in Business Activity Districts, increasing delivery of programs for school safety and traffic/community violence prevention, pursuing additional data sources, and increasing transparency with published online resources and an informational handout that officers provide during traffic stops to educate drivers of the SOS initiative.
1 Oakland Equity Map, OakDOT Geographic Equity Tool: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/oakdot- geographic-equity-toolbox
2 City of Oakland, Department of Transportation, Citywide Crash Analysis and High Injury Network, 2018.
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 3
Public Works And Transportation Committee
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BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Severe and fatal crashes in Oakland are unacceptably high. In 2022, 36 people were killed by traffic violence – equal to the recent high of 36 fatalities in 2020 (see Table 1 below). The most common causes of fatal and severe crashes in the City continue to be speeding, failure to yield, unsafe turning, red light running, and driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
Crashes continue to disproportionately occur in Oakland’s Priority Equity communities and on the HIN.
To address this public safety epidemic, in 2021 Oakland launched the SOS initiative. The SOS core team includes the Department of Transportation (OakDOT), the City Administrator’s Office (CAO), the Oakland Police Department (OPD), and the Department of Race and Equity (DRE).
The SOS core team works collaboratively on implementing this initiative and achieving its goals to:
1. Prevent severe and fatal crashes and related disparities impacting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, persons with disabilities, seniors, and low- income populations.
2. Eliminate severe and fatal injury inequities including racial disparities impacting BIPOC communities that exist today in Oakland.
3. Inform safety strategies that prevent injury and injury inequities, and do not have adverse equity impacts on BIPOC communities, seniors, persons with disabilities, and lo
w-income populations.
4. Eliminate crash fatalities on all of Oakland’s roadways by 2042 through targeted and s
trategic prevention.
The
SOS initiative focuses on six areas of strategy implementation to eliminate traffic fatalities and prevent severe injuries while advancing equity: 1) Coordination and collaboration; 2) Engineering; 3) Policy; 4) Planning and evaluation; 5) Engagement, education, and programs; and 6) Enforcement.
The City has made significant progress through focused investments in these strategies to date, and the urgent need for increased focus and investment in innovative strategies to save lives is evident in the persistent number of traffic fatalities on Oakland’s streets, as outlined in Table 1.
T
able 1. Traffic Fatalities 2019-2022*
2019
Fatalities
2020
Fatalities
2021
Fatalities
2022
Fatalities
Total Fatalities: 26 36 30 36
Vehicle Fatalities: 12 21 20 21
Motorcycle Fatalities* (4) (3) (2) (6)
Pedestrian Fatalities: 10 14 8 12
Bicyclist Fatalities: 3 1 2 3
Scooter Fatalities: 1 0 0 0
Source: Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) * 2021 and 2022 data are provisional and may be incomplete or subject to change.
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
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The SOS team presented an informational report on the SOS initiative (File ID# 21-0167) to the Public Works and Transportation Committee on March 23, 2021 and to the full City Council on April 20, 2021. Since that initial report, the SOS team prepared an inaugural annual report on the status of the initiative to the Public Works and Transportation Committee on June 28, 2022 (File# 22-0236). This report serves as the annual SOS status update for calendar year 2022.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
The SOS initiative leads with safety and equity to prioritize the most effective tools to prevent severe and fatal crashes and crash inequities, including among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. SOS incorporates a safe system approach that uses data and community engagement to inform location selection, design complete streets, and implement interventions that improve safety for people walking, biking, taking public transit, and driving in Oakland. SOS is organized around six strategy areas – in alignment with the recommendations of the Reimagining Public Safety Taskforce and i n
s
upport of Citywide goal to create vibrant and sustainable infrastructure – aimed at effectively institutionalizing Citywide policies, processes, and procedures that improve safety for al
l Oakland residents and visitors on roadways, particularly roadways disproportionately impacted by traffic violence.
Thi
s SOS Annual Report addresses key questions raised by City Council members related to the City’s transportation funding and overall investments in traffic safety. In addition, the summary of work accomplished in each of the six strategy areas is addressed under item 6 below. The following sections are organized according to the key questions posed in the March 30, 2023, request from the City Council. The information on transportation and traffic safety expenditures is reported by fiscal year (FY), while traffic safety program and project information cover calendar year 2022.
1. Where Dedicated Transportation Dollars Come From To The City; Overview of Traffic Safety Investments
Dedicated transportation dollars come to the City from formula and discretionary fund sources.
Most formula funding comes from local and regional fund sources, whereas state and federal funding is typically secured through competitive processes (also referred to as discretionary sources of funding).
Oakland’s formula funding is programmed to transportation projects every two years during the City’s budget process. OakDOT’s budget is divided into two categories: Operating and Capital.
The Operating Budget funds OakDOT’s core functions such as issuing permits, maintaining streets, issuing parking tickets, and paying staff salaries. Most safety improvements are delivered through the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) which is the focus of this analysis. The CIP Webpage provides an overview of CIP projects and the project selection process. The accompanying CIP Map displays project locations and scope for all planned and in Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
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progress CIP projects, as well as funding sources for each project. A detailed breakdown of CIP programming is shown in Table 2. Additionally, OakDOT maintains a public facing, interactive Major Projects website that displays only OakDOT’s CIP projects, with estimated timelines and funding sources.
T
able 2: Transportation CIP Programming: Fiscal Years 2018-2022 CIP Program FY 2018-2019 FY 2019-2020 FY 2020-21 FY 2021-22 Bike and Pedestrian
Plan Implementation
Program/Stair and
Path Rehabilitation
$ 2,240,000 $ 824,000 $ 824,000 $ 1,054,236
Bridge Repair
Program
$ 500,000 $ 1,270,000 $ 1,270,000 $ 1,395,000
Citywide Street
Resurfacing/Pavement
Rehabilitation
$ 16,888,531 $ 35,500,000 $ 40,000,000 $ 57,750,000
Community-Based
Transportation
Planning
$ 500,000 $ 500,000 $ 670,000 $ 500,000
Complete Streets
Capital Program
$ 3,000,000 $ 7,880,000 $ 6,000,000 $ 14,200,000
Curb Ramps Program $ 1,800,000 $ 2,200,000 $ 2,200,000 $ 3,000,000 Emergency Roadway
Repair Program
$ 850,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 300,000 $ 1,500,000
Intersection Safety
Improvements
Program
$ - $ 625,000 $ 750,000 $ 425,000
Neighborhood Traffic
Safety Program / Safe
Routes to Schools
$ 1,500,000 $ 3,000,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 5,704,229
Sidewalk Repair
Program
$ 1,000,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 1,000,000 $ 2,000,000
Traffic Signal
Management Program
$ 1,650,000 $ 1,500,000 $ 500,000 $ 750,000
Transportation Grant
Matching
$ 4,208,709 $ 230,000 $ 1,760,000 $ 480,000
Total $ 34,137,240 $ 56,029,000 $ 56,774,000 $ 88,758,465 CI
P funding largely comes from dedicated transportation sales taxes and voter-approved bond measures. Some of the key funding sources include:
Measure B/BB – Local Streets and Roads, Paratransit and Bicycle and Pedestrian:
Measure B and its successor Measure BB are transportation sales tax funding measures administered by the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC). ACTC programs funding to jurisdictions in Alameda County based on a population-based formula. ACTC also Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 6
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programs discretionary or competitive funding to Oakland through its Capital Investment Plan, which the City competes for on a two-year cycle.
