Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Jestin D. Johnson FROM: Josh Rowan, Director,
City Administrator Oakland Department of
Transportation
Floyd Mitchell, Chief,
Oakland Police Department
Darlene Flynn, Director,
Department of Race and
Equity
SUBJECT: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS)
Annual Informational Report
DATE: April 14, 2025
City Administrator Approval Date:
RECOMMENDATION
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive The 2024 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
To address the continued public safety epidemic of severe and fatal traffic crashes in Oakland, the City launched an interdepartmental partnership, the Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) initiative, in 2021, comprised of representatives from the Oakland Department of Transportation, the Oakland Police Department, the Department Of Race And Equity, and the City Administrator’s Office. This report serves as the annual SOS status update on activities for calendar year 2024.
The SOS Initiative recognizes that life-changing and life-ending collisions on roadways are preventable with prioritized, targeted, and comprehensive strategies. Accordingly, the SOS initiative prioritized and made tangible progress in the six strategic areas of work: 1) Coordination and Collaboration; 2) Engineering; 3) Policy; 4) Planning and Evaluation; 5) Engagement, Education, and Programs; and 6) Enforcement. 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. In 2024, 70% of the fatal crashes in Oakland occurred in “High” and “Highest” Priority neighborhoods, which make up an estimated 36% of Oakland’s streets. For this reason, the City prioritizes traffic safety investments in High Equity Jestin Johnson (May 1, 2025 20:27 PDT)
05/01/2025
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 2
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Priority Communities1 and on the High Injury Network (HIN),2 and traffic safety enforcement operations to address the most dangerous driving behaviors. 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.
30 people died in traffic crashes on Oakland’s streets in 2024 – lower than the previous two years, though still unacceptably high. OakDOT initiated 23 Capital Improvement Projects with traffic safety elements on over 50 miles of streets and completed 70 Near-Term safety projects in 2024. 41% of Capital and Near-Term Projects are on the HIN; 40% and 41%, respectively. 50% are in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities. The total number of capital projects with traffic safety elements that began construction increased from the 14 that were initiated in 2023. OakDOT made significant progress in 2024 towards Speed Safety Camera implementation, enabled by recent state legislation, and the rollout of cameras at 18 locations on the High Injury Network is planned in 2025. The 2024 safety improvement implementation included speed bumps, the International Boulevard Quick Build, and complex paving projects that included road diets and new bikeways. This work was complemented by OPD enforcement efforts focusing stops on the High Injury Network and on the most dangerous driving behaviors, focused OakDOT planning and evaluation efforts, and partnerships with Alameda County Public Health Department to improve crash data access and with the Oakland Fire Department to advance inter-departmental agreements to achieve transportation and public safety goals. SOS initiative efforts continue in 2025 with a focus on piloting speed safety cameras, prioritizing implementation of projects on the High Injury Network and Priority Neighborhoods, detailed data streams, and implementing proven solutions to traffic violence on our streets.
BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Severe and fatal traffic crashes in Oakland remain unacceptably high, though they were lower in 2024 relative to recent years. In 2024, 30 people were killed by traffic violence – lower than the previous two years (see Table 1 below). There were nineteen fatalities involving people walking and biking in 2024, comprising two-thirds of all traffic fatalities. The most common causes of fatal and severe crashes in the City continue to be driver failure to yield, disobeying signs and signals, unsafe turning, and speeding. Fatal crashes continue to disproportionately occur in Oakland’s Equity Priority Communities and on the 2018 HIN.
OakDOT’s recently updated CityWide Crash Analysis shows dramatic disparities in crash outcomes. Most dramatically, between 2017-2021 Black injured parties in Oakland were four times as likely to be killed or injured while walking in Oakland, compared to White pedestrians, and Latine pedestrians were two and half times as likely to be killed. Disparities occur across age groups as well, with older pedestrians at twice the risk of getting killed in a crash compared to other pedestrians. Overall, the crash analysis and the fatality data shown in Table 1 point to the urgent need for improved safety for people walking, and strategic investments in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of Black, Latine, and older Oaklanders.