M
easure F (Fund 2215): Also administered by ACTC, Measure F is funded by vehicle registration fees and can be used for maintenance of local streets and roads, improvements for walking and biking, and other general transportation needs.
Transportation Impact Fees (Fund 2415): Transportation Impact Fees, funded by developer contributions, support additional travel demands from new development through improvements to transportation infrastructure.
M
easure KK (Fund 5330/5332/5335): Oakland’s infrastructure bond passed by voters in 2016 primarily funds OakDOT’s paving program. It also provides critical matching funds that enable the City to be more competitive when pursuing discretionary funding, especially for streetscape and traffic safety improvements. After Measure KK is fully drawn down, projects that currently rely on this fund source will transition to Measure U, a general obligation bond measure passed by voters in 2022 to fund the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of affordable housing and infrastructure projects.
Discretionary Funding
Oakland also relies on outside funding to advance safety improvements, from minor striping improvements to major streetscape projects. Over the four years covered by this analysis, the City was successful in securing approximately $94 million in outside funding to support capital projects. As OakDOT expanded its Planning and Project Development and Capital Finance teams over the past several years, the department has been successful in securing more grants for projects across Oakland, as evidenced by the significant growth in discretionary funding between FY 2018-2022 (see Table 3 below).
Table 3: Discretionary Funding Received, FY 2018-2022
Fiscal Year Discretionary Funding
2018-2019 $ 2,672,391
2019-2020 $ 8,254,789
2020-2021 $ 38,987,367
2021-2022 $ 44,159,586
Total $ 94,074, 133
*A small amount of discretionary funding comes from formula programs such as Transportation Development Act Article 3; the City must still submit applications for these programs and funding amounts are not guaranteed.
Some of the major discretionary fund sources supporting capital improvement projects include:
Alameda County Transportation Commission Capital Investment Program (ACTC CIP):
The ACTC CIP facilitates strategic programming and allocation of all federal, state, regional and local fund sources under the ACTC’s purview. This includes, but is not limited to, federal Surface Transportation Program (STP)/Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ), State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), County Transportation Fund for Clean Air (TFCA), Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
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and local sales tax measures and vehicle registration fee programs. Notable ACTC CIP funded projects include 14th Avenue Bike Lanes, Lakeside Family Streets, MacArthur Smart City Corridor, and the West Oakland Transit Improvements project.
A
ctive Transportation Program (ATP): Administered by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the California Transportation Commission, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, ATP provides the state’s main source of funding for walking and biking improvements through bi-annual calls for projects combining state, federal and regional fund sources. Notable ATP project awards in Oakland include Laurel Access to Mills, Maxwell Park and Seminary (LAAMPS), Telegraph Avenue Streetscape Project, 19 th Street Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) to Lake Merritt Urban Greenway, and 14th Street Complete Streets Project.
H
ighway Safety Improvement Program: The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) focuses on infrastructure projects with nationally recognized crash reduction factors (CRFs).
Local HSIP projects must be identified based on crash experience, crash potential, crash rate, or other data-supported means. Over the past several years, Oakland has successfully secured millions of dollars in HSIP funding across multiple areas of the city.
Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Strategy (AHSC): The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program encourages Californians to drive less by making sure housing, jobs, and key destinations are accessible by walking, biking, and public transit. Oakland partners with developers to deliver transportation improvements coordinated with new construction. A few projects assisted by this fund source include pedestrian safety improvements on International Boulevard, bike lanes on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and the Fruitvale Alive Gap Closure project.
2. How Much In Funds by Category Of Projects Is Spent Each Year, Over The Past Four Years
OakDOT plans, designs, and implements capital projects through several delivery teams. Table 4 summarizes the total OakDOT project expenditures by delivery teams, along with a description of each team, between FY 2018-2022.
T
able 4: Summary of Total Project Expenditures by Project Delivery Teams Delivery Team Description FY 2018-19
Expenditures
FY 2019-20
Expenditures
FY 2020-21
Expenditures
FY 2021-22
Expenditures
Bike &
Pedestrian
Seed funding for
new bike lanes
and retrofits of
existing streets
without major
streetscape
components $1,238,288 $1,164,981 $207,684 $664,820
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 8
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Delivery Team Description FY 2018-19
Expenditures
FY 2019-20
Expenditures
FY 2020-21
Expenditures
FY 2021-22
Expenditures
Complete
Streets Design
Design and
implementation
of major
streetscape
projects $10,044,987 $6,226,089 $9,111,219 $8,145,339
Complete
Streets
Pavement &
Sidewalk
Management
Oversight and
delivery of
OakDOT’s
paving program
$19,802,084 $28,595,328 $52,168,368 $53,932,824
Complete
Streets Planning
& Project
Development
Planning and up
to 35% design of
safety projects
$285,574 $521,419 $697,878 $486,675
Mobility
Management
Bike share, car
share, and
emerging
mobility
programs $252,756 $400,188 $781,514 $728,555
Neighborhood
Traffic Safety
Neighborhood
traffic calming
and Safe Routes
to Schools
projects,
including
Council traffic
safety earmarks,
Sideshow
Prevention Pilot,
Violence
Prevention Pilot
+ Crossing
G
uard program
(starting in FY
2020) $899,390 $997,079 $1,966,918 $3,279,147
Structure &
Emergency
Response
Repair and
rehabilitation of
bridges and
structures
(includes stairs
and paths) $6,035,912 $10,179,019 $4,199,289 $2,268,589 Traffic Capital
Projects
Design and
implementation $2,453,344 $2,628,471 $7,573,433 $10,494,969 Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 9
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Delivery Team Description FY 2018-19
Expenditures
FY 2019-20
Expenditures
FY 2020-21
Expenditures
FY 2021-22
Expenditures
of traffic signal
safety upgrades
(including HSIP
projects)
Grand Total $41,012,335 $50,712,573 $76,706,302 $80,000,918 A variety of factors contribute to the year-over-year variation in expenditures by Delivery Team, including new sources of funding (e.g., paving program; successfully securing discretionary grants, etc.); enhanced procedures for consistent project-billing; staffing vacancies (e.g., in the Bike & Pedestrian Program, Complete Streets Design Divisions); and the startup/wind down of temporary/emergency programs (e.g., Bike & Pedestrian Program and the Slow Streets - Essential Places program).
3. How Much In Funds Is Spent On Transportation Projects Whose Primary Purpose Is To S
ubstantially Enhance Pedestrian Safety, Substantially Enhance Bicyclist Safety A
nd/Or Implement Safe Routes To Schools
To
determine the amount of funding spent on transportation projects where the primary purpose is to substantially enhance pedestrian and bicyclist safety and/or to implement safe routes to schools, staff developed a methodology based on the project delivery type of each team. This analysis is presented in Table 5.
Table 5: Summary of Safety Driven Project Expenditures By Delivery Team Delivery
Team
How much
attributed to
safety (bike/
pedestrian or
Safe Routes to
School?)
FY 2018-19
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2019-20
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2020-21
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2021-22
Safety
Expenditures
Bike &
Pedestrian 100% $1,238,288 $1,164,981 $207,684 $664,820 Complete
Streets Design 100% $10,044,987 $6,226,089 $9,111,219 $8,145,339 Complete
Streets
Pavement &
Sidewalk
Management
Various -see
note 1 $7,318,644 $15,892,695 $22,752,463 $25,231,863
Complete
Streets
Planning &
Project
Development 100% $285,574 $521,419 $697,878 $486,675
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 10
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Delivery
Team
How much
attributed to
safety (bike/
pedestrian or
Safe Routes to
School?)
FY 2018-19
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2019-20
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2020-21
Safety
Expenditures
FY 2021-22
Safety
Expenditures
Mobility
Management
100%
$252,756 $400,188 $781,514 $728,555
Neighborhood
Traffic Safety
100%
$920,402 $1,027,137 $1,981,685 $3,279,147
Structures &
Emergency
Response
Various – see
note 2
$1,299,037 $6,338,638 $3,426,232 $1,942,495
Traffic Capital
Projects
Various – see
note 3 $2,473,235 $2,278,269 $7,317,364 $9,427,843
Grand Total $23,832,923 $33,849,415 $46,276,039 $49,906,737
1. Complete Streets Pavement & Sidewalk Management: Assumes 25% of costs applied to local streets paving projects (costs in these projects are primarily driven by pavement rehab, but at least ¼ is related to standard safety improvements like high-visibility crosswalks and daylighting, as well as hazard-reduction work like sidewalk repairs), and access improvements (curb ramps); 75% of costs applied to major streets projects due to added cost/scope to implement road diets and/or significant geometric changes; 100% applied to all sidewalks and curb ramps projects.
2. Structures & Emergency Response: Assumes 10% of costs for bridge and road repair projects due to evaluation and upgrades of pedestrian crossings and approaches; 100% of stairs and paths projects.
3. Traffic Capital Projects: Assumes 100% of HSIP projects; 50% of railroad crossing improvement projects; 25% of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) projects; and 10% of major roadway reconstruction projects.
A
cross the four fiscal years analyzed in this report, OakDOT invests, on average, roughly 62% of the City’s transportation funding in projects whose primary purpose is to enhance pedestrian safety, bicyclist safety, and/or to implement Safe Routes To Schools (Table 6).
T
able 6: Comparison of Safety Expenditures to Total Transportation Project Expenditures FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20 FY 2020-21 FY 2021-22
Safety-Driven Expenditures $23,832,923 $33,849,415 $46,276,039 $49,906,737 Total Transportation Project
Expenditures $41,012,335 $50,712,573 $76,706,302 $80,000,918 Percentage of Safety-
Driven Expenditures of
Total Transportation
Project Expenditures
58% 67% 60% 62%
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 11
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As discussed in the previous section, continued staffing vacancies in key delivery groups contribute to the decrease in the percentage of safety-driven project expenditures in the most recent fiscal years.
4. Identify How Much Time And Financial Resources Are Spent On Evaluation And D
elivery Of Constituent 311 Requests That Encompass Pedestrian Safety, Bike Safety, And/Or Safe Routes To Schools Traffic Safety Improvements Oak311 requests for traffic safety improvements, including for people walking, biking, and for schools, are generally evaluated and addressed via the Safe Streets Division’s Traffic Safety Service Request Program. It should be noted that, with the exception of requests submitted by schools, not all traffic safety requests result in an engineering investigation and the response is dependent upon a data-driven prioritization process. When a request is made by a school, OakDOT always conducts an engineering investigation, and the results of the investigation will dictate whether further action is warranted.
On April 19, 2022, OakDOT presented an Informational Report to the City Council on Traffic and Pedestrian Safety (File ID# 22-0171), which provided a detailed overview of the OakDOT Safe Streets Division’s core programs and prioritization based on crash severity and equity factors.
Additionally, OakDOT prepared five subsequent supplemental reports for the City Council in 2022. A
s described in the first report, traffic safety requests far outpace OakDOT staff capacity with constituent requests averaging over 1,000 annually and existing staffing only able to investigate roughly a third of the requests. Consequently, OakDOT prioritizes constituent Oak311 requests for staff follow-up based on data-driven criteria, including the most recent available 5 years of crash data with more weight for severe and fatal crashes, OakDOT Priority Equity Neighborhoods data based on factors including race, income, disability and age, and proximate land uses accessed by vulnerable populations (e.g., schools, senior centers, libraries, health care services). This approach and the methodology are also described in detail on OakDOT
’s Traffic Safety Request webpage.
Over the course of 2022, OakDOT shifted staffing resources from the Traffic Safety Service Request Program to address new programs and priorities adopted by the City Council. This has resulted in a reduction in the number of investigations conducted to evaluate constituent traffic safety service requests. New programs and priorities introduced by the City Council include the Sideshow Prevention Pilot, Violence Prevention Pilot, Assembly Bill (AB) 43 speed limit reduction program, and site-specific City Council earmark projects. As detailed in the above referenced report to Council, these new programs and priorities compete for limited staffing resources alongside existing core safety programs such as the Traffic Safety Service Request Program (i.e., constituent Oak311 requests), School Safety Request Program, Rapid Response Program, and the Speed Bump Program. Currently, the work in all the programs mentioned in this section are performed by the Traffic Engineering Section of nine engineering full-time equivalent (FTE) staff (1.5 of which are vacant) and the Traffic Maintenance Section of 27 field FTEs (12 of which are vacant, or 44%) for a total staffing cost of approximately $10 million per year. In addition, the Traffic Maintenance Section also provides and supports essential services and projects including routine street sign and pavement marking maintenance, in-house street Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
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paving, parking signage and curb painting, homeless encampment relocation and clean up, and emergency responses including to winter storms.