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.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 3
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Table 1. Traffic Fatalities 2019-20241
Total Fatalities 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Travel Mode 26 36 30 36 33 30
Pedestrian 10 14 8 12 15 13
Bicyclist 3 1 2 3 5 6
Driver 8 15 14 10 7 5
Passenger 0 3 1 5 3 3
Motorcyclist 4 3 2 6 2 2
Other Motorized User* 1 0 3 0 1 1
Other Non-Motorized
User
0 0 0 2 0 0
Other 1 0 0 0 0 0
Source: City of Oakland. Traffic Fatality Monitoring. https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/traffic-fatality-tracking The 2019 death in this category was a person riding an e-scooter; The 2021 deaths in this category were 2 people riding an e-scooter and 1 person riding an ATV; The 2023 death in this category was a person riding a mini bike; The 2024 death in this category was a person riding a motorized scooter.
The SOS team presented its first informational report on the SOS initiative (File# 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 annual reports on the status of the initiative to the Public Works and Transportation Committee on June 28, 2022 (File# 22- 0236), May 23, 2023 (File# 23-0251), and July 23, 2024 (File #: 24-0649). This report serves as the annual SOS status update for calendar year 2024.
ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES
The SOS initiative focuses on six areas of strategic 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. These six strategy areas are in alignment with the recommendations of the Reimagining Public Safety Taskforce and support the Citywide priority to create vibrant and sustainable infrastructure. Progress on SOS strategies and activities in 2024 includes:
2. Coordination and Collaboration
Alameda County Public Health Department – More Comprehensive Injury Data: The Alameda County Public Health Department is partnering with OakDOT and Safe Oakland Streets to help supplement Oakland police crash data with Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and possibly other data sources. This will provide more details on crashes and add injuries where a police response was not involved. This work got underway in 2024 and moving forward will include (1) collecting EMS data from the Public Health Department’s parent agency, Alameda County Health; (2) working with Highland Hospital to get institutional review board (IRB) approval and oversight to protect confidentiality; (3) working with Highland Hospital to get trauma and/or emergency department data; (4) matching these data sources; (5) examining the Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 4
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
results and share them with Oakland Department of Transportation in an aggregated way. The Alameda County Public Health Department is using the surveillance system developed by the San Francisco Vision Zero program (https://www.visionzerosf.org/) as a model for this linked injury data system. OakDOT is also working with the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau to access fatality data to augment the traffic fatality data provided by OPD and reported here, monthly: https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/traffic-fatality-tracking.
Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and Oakland Fire Department (OFD) Agreements: Key accomplishments in 2024 include the approval of an interdepartmental agreement related to the placement of pedestrian safety islands in the public right-of-way while maintaining adequate clearance for emergency response. This agreement facilitates a shared understanding between agencies to enable OakDOT to install critical safety improvements that are also supportive of OFD operations and aligned with the Oakland Fire Code. OakDOT and OFD will utilize the once-every-three-years update to the Fire Code as a future prompt for reviewing interagency agreements and making updates as needed to reflect lessons learned and potential changes to the Fire Code. OakDOT and OFD continue to work together to move projects forward, understand each department’s operational needs, and forge agreements to streamline project review.
2. Engineering
In 2024, 25 Capital Improvement Projects with transportation safety improvements began construction, and 71 Near-Term Improvement Projects were completed, plus 44 speed bump projects, for a total of 140 traffic safety improvement projects. These projects are detailed in Attachment A.
Reconstructing streets to be safer for all users, and addressing historic underinvestment and associated disparities in low income communities and community of color, remains a central pillar of the SOS initiative. OakDOT continues to prioritize the delivery of safety upgrades and improvements, focusing on improvements in areas where they have a high impact on safety and equity. Data-based tools used to prioritize Capital Improvement Projects include the High Injury Network (HIN, 2018) and OakDOT’s Geographic Equity Toolbox. The Geographic Equity Toolbox uses sociodemographic data to track indicators of disparity and is used to help OakDOT determine areas in need of the most investment; the High and Highest Priority areas in Oakland include an estimated 36% of Oakland street miles. Factors that make up the priority levels include percentage of low-income residents, communities of color, seniors, and people with disabilities – communities which have been historically underserved and disproportionately bear severe and fatal crash concentrations that will benefit from focused strategies to address disparities. The HIN identifies the approximately 6% of city streets where over 60% of severe and fatal crashes are concentrated – helping to focus capital investments to save lives and prevent the most severe injuries. Near-Term programs use criteria relevant to the specific program, detailed below.
Capital Improvement Projects: 23 Capital Improvement Projects began construction in 2024.
OakDOT’S large scale, long-term projects fall under the Capital Improvement Program. Since 2021, these projects have been prioritized for safety and equity, utilizing the 2018 High Injury Network and OakDOT’s Geographic Equity Toolbox.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 5
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Capital Improvement Projects in this analysis include Complete Streets corridor improvement projects, as well as new bikeway projects and paving projects that include substantial safety upgrades, such as road diets. Typical streetscape improvements include road diets, bulb outs, pedestrian safety islands, sidewalk improvements, lighting, street trees, buffered bike lanes, and other permanent improvements that slow down cars and protect vulnerable road users. In 2024, improvements constructed as part of this program included over 50 miles of Oakland’s roads.
Capital Improvement Projects include ADA upgrades at all intersections and on sidewalks.
Some of the vital projects delivered through our CIP this year include pedestrian safety upgrades for children walking to school, adding buffered bike lanes, protected intersections, and a road diet to West Grand Avenue, creating cyclist and pedestrian connections to the Coliseum BART station, and many more. For a full list of CIP projects, see Attachment A.
Of the 25 2024 Capital Improvement projects,3 40% are on the HIN (Figure 1), and 68% are in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities. (Figure 2).
Further analysis shows how the proportion of projects on the HIN and in Equity Priority Communities varies by project type/funding source, consistent with differences in prioritization criteria for each. For example, 50% of Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funded projects are on the HIN, consistent with the program’s focus on reducing severe and fatal crashes. 100% of Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) funding is for projects in High Priority Communities, consistent with a focus on benefiting low-income communities. 60% of Safe Routes to Schools projects are at schools also located adjacent to a HIN corridor, and/or in a Priority Neighborhood. Paving projects have a more complex prioritization approach given the overall high need in Oakland. Major streets – arterials that largely comprise the HIN - are prioritized based on optimizing paving condition as well as HIN corridors. Local streets are also prioritized for paving based on pavement condition as well as proximity to parks and bike routes. In addition, the local streets program sets aside funding for City Council paving priorities and for utility cost-sharing opportunities as part of excavation projects. 53% of paving projects with traffic safety improvements in 2024 were on the HIN, and 60% were in High and Highest Priority Neighborhoods.
3 For all capital improvement project development, OakDOT advances an equity framework to address transportation disparities. This equity framework involves:
1) Analyzing data to measure existing health, safety, and racial disparities in transportation outco mes for Oaklanders;
2) Engaging community members in developing the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and in developing projects; and
3) Addressing disparities by centering equity in the City’s CIP project selection process to deliver equity - focused infrastructure to Oaklanders.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 6
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Figure 1: Capital Improvement Projects on and off the High Injury Network
Figure 2: Percent of Projects on the High Injury Network, broken down by program area
*AHSC stands for Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities, which is a grant from The California Department of Housing and Community Development
HSIP Highway Safety Improvement Program, these are projects funded with grants from Caltrans
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On HIN (10) Not On HIN (15)
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 7
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Equity Priority Communities
Figure 3: Capital Improvement Projects in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities
Figure 4: CIP Projects in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities, broken down by program area
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Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 8
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Near-Term Projects: Near-Term projects are relatively smaller projects typically implemented on a smaller (e.g., intersection scale), with the recent notable exception of the International Boulevard Quick Build. In contrast with major capital projects, Near-Term projects are more likely to include smaller traffic safety or traffic calming interventions off of the major corridors that comprise the HIN and in support of citywide speed lowering. OakDOT delivers Near-Term projects with both our in-house team of engineers and construction crews and in some instances with contractors. The projects vary widely in scope and scale; the SOS analysis does not capture this and instead provides a high level summary of their geographic distribution based on the HIN and Priority Neighborhood tools. Near-Term projects are implemented through programs that have varying approaches to project prioritization based on program goals. This section of the report analyzes these programs both together and separately in order to represent how their implementation aligns with the HIN and Equity Priority Communities, which are a focus of Safe Oakland Streets.