I
n Fall 2022, the number of traffic fatalities necessitated further prioritization of staff resources, resulting in pausing work on City Council earmarked projects in order to focus on delivery of the Rapid Response Program, school safety requests, and speed limit reductions in Business Activity Districts recently allowable by state law and an SOS policy priority. It is important to note that without addressing underlying staff recruitment and retention issues, the introduction of new programs and priorities, in effect, shifts staff workloads away from previously established programs and priorities.
5. Recommendations On How To Expedite Delivery Of Such Requests A
s outlined in the April 19, 2022 Informational Report, improving and expediting traffic calming installations requires addressing three key challenge and opportunity areas: budget; filling staff vacancies (recruitment and retention); and policy and procedures - including providing more administrative authority or streamlining in areas of procurement of materials, professional services and construction, and remaining committed to maintaining and refining data-informed, evidence-based systems that equitably and fairly prioritize the allocation of limited resources.
The challenges and opportunities articulated for improving and expediting traffic safety improvements in the report presented to the City Council in April 2022 remain much the same for the remainder of the reporting period. The Mayor’s proposed budget for FY2023-2025 recognizes some of these structural challenges OakDOT faces and includes a number of proposals to aid OakDOT in overcoming these barriers, including: an addition of 10 capital delivery engineering positions; streamlining acceptance processes for state and federal funds secured for already-identified CIP priority projects; and committing 4 FTE in Human Resources Management to support the “vacancy strikeforce.”
W
hile the Traffic Safety Service Request Program is important in meeting the objective of government responsiveness, shifting from a complaint-driven approach to a proactive, systematic, and data-driven one is not only more effective but also more equitable in preventing future fatal and severe injury collisions, particularly in underserved neighborhoods. A proactive and systematic implementation approach prioritizes proven safety measures in locations citywide based on known crash patterns and factors, with the intention prioritizing addressing historically underserved communities. OakDOT has made progress on this front.
An example of this proactive approach is the programmatic installation of Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPI) on traffic signals where there are higher concentrations of people walking. LPIs re-time the pedestrian walk light to come on seconds before the vehicle green light, and studies have shown this can reduce vehicle/pedestrian collisions by up to 60%. OakDOT proactively updated 85 signals with LPI in downtown Oakland in 2021, and an additional 51 locations— prioritized in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities—will receive LPI with funding support from a Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant that OakDOT received in 2022. Another example of this proactive approach is a 2019 OakDOT project that upgraded 186 school crosswalks to high-visibility crosswalk markings using durable thermoplastic roadway striping material. The work improved safety at 80 intersections surrounding 30 schools. The Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
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schools were selected based on the equity/safety prioritization framework used by the Alameda County Active Transportation/Safe Routes to School Program which is based on socioeconomic, crash history, and student health data.
Thi
s proactive, systemic approach is more effective than the reactive approach by taking a safety improvement like LPI or crosswalk markings and applying that improvement to a large number of locations. It is an efficient means of using limited staff time because the packaging of such a project involves applying the same considerations to multiple locations. It is also a cost- effective approach because of an economy of scale – doing large quantities of the same type of work. Another example currently underway is developing improvements to 50 miles of Neighborhood Bike Routes that are part of the Five-Year Paving Plan. In this example, the focused safety improvements are speed humps, traffic circles, and stop sign modifications.
While less measurable but critically important, the proactive approach is beneficial to staff morale as it is data-driven and cumulative in ways that reactive responses are not.
6. SOS Initiative Status Update: Status updates on the OakDOT recommendations from the Febr
uary 25, 2021 Safe Oakland Streets Initiative staff report The
SOS initiative implementation activities are focused on six key strategy areas to save lives and prevent severe injuries: 1) Coordination and Collaboration; 2) Engineering; 3) Policy; 4) Planning and Evaluation; 5) Engagement, Education, and Programs; and 6) Enforcement.
In 2022, City staff made significant strides in advancing SOS strategies and activities, including:
a. Coordination and Collaboration: Violence prevention pilot: Preventable crashes that lead to severe and fatal injuries are a form of violence, as driving in a manner that does not respect human life is a violent act. In a supporting role and building on t
he partnerships developed through SOS, OakDOT has worked with the CAO, OPD, and the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP) to develop projects that support violence prevention through environmental design in communities most impacted by gun violence in Oakland. Interventions include hardened centerlines and traffic diverters with the aim of preventing reckless driving through engineering in locations seeing persistent community violence as well as dangerous driving. As part of the City’s efforts to combat human trafficking, OakDOT collaborated with the City Counc il
P
resident’s Office, the Neighborhood Enhanced Services Team (NEST), the DVP, and OPD on an ongoing pilot to install traffic diverters along East15th Street that not only serve as traffic calming devices but also help deter cruising and solicitation of people being sex trafficked and associated violence on a residential street.
Engineering: Implementing data-driven engineering improvements: Re- designing streets to be safer for all users remains a central pillar of the SOS initiative. OakDOT continues to prioritize delivery of safety upgrades and improvements with a focus on the HIN and in Highest and High Priority Equity Communities (OakDOT Geographic Equity Toolbox). All OakDOT Paving Program projects include safety enhancements, such as curb ramps, high-visibility Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 14
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
crosswalks, and other intersection safety upgrades, as a cost-effective, efficient, and routine approach to achieving multiple City objectives. In particular, complex paving projects may involve road diets, bulb-outs and other more extensive geometric roadway design changes to improve safety. Due to contracting delays, no complex paving projects began construction in 2022 and consequently, are not included in the following analysis.
In 2022, OakDOT initiated construction on a total of 158 Traffic Safety Improvement Projects (Attachment A). To evaluate the effectiveness of OakDOT’s prioritization processes with regards to safety and equity, the following analysis examines whether projects were implemented on the HIN and in Highest and High Priority Equity Communities. Projects are considered to be on the HIN if over 50% of the project is within 500 feet of the HIN. This year’s analysis includes a 500-foot buffer from the HIN to account for schools that may not always be directly located on a major street.
Using OakDOT’s Geographic Equity Toolbox, projects are considered located within a Priority Equity Community if a majority of the project (over 50%) is in a Highest or High Priority Community. For the purposes of this analysis, projects are divided into Capital Projects, which are large-scale and delivered over a longer timeframe, and Near-Term Projects, which are much smaller in scope than Capital Projects, usually involving a single intersection or block and delivered much more quickly (usually under a year). In 2022, 28 Capital Projects began construction and 130 Near-Term Projects were completed, for a total of 158 traffic safety improvement projects.