41% of the 2024 Near-Term projects were on the High Injury Network. Program areas with the highest proportion on the HIN in 2024 were Sideshow Prevention, Business Activity District speed limit lowering (100%, 4 total), and Council Earmark Discretionary Projects. The program area with the lowest percentage on the HIN is 15 mph school zones (20% of 15 zones implemented were on the HIN in 2024). Notably 15 mph school zone implementation began in 2022, starting with eligible elementary schools that were on the HIN. The total percent of all Near-Term projects in High and Highest Priority Neighborhoods is 37%; excluding speed bumps this goes up to 44%.
Figure 5: 2024 Near-Term Projects On and Off the High Injury Network
41%
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On HIN (29) Not On HIN (42)
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 9
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Figure 6: 2024 Near-Term Projects On and Off the High Injury Network, Showing Percentage Per Program Area
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Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 10
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Figure 7: 2024 Near-Term Projects (Including Speed Bumps) Equity Analysis
Figure 8: Near-Term Project Equity Analysis, Showing Percentage Per Program Area
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Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 11
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
• 15 MPH School Zones and Business Activity District Speed Limits: Speed Limit Lowering in Business Improvement Districts are prioritized on the HIN and implementation was further prioritized beginning with the highest priority areas in 2023;4 School Zone 15 MPH Limits implementation began in Summer 2022, prioritizing implementation using a process that considers low income students, streets with high crash concentrations, and in low-income communities and communities of color, and focusing on elementary schools. The schools in High Priority communities were completed first in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, speed limits were lowered in 2 Business Activity Districts and in 17 School Zones.
• AC Transit Requests are submitted to OakDOT, and the priority of these locations is determined by AC Transit staff. OakDOT constructed roughly one AC Transit priority project per month throughout 2024, for a total of 13 projects. • Administrative/Council Priorities include work items that were prioritized by City Administrative staff, including items that were elevated by City Council Offices. 8 projects were completed in 2024 that were identified as administrative or Council priority. • Council Earmark Projects are built using Council discretionary dollars and selected at the discretion of the Council. In 2024, 5 Council Earmark Projects were completed. • Public Requests are prioritized according to land use by more vulnerable populations, priority neighborhoods, and locations with higher concentrations of severe and fatal crashes. In 2024, 3 Public Request projects were completed. • Rapid Response projects are built in response to fatal crashes. The locations for the projects that are part of this program are determined by the location of crashes. More than half of the 2024 projects were on the HIN and in High Priority Communities. 8 Rapid Response projects completed construction in 2024.
• Residential Speed Bump program locations are determined through a resident petition process. The majority of the requests are submitted in Medium, Low and Lowest Priority Communities. The petition process for the residential speed bump program is initiated by residents, so the location is determined by where residents request speed bumps. 44 speed bump projects were completed in 2024, these projects include multiple speed bumps on a corridor.
• The School Safety Program is focused on school site locations; these projects are requested by the schools. 8 school requested projects were constructed in 2024. • The Sideshow/Violence Prevention program constructed three projects, in locations with frequent, large sideshows accompanied by violence. 65% of these were in High and Highest Priority Communities. This is a relatively new initiative, as OakDOT works to respond with engineering improvements to address concerns in communities experiencing relatively high rates of speeding, traffic injury and community violence.
4 https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/lowering-speed-limits-in-business-improvement-districts Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 12
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
• International Boulevard Quick Build: This project was informed by our Rapid Response program as the traffic engineering team met with OPD to respond to fatal crashes on International Blvd. This project was a partnership between OakDOT, AC Transit and Caltrans. It covers approximately 5.7 miles, all of which is on the HIN and in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities. Improvements include over 3,000 safe hit posts separating the bus lanes from general purpose lanes, and on the center line. It also includes pavement markings, and traffic signs including installing corridor wide 25 mph speed limit signs, and initiated a speed cushion pilot. The majority of the project completed construction in 2024, and OakDOT is now working with AC Transit on an evaluation.
While the Near-Term projects are not prioritized exclusively using the metrics of the High Injury Network and Equity Priority Communities, a summary using these metrics is useful information to assess alignment with geographic prioritization tools used by OakDOT – specifically the HIN and Equity Priority Communities. Figure 9 and Figure 10 show that our Capital Improvement Program is increasing delivery on the High Injury Network and in High and Highest Priority Communities compared to 2023. However, there has been a decrease over time for both CIP projects and Near-Term Projects since Safe Oakland Streets was launched.
Figure 9: Percentage of projects on the High and Highest Priority Communities from 2022-2024
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Equity Analysis 2022-2024
Capital Near-Term
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 13
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Figure 10: Percentage of projects in High and Highest Priority Communities from 2022- 2024
In the three years of annual SOS reporting, a high proportion of Capital Projects with traffic safety improvements were on the HIN and in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities starting in 2022 (68% for both). These figures declined in 2023 to 50% and 36%, and both have risen to 68% (Equity Priority) and 40% (HIN) in 2024. The proportion of Capital Projects in High and Highest Priority communities is almost back to the 2022 level in 2024, while the proportion of Capital Projects on the HIN rose slightly over 2023 but is still lower than 2022.
The same assessment for Near-Term projects shows a decline in both categories since 2022. 77% of Near-Term projects were in High and Highest Priority communities in 2022, decreasing to 50%in 2023, and to 44% in 2024. The proportion of Near-Term projects on the HIN started at 47% in 2022 and is at 41% in 2024.
3. Policy
Recognizing that a Safe Systems approach also requires upstream approaches to vehicle design, OakDOT championed the passage of AB 251 (Ward) in 2023, which establishes a Vehicle Weight and Vulnerable User Safety Task Force to examine the safety impacts and potential weight fees that could be assessed and directed to safety enhancement projects for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vulnerable road users. In 2024, OakDOT, in collaboration with the California City Transportation Initiative (CaCTI), successfully advocated for an appointed seat on the Task Force to represent City perspectives on this issue. The Task Force is anticipated to begin convening in 2025.
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HIN Analysis 2022-2024
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Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 14
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
OakDOT anticipates further exploring opportunities to advance vehicle technology policy in 2025, given the role of egregious speeding and driving while intoxicated in the most severe crashes.
Significant progress was made in 2024 toward the implementation of Speed Safety Cameras, enabled by the passage of Assembly Bill 645 in October 2023, a focus of SOS. This work is further described in the Enforcement section of this report.
4. Planning and Evaluation
• The High Injury Network was updated in 2024. It is now being implemented by OakDOT teams in project prioritization, as well as by OPD for strategic traffic enforcement. The 2025 SOS report will begin using the updated map for analysis. • SOS updated the Citywide Crash Analysis. The previous analysis was completed in 2018 and is regularly utilized to inform strategies and project goals. The update uses crash data from 2017-2021, pertinent changes include a higher percentage of crashes are from a failure to yield, and the rate of hit and runs has increased, Attachment C • OakDOT completed an in-house evaluation of the West Street Road Diet Project. The analysis consists of a comparison of before and after speeds and volumes, as well as observational data analysis of how drivers interacted with newly installed speed cushions. Project evaluation was also written into contracts for two upcoming capital projects; SOS will report on these efforts in future reports. • Geographic Equity Toolbox update: OakDOT relies on the Geographic Equity Toolbox and its Priority Neighborhoods layer for our prioritization process. The map is updated every two years with new data from the American Community Survey. The map was updated in the end of 2024, use of the updated map will begin in 2025. • In 2024 OakDOT applied for and was awarded two Highway Safety Improvement Program Grants from Caltrans for Safe Oakland Streets to improve safety for seniors and cyclists. Together these grants total almost 3 Million Dollars; projects will be implanted in the next few years.
5. Engagement, Education, and Programs
OakDOT project outreach and engagement included multiple efforts for projects around the City to improve access to safe mobility options for High Equity Priority Communities in Oakland. Outreach included conducting hours of site walks, merchant talks, Neighborhood Council presentations, stakeholder meetings, and in-person events for projects. Some notable events include ongoing Advisory Committee meetings for the Chinatown Complete Streets project, surveys for the Universal Basic Mobility program, tabling at Farmer’s Market for Underpass Improvement Projects, an open house for the paving project on Telegraph Ave, and three OakDOT press conferences about safety improvement projects.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 15
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
6. Enforcement
Speed Safety Camera Pilot
The City of Oakland is one of seven cities in the state authorized to pilot speed safety cameras.