Of the 28 Capital Improvement Projects, 68% are on the HIN (Chart 1), and 68% are in High and Highest Priority Equity Communities (Chart 2).
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 15
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
28 Capital Projects Started in 2022
32%
68%
Highest and High Priority Communities (19)
Medium, Low and Lowest Priority Communities (9)
Chart 1: Capital Projects, HIN Analysis
Chart 2: Capital Projects, Priority Equity Community Analysis 28 Capital Projects Started in 2022, HIN Analysis
32%
68%
On HIN (19) Not on HIN (9)
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 16
Public Works And Transportation Committee
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Near-Term Projects by Category (Total: 78)
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Council
Earmarks
(9)
Rapid Sideshow
Response Prevention
(7) (7)
School
Requests
(27)
Public
Service
Requests
(25)
Violence
Prevention
(3)
On HIN (37) Not on HIN (41)
Near-Term Projects include school safety improvements, rapid response, violence prevention, City Council earmarked projects, quick builds in response to Oak311 requests, and speed bump requests (Table 8). All projects on the Near-Term list have been delivered (Attachment A). In addition to speed bumps completed on 52 blocks, OakDOT processed requests for an additional 48 blocks that will be constructed in the coming year. OakDOT also accelerated delivery of engineering projects for sideshow prevention and violence prevention, completing 8 violence prevention projects and 7 sideshow prevention projects in 2022, as compared to 3 projects for sideshow prevention in 2021.
T
able 8: Near-Term Safety Project by Program Type and Prioritization Approach Program Prioritization Criteria 2022
(N)
Oak311 (Public) Service Request Crashes, Equity, Land Use 25 Rapid Response to Traffic Fatality Traffic Death Locations 7 Speed Bumps Residential Petition 52
Violence Prevention Pilot Locations OPD Police Beats with High Violence 3 Council Earmark Locations Council Discretion 9
Sideshow Prevention Pilot Locations OPD-identified Locations with Large, Violent, Persistent Sideshows 7
School Safety Request By Request of School Staff 27
B
ecause speed bumps are only implemented on residential streets, they are not located on the HIN. Accordingly, this analysis excludes speed bump projects. Of the remaining 78 Near-Term Projects, 47% are on the HIN (Chart 3), and 77% are in Highest and High Priority Equity Communities (Chart 4).
C
hart 3: Near-Term Projects, HIN Analysis
*Does not include Speed Bumps
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 17
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Chart 4: Near Term Projects, Priority Equity Community Analysis *Does not include Speed Bumps
c. Policy: Lowering speed limits and Automated Speed Enforcement: Adopted by the State Legislature in in 2021, Assembly Bill (AB) 43 grants cities the discretion to lower speed limits in Business Activity Districts. In 2022, OakDOT staff evaluated the C
ity streets for eligibility and concluded that 57 corridors totaling 26.5 miles are eligible for speed reduction under AB 43, and amended Oakland Municipal Code C
hapter 10.20 to allow for 20 MPH and 25 MPH speed limits in the identified B
usiness Activity Districts (Ordinance No. 13709 C.M.S.). OakDOT is committed to implementing speed reductions in 10 Business Activity District corridors by summer 2023, and address the remaining 47 corridors by the end of 2025. Implementation will p
rioritize eligible corridors on the HIN and in the Highest Priority Equity Areas as outlined in Attachment A of the September 28, 2022 Agenda Report (File ID #22- 0819). OakDOT has prepared a public webpage on the status of speed limit lowering efforts in Business Activity District corridors that can be accessed here:
https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/lowering-speed-lim
its-in-business-improvement-
districts.
In addition to lowering speed limits in Business Activity Districts, OakDOT has continued to pursue speed limit reductions in school zones. In 2022, OakDO T
l
owered speed limits to 15 mph at 20 schools. In line with SOS principles, OakDOT prioritizes speed limit lowering at schools based on safety (proximity to the HIN) and equi
ty (location in High Priority Equity Communities). OakDOT is committed to implementing speed limit reductions at approximately 30 additional eligible Oakland Unified School District elementary schools by the end of 2023. OakDOT and OPD also have been coordinating traffic enforcement activities to accompany speed limit 78 near-Term Projects Completed in 2022
23%
77%
High and Highest Priority Equity Communities (60)
Medium, Low and Lowest Priority Equity Communities (18) Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 18
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
reductions to educate drivers of the new speed limits.
Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) continues to be an untapped, effective, and equitable approach to addressing dangerous speeding on roadways and aligns with recommendations from the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. The SOS initiative continues to support state legislative efforts to authorize a limited number of cities to pilot ASE programs, with appropriate impact mitigation measures for low- income residents of equity priority communities and strong privacy protections. The Mayor and City Council adopted a supportive position for proposed legislation in 2021 (AB 550, Chiu), and the Mayor, Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC), and Privacy Advisory Commission (PAC) adopted support positions in 2022 (AB 2336, Friedman and Ting). The PAC resolution of support endorsed only the privacy provisions of the bill. Neither of the most recent attempts have successfully advanced to the Governor’s desk. Assemblymembers Friedman and Ting have reintroduced legislation (AB 645) for the current 2023 legislative session, and AB 645 is awaiting a hearing date in the Assembly Appropriations Committee after passing the Assembly Transportation Committee (vote: 12-0) and the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee (vote: 7-2-1). The BPAC adopted a position of support for AB 645 on April 20, 2023, and on May 4, 2023 the PAC adopted a motion declaring that it does not find significant privacy intrusion sufficient to oppose AB 645.
A
dditionally, Mayor Sheng Thao has submitted a letter in support of AB 645. d. Planning and Evaluation: Enhancing collaboration with the Alameda County P
ublic Health Department (ACPHD): The SOS initiative launched a pilot with A
CPHD to enable data sharing from hospitals that will supplement OPD crash data.
For the initial pilot, ACPHD shared a data set of people injured in crashes on In
ternational Boulevard and admitted to a hospital trauma center, which City staff are us
ing to identify a location for a quick-build pilot. The aim is to learn from the pilot and continue to develop the partnership with ACPHD as well as local hospitals. e. Engagement, Education and Programs: OakDOT and OPD launched a fatalities tracking webpage in October 2022 to provide transparent monitoring of traffic deaths on Oakland streets in support of the SOS initiative. OakDOT has also published a m
ap of traffic fatalities, which includes information on the location of incidents and what travel modes were involved (e.g., walking, biking, driving, etc.), as well as a hos
t of public facing webpages and resources on traffic safety (Attachment B).
Additionally, OakDOT collaborated with OPD to develop an informational card for officers to hand out to drivers during traffic safety stops (Attachment C). The cards inform and educate drivers who are pulled over for engaging in a dangerous driving behav
ior on one of Oakland’s most dangerous streets. OPD distributed hundreds of c
ards in 2022, and OakDOT and OPD are evaluating the development of additional educational resources that OakDOT, OPD, and other City agencies can distribute at Neighborhood Service Council meetings and other engagement events.
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 19
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
f. Traffic Safety Enforcement: Under the SOS initiative, OPD has revamped its approach to traffic safety enforcement operations, leveraging data to direct the Motor Enforcement Traffic Squad’s operations to prioritize locations on the HIN and to address the most dangerous driving behaviors: speeding, failure to yield to people w
alking, unsafe turning, disobeying traffic signals (including red light/stop sign r
unning), and driving or bicycling under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Non-dispatch, non-intel led traffic stops are the stops that OPD officers make for traffic enforcement (in contrast to stops that are the result of a dispatched call for service or are intelligence-led) and thus have the most discretion and are the focus of SOS reporting and analysis. Detailed information regarding all OPD stops is als o
publ
icly available here: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/stop-data.
Attachment D includes summary statistics for these non-dispatch, non-intel-led t
raffic stops from 2019-2022.
Key findings for non-dispatch, non-intel led stops include:
• In 2022, 69% of stops were within 500 feet of the HIN compared to 61% in 2019. • In 2022, 72% of stops were for the most dangerous driving behaviors that contribute to s
evere and fatal crashes, as compared to just 40% in 2019. • In 2022, 71% of stops were in high priority equity neighborhoods; 68% of the HIN is in hi
gh priority equity neighborhoods.
• A fter a notable decline in the absolute number of non-dispatch, non-intel led traffic stops i
n Oakland to a low of 2,870 traffic stops in 2021, stops increased in 2022 to 4,010 with the reintroduction of OPD’s Motor Enforcement Traffic Squad at the end of the year. • Racial disparities in traffic stops persist, with more stops conducted on Black and Latinx drivers than crashes involving Black and Latinx drivers (the best proxy for who is driving on local streets) – comprising 77% of stops in 2022 and 68% of crashes.
O
PD regularly assesses traffic violation stops through its risk management process.
Commanders are held accountable for the actions of their personnel at monthly staff meetings and receive analyses of traffic violations conducted based on type, race, and outcome.
Commanders are expected to drill down further into the data to ensure that their officers’ actions are not only lawful but also effective and responsive to the needs of the public. Where a disparity is probable or known (e.g., disparities in suspect descriptions or location demographics), risk management requires evaluation and mitigation to the extent to which the surrounding community is affected – both by crime as well as by responses to crime and public safety need. Where a disparity is evident, decision-making and outcome are assessed by supervisors and command to determine the causes and reasons.
SO
S Initiative Look Ahead
Collaboration across participating City departments has achieved a remarkable amount of progress that staff are excited to continue building upon, despite persistent personnel vacancy challenges. The SOS initiative will focus its efforts over the next year on the following activities, in addition to continual refinement of the key strategies reported above:
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 20
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
a. Continue to focus resources on the HIN and in Oakland’s High Priority Equity Communities – the areas most impacted by severe and fatal crashes and historic under-investment in transportation infrastructure that saves lives and creates safer, healthier communities.
b. U
pdate the HIN: The HIN identifies the most dangerous streets are in Oakland, which is then utilized to prioritize locations for SOS activities. OakDOT and OPD staff are collaborating to update the HIN with severe and fatal crash data from 2017-2021 and ant
icipate publishing the updated HIN in late Fall 2023.
c. B
uilding Community Awareness of and Engagement with SOS Initiative: The SOS initiative will be exploring potential partnership with Neighborhood Services Coordinators and Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils to cultivate and strengthen community involvement in SOS initiative activities. Potential avenues for partnership may include educational presentations to Neighborhood Councils, dissemination of traffic safety resources and other informational materials, and train- the-trainer modules with Neighborhood Services Coordinators. The goal is to inform residents about the SOS initiative and support community involvement in policies, projects and programs that impact traffic safety, while being transparent about t he
need f
or prioritization and existing staffing capacity.
d. International Boulevard Quick Build: International Blvd is a known HIN corridor, with severe and fatal crashes persisting despite significant safety investments that accompanied the Bus Rapid Transit project in 2020. In partnership with AC Transit, OakDOT is working to identify additional “quick build” safety treatments to enhanc e
adher
ence to the bus-only lane and reduce speeding, red light violations, and other moving violations in the corridor between 14th Avenue and 107th Avenue, prioritizing l
ocations where severe and fatal crashes have been concentrated. OakDOT and AC Tr
ansit anticipate construction of prioritized improvements beginning in late 2023. e. T
argeted traffic safety enforcement operations: OPD will continue to focus enforcement activities on Oakland’s most dangerous roadways with an emphasis on t
he most dangerous driving behaviors, which include speeding, failure to yield, and r
ed light running. Additionally, OPD intends to bolster enforcement activities around school zones, particularly those that have had recent engineering improvements completed or where speed limits have been lowered.
f. M
aking the case for automated speed enforcement (ASE) pilot: Recognizing the l
imited capacity and reach of OPD-led traffic safety enforcement operations and with unsafe speeds emerging as the dominant factor behind traffic fatalities and severe injuries, SOS will continue to advocate for state legislation authorizing an ASE pilot in Oakland, with appropriate impact mitigation measures for low-income residents of equity priority communities.
g. Pursuing policy opportunities for ignition interlock devices and speed gover
nors – proven vehicle-based technologies to save lives and prevent speeding Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 21
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
and driving under the influence (DUI) citations that are recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board for implementation in all new vehicles.3 7)
A Breakdown Of Responses To All The Traffic-Related Fatalities From 2022 And What Safety Changes Were Made
OakDOT mobilizes its Rapid Response Program primarily in response to fatal traffic crashes, which have historically focused on those resulting in the death of someone walking or biking, but are also activated in other circumstances. The Program involves an engineering assessment that is separate and informed by police investigation of the crash, focused on the prevention of future loss of life. Identified improvements are delivered through the Rapid Response Program (via a maintenance treatment or quick-build improvement) or through other existing programs, such as the paving program or capital improvements when there are existing plans for improvements as part of a larger project. In some cases, the engineering investigation may determine that the crash and resulting fatality was not preventable through engineering treatments, and no engineering action is identified for these cases. Responses initiated in 2022 are captured in Table 11.