OakDOT staff worked with the State and other cities to add equity and privacy measures into the bill to mitigate the potential for inequitable outcomes and to prevent over-policing in communities. These measures include reduced fines, opportunities for community service in lieu of fines, cameras placed to only capture license plates, and strict regulations about data retention and safeguarding. In 2024, OakDOT completed required preliminary work to establish the Speed Safety Camera Program, including hiring a project manager conducting a data-driven analysis to identify 18 recommended candidate locations, and public stakeholder engagement to inform the required Impact Report and Use Policy for the program. To determine camera placement, OakDOT collected data on vehicle speeds at over 40 locations before narrowing down to 18 candidate locations, prioritizing locations with the most documented speeding, as well as proximity to sensitive land uses such as schools, senior centers, and commercial districts. The program is in the process of soliciting a vendor that will operate and maintain the speed safety camera systems, with the goal of installing the cameras by the end of calendar year 2025. https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/assembly-bill-645-friedman-speed-safety- systems-pilot-program
OPD Stop Data Analysis
1. Under the SOS initiative, OPD’s approach to traffic safety enforcement operations leverages data to prioritize the Traffic Enforcement Unit’s resources at locations on the HIN and to address the most dangerous driving behaviors. OPD switched to prioritizing enforcement on the updated 2024 HIN four months into the year. 73% of stops were on the HIN for the first half of the year, and 64% were on the HIN for the second half of the year.
2. 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. This subset of OPD stops is the focus of SOS reporting and analysis. Detailed information regarding all OPD stops is also publicly available here: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/stop-data.
Attachment D includes summary statistics for these non-dispatch, non-intel-led traffic stops for 2024. There were 6882 stops in 2023 and 7890 stops in 2024, the findings below analyzed these stops.
Key findings for non-dispatch, non-intel led traffic stops include:
• In 2024, 69% of stops were within 500 feet of the HIN compared to 63% in 2023. • In 2024, 83% of stops were for the most dangerous driving behaviors contributing to severe and fatal crashes, compared to only 40% in 2019. • In 2024, 73% of stops were in High and Highest Equity Priority Communities; 68% of the 2018 HIN is in Equity Priority Communities, while 64% of the 2024 HIN is in Equity Priority Communities.
• Racial disparities in traffic stops persist, with more stops conducted on Black, Latine, and Asian drivers than crashes involving Black, Latine, and Asian drivers (the best Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 16
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
proxy for who is driving on local streets). Black, Latine, and Asian drivers comprise 82% of traffic stops in 2024 compared to 66% of drivers involved in crashes. • OPD regularly assesses traffic violation stops and holds monthly risk management meetings, focusing on stop data and other risk data. Supervisors and Commanders are expected to ensure that officers’ actions are lawful, effective and responsive.
Where disparity is evident, supervisors and command work to determine causes and potential mitigations. Stop data forms are reviewed by supervisors to ensure officers are compliant with all laws and policies; OPD Stop Data and accompanying reports are shared publicly annually.
SOS Initiative Look Ahead
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:
a. Speed Safety Camera Pilot Program: Following the procurement process and planned public information campaign under development in 2024, OakDOT intends for the speed safety camera systems to be installed by the end of 2025 at the latest, with updates shared at https://www.oaklandca.gov/projects/assembly-bill-645- friedman-speed-safety-systems-pilot-program.
b. Data Partnership with Alameda Public Health Department (ACPHD): OakDOT will continue to work with the ACPHD on augmenting OPD’s crash injury and fatality data with hospital and EMS data to more comprehensively capture crash outcomes to inform prioritization efforts.
c. Evaluate opportunities to improve internal processes to increase the proportion of projects delivered on the HIN and in High and Highest Priority Communities. OakDOT utilizes annual SOS reporting to understand opportunities to improve our prioritization processes to reach our goals. This includes close attention to our project planning pipeline and the organizational structure that supports it, and working with our project teams and Race and Equity Team to understand how these prioritization systems inform our work and how our approaches can be further refined to ultimately achieve our safety and equity goals.
d. Include additional data in the 2025 SOS Annual Report, including racial and other demographic data for fatalities.
FISCAL IMPACT
This item is for informational purposes only and does not have a direct fiscal impact or cost.
PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST
In addition to public engagement on safety-focused Capital or Near-Term Improvement projects.