T
able 11. Rapid Response Investigations in 2022
Location
Cross Street
Fatal/
Injury
Category
Rapid Response
Improvement Status Council
District Incident
Date Major St
1/17/2022 Frontage Rd 800 block
1 Driver
Fatality
Flex posts inside
center median of
approximately 3/4
mile stretch of
Frontage Rd
Installed 3
1/21/2022 Bancroft Ave 61st Ave
1 Pedestrian
Fatality
Crosswalks with
pedestrian refuge
with paint and post
Installed 6
3/5/2022
International
Blvd 9900 Block
1 Pedestrian
Fatality
Will be part of AC
Transit/OakDOT
International Blvd
Quick Built Project
In
Progress 7
3/7/2022 Bancroft Ave Avenal Ave
1 Motorcycle
Fatality
Bancroft-73rd Ave
Paving Project:
installed median
signs, curb paint and
reflector per plans
Installed 6
3 NTSB Calls for Alcohol Detection Systems in All New Vehicles Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 22
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Location
Cross Street
Fatal/
Injury
Category
Rapid Response
Improvement Status Council
District Incident
Date Major St
3/8/2022 Baldwin St 8200 Block
1 Motorcycle
Fatality
No engineering
action identified
n/a 7
3/19/2022
International
Blvd 89th Ave
1 Pedestrian
Fatality
Will be part of AC
Transit/OakDOT
International Blvd
Quick Built Project
In
Progress 7
3/30/2022 High St Wattling St Nonfatal - 2
pedestrian
Injury
Crosswalk signs,
high visibility
crosswalk and yield
lines, and increased
lighting at the
crosswalk
(completed).
Additional work
identified to install
RRFB and updated
curb ramps will be
delivered through
High St paving
project.
Installed 5
4/7/2022 8th Ave E 15th St Nonfatal -
Bicyclist
Injury
No engineering
action identified n/a 2
4/22/2022 Telegraph
Ave
20th St 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Telegraph Ave
Complete Streets
project to refresh all
crosswalks and
install Hardened
Centerline and
pedestrian signing
enhancements
anticipated Fall of
2023
In
Progress 3
5/21/2022 Bancroft Ave 6200 block 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Crosswalks with
pedestrian refuge
with paint and post
Installed 6
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 23
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Location
Cross Street
Fatal/
Injury
Category
Rapid Response
Improvement Status Council
District Incident
Date Major St
5/27/2022 Shattuck Ave 55th St 1 Bicyclist
Fatality
Hardened centerline
on Shattuck at 55th
and 56th, new
"Turning Vehicle
Yield to Pedestrians
& Bikes" signage,
refreshed
crosswalks and 2-
stage left turn bike
boxes (completed)
Additional work
identified to install
new
crosswalks/RRFB at
56th to be delivered
via resurfacing
project (anticipated
in 2024).
Installed 1
5/31/2022 International
Blvd
16th Ave 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Bus only pavement
marking,
through/right
pavement arrows
and additional "No
U-turn/No left turn)
signs on
International
Installed 2
6/16/2022 Jefferson St 14th St 1 Bicyclist
Fatality
New "Turning
Vehicle Yield to
Pedestrians &
Bikes" signage,
removed parking to
improve sightlines
(completed)
Additional work
identified to install
protected
intersection to be
delivered via
Complete Streets
Installed 3
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 24
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Location
Cross Street
Fatal/
Injury
Category
Rapid Response
Improvement Status Council
District Incident
Date Major St
Project (anticipated
summer 2023).
6/26/2022 International
Blvd
54th Ave 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Will be part of AC
Transit/OakDOT
International Blvd
Quick Built Project
In
Progress 5 and 6
7/17/2022 Bancroft Ave 62nd Ave 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Crosswalks with
pedestrian refuge
with paint and post
Installed 6
7/23/2022 14th St Jackson St 1 Bicyclist
Fatality
Will be part of
Complete Streets
Project discussion
with AC Transit for
bike boxes and turn
restrictions
In
Progress 2
8/17/2022 14th St Poplar St 1 Driver
Fatality
Speed limit signage
in both directions
(completed).
HSIP project to
construct RRFBs,
high visibility
markings and new
curb ramps
In
Progress 3
8/25/2022 MacArthur
Blvd
Piedmont
Ave
1 Pedestrian
Fatality
Signal visibility
improvements: Tree
pruning (completed)
and programmable
louvers (in progress)
In
Progress 3
9/3/2022 Dennison St 300 N of
Embarcadero
1 Passenger
Fatality
No engineering
action identified n/a 5
9/16/2022 24th St Northgate
Ave
1 Motorcycle
Fatality
Needed base repair
identified along 24th
St between
Northgate and
Telegraph Ave. This
location will be
In
Progress 3
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 25
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Location
Cross Street
Fatal/
Injury
Category
Rapid Response
Improvement Status Council
District Incident
Date Major St
addressed as part of
the 5-year paving
plan (anticipated
FY2025).
10/1/2022 Foothill Blvd Austin St 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
Design for red curb
pedestrian refuge
island underway
In
Progress 5
10/3/2022 Hegenberger
Rd
Hamilton St 1
Pedestrian
Fatality
To be included in the
next CIP In
Progress 6
10/28/2022 10th Ave E 12th St 1
Motorcycle
Fatality
No engineering
action identified n/a 2
11/30/2022 Embarcadero 16th Ave Nonfatal -
Bicyclist
Injury
Design for removing
slip lane and adding
bike lane extension
markings underway
In
Progress 2
12/20/2022 Grizzly Peak
Blvd
3800 block 1
Passenger
Fatality
Design for additional
curve warning signs
underway
In
Progress 4
12/22/2022 High St MacArthur
Blvd
1 Motorcycle
Fatality
No engineering
action identified n/a 4
Conclusion
P
rioritizing the most vulnerable communities, the most fatal roads, and the most impactful, equitable strategies remains the backbone of the SOS initiative. Reversing the national and local trend of escalating traffic violence to reach the goal of zero traffic deaths will require culture change. The most effective, equitable way to change culture is through policy, systems, and environmental changes at the local, state, and national levels. At the local level, the City will need to address systems related to hiring and contracting to enable OakDOT to accelerate the delivery of engineering improvements. At the state level, legislators will need to remove statutory barriers to allow for an automated speed enforcement pilot program operated by OakDOT with strong equity and privacy protection measures. At the national level, policymakers must clear the way for vehicle-based solutions, such as speed governors and ignition interlock devices. However, to achieve the goals of zero traffic deaths and the elimination of traffic safety disparities by 2042, the City needs increased staffing and more supportive policies and procedures for project delivery. The Mayor’s proposed budget for FY2023-2025 recognizes some of the structural challenges OakDOT faces and includes a number of proposals to aid OakDOT in overcoming these barriers, including: an addition of 10 capital delivery engineering Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 26
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
positions; streamlining acceptance processes for state and federal funds secured for already- identified CIP priority projects; and committing 4 FTE in Human Resources Management to support the “vacancy strikeforce.”