SOS staff presented at the following public meetings in 2024:
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 17
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC)
• Mayor’s Commission on People with Disabilities
• Mayor’s Commission on Aging
• Public Works and Transportation Committee
COORDINATION
The City departments listed below worked together to advance the SOS strategies to save lives and prevent severe injuries:
• City Administrator’s Office
• Oakland Department of Transportation
• Oakland Police Department
• Department of Race & Equity
• Oakland Fire Department
SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES
Economic: The 2024 Citywide Crash Analysis2 analyzed nearly 60,000 injury collisions from 2017-2021 to understand the impacts on Oaklanders and how to effectively focus safety efforts.
During that period, there was a 12% increase in traffic fatalities. Traffic crashes in Oakland cost residents and the city $650 million dollars per year in injuries, property damage, lost work time, and other associated costs.
Environmental: With the transportation sector accounting for nearly two-thirds of local greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the City’s Equitable Climate Action Plan recognized that encouraging and increasing the use of more sustainable modes of transportation (walking, rolling, biking, or taking transit) is key to achieving the City’s climate goals. Creating safer streets for our most vulnerable road users—pedestrians, bicyclists, children, people with disabilities, and older adults—is a prerequisite in the City’s efforts to encourage more sustainable transportation choices. The SOS Initiative is squarely focused on improving traffic safety on Oakland streets, making walking, rolling, biking, and taking transit more viable and attractive as daily transportation options for Oaklanders.
Race & Equity: Safe Oakland Streets Initiative has conjoined goals of safety and equity. Road safety is directly associated with equity around visible issues of race, class, age, ability, and gender. In response, Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) took an innovative and holistic approach to traffic safety that considers economic, geographic, and physical environmental conditions in which people in Oakland are born, grow, live, and age. The goal is to eliminate disparities that create barriers and prevent communities from living, thriving, and enjoying safe streets and neighborhoods. Oakland’s Municipal Code (OMC) defines these conditions as determinants of equity and calls City departments to collaborate on approaches to create a community where civil services, including transportation, are responsive to all residents and provides everyone with safe, efficient, affordable, convenient and reliable mobility options (OMC 2.29.170.2.2).
Oakland defines equity as actions that ensure people in our City are treated with fairness by eliminating disparities in services, distribution of resources, opportunities, and outcomes for Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 18
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
different groups. Using OakDOT’s Geographic Equity toolbox and High Injury Network together identifies current disparities to inform and guide investments to advance fairness and justice by prioritizing neighborhoods that are both under resourced and plagued with disproportionate number of severe and fatal crashes. 6% of City streets that account for the majority (60%) of crashes (i.e., the High Injury Network or HIN) also has high overlap with OakDOT’s Equity Communities (as identified in the OakDOT Geographic Equity Toolbox). Almost 95% of the the 2018 HIN is located in Medium to Highest Priority neighborhoods. In analyzing crash data from 2017-2021,2 OakDOT found that as compared to White Oaklanders, Black Oaklanders are three times more likely to be killed or severely injured in traffic crashes and four times as likely to be killed or severely injured while walking.
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 19
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Staff Recommends That The City Council Receive The 2024 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 questions regarding this report, please contact Jasmine Pomar, Acting Chief of Staff, at (510) 406-6062.
Respectfully submitted,
JOSH ROWAN
Director, Department of Transportation
FLOYD MITCHELL
Chief, Oakland Police Department
DARLENE FLYNN
Director, Department of Race and Equity
Reviewed by:
Megan Wier, Assistant Director
Department of Transportation
Kristin Burgess, Police Program & Performance
Audit Supervisor
Oakland Police Department
Jacque Larrainzar, Program Analyst III
Department of Race and Equity
Prepared by:
Jasmine Pomar, Acting Chief of Staff
Department of Transportation
Mica Amichai, Transportation Planner II
Safe Oakland Streets
Josh Rowan (Apr 29, 2025 10:51 PDT)
Floyd Mitchell (Apr 29, 2025 11:08 PDT)
Floyd Mitchell
Darlene Flynn (Apr 29, 2025 16:50 PDT)
Darlene Flynn
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: 2024 Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) Annual Informational Report Date: April 14, 2025 Page 20
Public Works and Transportation Committee
May 13, 2025
Department of Transportation
Attachments (4):
Attachment A: 2024 Engineering Safety Improvement Projects Attachment B: 2024 Rapid Response Investigations and Implementation Status Attachment C: CityWide Crash Analysis
Attachment D: 2024 OPD Stop Data Analysis