Ther
e is a high need for traffic safety improvements across the City. Given limited staff and fiscal resources, and dramatic inequities that persist across the city, SOS continues to prioritize resources in the high priority equity communities where they are needed the most, as well as near schools. In order to make progress towards the initiative goals, staff requests the City Council’s leadership and partnership in maintaining a commitment to refining data-informed, evidence-based systems that equitably and fairly prioritize the allocation of limited resources for high priority equity communities in Oakland who continue to disproportionately experience severe and fatal crashes.
FISCAL IMPACT
This item is for informational purposes only and does not have a direct fiscal impact or cost.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
SOS staff presented at the following public meetings in 2022:
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC), May 19, 2022 • Public Works and Transportation Committee, May 24, 2022 • Mayor’s Commission on People with Disabilities, May 16, 2022
COORDINATION
The City departments listed below worked together to advance the SOS strategies to saves lives and prevent severe injuries:
• City Administrator’s Office
• Oakland Department of Transportation
• Oakland Police Department
• Department of Race & Equity
• Oakland Public Works
• Oakland Fire Department
• Human Services Department
• Department of Violence Prevention
PAST PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
This report is the second Annual Report on the SOS Initiative and provides updates and follow- up on the goals set forth in the launching of the Initiative as well as in the 2021 Informational Report. Thorough evaluation for equity and efficacy was performed at the launch of SOS, when Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 27
Public Works And Transportation Committee
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determining the strategies and actions. Now that SOS has passed the two-year benchmark, OakDOT is focusing on institutionalizing project evaluation into key safety projects and looks forward to reporting out on this progress in the 2023 Annual Report.
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: The City analyzed nearly 2,000 injury collisions from 2012-2016 to understand the impacts on Oaklanders and how to effectively focus safety efforts.4 During that period, there was a 76% increase in severe or fatal injuries which accounted for $900 million in yearly costs of traffic crashes.
E
nvironmental: In 2016, the City updated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Thresholds of Significance Guidelines related to transportation impacts in order to implement the directive from Senate Bill 743 to modify local environmental review processes by removing automobile delay, as described solely by Level of Service or similar measures of vehicular capacity or traffic congestion, as a significant impact on the environment pursuant to CEQA and replace it with Vehicle Miles Travelled. The policy allows the City to prioritize funding for and implementation of more active transportation projects that encourage more sustainable modes of mobility and projects that prioritize the needs and safety for people (pedestrians, people on bikes, people on transit), rather than prioritizing vehicle throughput.
R
ace & Equity: The SOS initiative has a goal of eliminating severe and fatal injury inequities including racial disparities impacting BIPOC communities that exist today in Oakland. The majority (60%) of crashes are highly concentrated on just 6% of the 800 miles of Oakland’s City- maintained streets, identified as Oakland’s HIN. Furthermore, the HIN generally overlaps with Oakland’s map of priority neighborhoods as found in Oakland’s Geographic Equity Toolbox5.
The toolbox prioritizes neighborhoods that may have been historically and currently underserved or excluded from City services and planning processes, by examining concentrations of people with demographic factors determined to have experienced historic and current disparities in accessing opportunities and resources. The neighborhoods with higher concentrations are designated as the highest priority neighborhoods. Almost 95% of the HIN is located in medium to highest priority neighborhoods, despite these same neighborhoods representing only about 40% of the City’s total area.
A
s compared to all Oaklanders, Black Oaklanders are two times more likely to be killed or severely injured in traffic crashes, and three times as likely to be killed or severely injured while walking. Furthermore, 30% of streets in majority Asian census tracts fall within the City’s HIN.6 These data represent real collisions that resulted in the unnecessary deaths of too many 4 https://cao-
94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/CityofOakland_CrashAnalysis_Infographic_08.29.18.pdf 5 City of Oakland, Department of Transportation, Geographic Equity Toolbox:
https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/oakdot-ge ographic-equity-toolbox 6 City of Oakland, Department of Transportation, Citywide Crash Analysis and High Injury Network, 2018.
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 28
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
Darren Allison (May 11, 2023 15:17 PDT)
Oaklanders, like Miesha Singleton, mother of seven, who was killed in a crosswalk in front of Elmhurst United Middle School in January 2020.
The
City’s commitment to advance racial equity is enshrined in Oakland Municipal Code (OMC)
2.29.170.17 to achieve equitable opportunities for all people and communities. Regardless of causes, the City seeks to work towards better outcomes — to eliminate and prevent disparities and reduce this source of health inequity and stress for Black and Brown communities. OMC Section 2.29.170. 2. (B) (12) specifically calls for the City to address racial equity in transportation by working to provide safe, efficient, affordable, convenient and reliable mobility options including public transit, walking, carpooling and biking.
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive The 2022 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report From The Department Of Transportation, In Coordination With The Oakland Police Department, The Department Of Race And Equity, And The City Administrator’s Office.
For ques
tions regarding this report, please contact Mica Amichai, Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Coordinator, at (510) 238-6653.
Respectfully submitted,
FRED KELLEY
Director, Department of Transportation
DARREN ALLISON
Interim Chief, Police Department
DA
RLENE FLYNN
Director, Department of Race and Equity
7 https://library.municode.com/ca/oakland/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT2ADPE_CH2.29CIAGDE OF_2.29.170DERAEQ
Steven Falk, Interim City Administrator
Subject: Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Initiative Annual Report Date: 5/3/2023 Page 29
Public Works And Transportation Committee
5/23/2023
JOE DEVRIES
Deputy City Administrator
Reviewed by:
Megan Wier, Assistant Director
Department of Transportation
Tony Dang, Senior Advisor, Policy and
Intergovernmental Affairs
Department of Transportation
Sean Fleming, Lieutenant
Oakland Police Department
Leigh Grossman, PhD, Data Manager
Oakland Police Department
Jacque Larrainazar, Program Analyst
Department of Race and Equity
Prepared by:
Mica Amichai, Transportation Planner II
Safe Oakland Streets
Department of Transportation
A
ttachments (4):
Attachment A: 2022 Engineering Safety Improvement Projects Attachment B: OakDOT Traffic Safety Reports and Resources Attachment C: Informational Card for Enforcement Operations Attachment D: OPD Stop Data Analysis