1 Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) Draft - 2025 BPAC Chair’s Report to the Public Works and Transportation Committee of the Oakland City Council
December 18, 2025
To the Honorable Chair of the Oakland Public Works and Transportation Committee and Members of the Council,
We are pleased to present the Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) Annual Report to the Council. Pursuant to Ordinance 13125 C.M.S. this report provides a summary of the Commission’s work in 2025 and offers recommendations relating to policies, programs and projects that impact the safety and accommodation of those who walk and bike in the City of Oakland.
1 We wish to start off by acknowledging the tremendous work and dedication of OakDOT, the City Administrator’s Office, and the Office of the Mayor who together have enabled the BPAC and all of us who walk or bicycle to have a productive 2025. Department of Transportation staff Jason Patton, Noel Pond-Danchik, and Pierre Gerard have expertly and enthusiastically supported and facilitated the Commission’s work. We express our gratitude and appreciation to the whole OakDOT staff who have attended our meetings and the leadership of Josh Rowan and Megan Wier. Most importantly, we thank and acknowledge the support of our advocacy community who have helped in our collective work with staff and Council to usher in a safer and more connected, mobility-equity oriented city.
Oakland – with the lead of the Department of Transportation - has unquestionably made significant progress in addressing the historically poor condition of our city’s streets, developed stronger plans for expanding bike and pedestrian-focused infrastructure, advanced more equity-driven transportation planning, and continues to build a staff of talented transportation professionals. As you all know, the work is critically important, and we must continue working together. We also recognize that we have work to do to dispel any myths that a low-stress, accessible inter-connected bike and pedestrian friendly city - the infrastructure we are seeking – is somehow an interfering nuisance to car trips, only do harm to shopping districts and parking, and by making streets tighter, frustrated drivers who then make the streets more unsafe. Ample data and research simply do not
1 Pursuant to Ordinance 13125 C.M.S. “(t)he purpose of the Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission is to advise City Council and staff on bicyclist- and pedestrian-specific policies, projects, and programs, and on the accommodation of bicyclists and pedestrians in all transportation plans, policies, projects and p r o g ra m s .”
2 back this “old” way of thinking. Quite the contrary. We are all getting acculturated to a new way of thinking and doing.
Despite notable progress in making our streets safer and investments– our city continues to experience unacceptably dangerous street conditions, speeding, reckless driving, going through red-lights. We still have places with confusing street designs, dangerous surface conditions for bikes and pedestrians, and barriers of all types that prevent access to key city resources for all.
Between 2014 and 2023 (the most recent 10 years that there is finalized data), at least 134 pedestrian and bicyclists have been killed in Oakland, while at least 509 have been severely injured (SWITRS)2. This is widespread – from those who wish to bike in the hills, to those in flatlands trying to cross busy streets to get to a bus stop or just get home, or those wishing to take their children on a Sunday ride around the lake or to the park. Dangerous streets not only threaten our community’s health and safety and undermine our quality of life, but they also ultimately lead to people less frequently walking or biking and causing anxiety for many people simply using public spaces. The sad reality is that Older Oaklanders, children and people with disabilities are especially at risk in our city. We also know too well that Oakland’s high-injury streets and intersections have been disproportionately concentrated in historically under-resourced communities.
Although we thankfully have seen a 42% reduction from the 19 pedestrians and bicyclists who were lost to traffic violence in 2024, even one is too many and they are almost always preventable. In every BPAC meeting, we recognize and often discuss the circumstances of fatalities that occurred in the preceding month. These tragedies have deep and lasting impacts on Oakland families and communities. These impacts are typically inequitable:
• Black Oaklanders are two times as likely to be killed or severely injured and three times more likely to be killed or severely injured while walking compared to other Oaklanders. • 30% of streets in majority Asian census tracts fall on the City of Oakland Pedestrian High Injury Network - the highest percentage of any ethnicity. • Older Oaklanders (65+) are more than two times as likely to be killed in a crash compared to all other Oaklanders; most senior traffic deaths occur while walking.
These conditions are the context that has and continues to shape our work. The attached annual report summarizes the work and issues we have done throughout 2025, and we present seven key recommendations to you and the City Council as part of your legislative policy and budget oversight capacity (See pages 11-17 for a full list of recommendations). Our recommendations are focused on:
• Advocating for a “Citywide Greenway Network” as part of the City’s General Plan update (establish clear policy goals for interconnected bikeway implementation and gap closures)
2 California Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), accessed through:
https://tims.berkeley.edu/help/Query_and_Map.php
3 • Stopping fatal and injurious traffic crashes (focused enhanced enforcement on high-injury corridors)
• Implementing immediate traffic calming interventions (slow vehicular traffic on neighborhood streets and bike routes, “quick build” protective infrastructure projects for people walking and biking)
• Building “Complete Streets” (comfortable pedestrian and bicyclist-oriented streets and public “third spaces” that accommodate multi-modes of transit) • Recognizing both.traffic safety and City emergency response safety (balance the priority of both with flexible policies)
• Bridging freeway and railroad barriers to connect East Oakland to the estuary waterfront (coordinating with other agencies to plan and fund safe access solutions in East Lake/ San Antonio, Fruitvale/Melrose, and the Coliseum Area).
• Growing BPAC’s relationship with community, businesses, and other agency partners Overall, we continue to reiterate, as in prior year’s reports, that the Council should ensure that OakDOT has the resources and staffing necessary to continue and expand its work in traffic- calming, “quick-build” infrastructure projects, obtaining new streetscape grants, and implementing programs and technology (speed automated enforcement camera program) designed to slow streets. We acknowledge that important progress is being made. This is an exciting time for Oakland - OakDOT is now partnering with East Bay Municipal Utility District to rebuild Lakeshore Avenue between E. 18th Street and El Embarcadero with protected bike lanes; the City is working with the Alameda County Transportation Commission to build out the East Bay Greenway sections in East Oakland – an estimated $18 million investment, and the City has continued to partner with the wildly successful “Bike to Wherever Day” (BTWD) of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO). There are many other accomplishments we can celebrate and there is also much still to do.
The BPAC is here to work with you to highlight and realize a healthy and thriving City built on multi- modal transportation safety and accessibility that can robustly serve the needs of our diverse neighborhoods, our business districts, and all those who come to Oakland to contribute to the economic growth of the city. We appreciate your consideration of this report and our recommendations.
Respectfully,
Commissioner David Ralston (District 2) 2025 Chair
Commissioner Nick Whipps (District 6) 2025 Vice Chair
Commissioner Priyanka Altman (District 1)
Commissioner Dianne Yee (District 3)
Commissioner Grey Gardner (District 2)
Commissioner Patricia Schader (District 7)
4 Commissioner Jimmy Jessup (District 1)
Commissioner Alex Perry (District 3)
Commissioner Kirsten Flagg (District 5)
5 Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2025 ANNUAL REPORT
We.win.when.we.work.together? .and.we.work.together.when.we.focus.on.what.we.share.in. common – Jason Patton
This report provides a summary of our work and recommendations for 2025 going into 2026 relating to policies, programs, and projects that impact the safety and accommodations of those who walk and bike in Oakland. The report also provides an overview of the work the BPAC and our committees have done this last year.
The Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) completed its eleventh year as a city commission. 2025 also marks the 30th anniversary of the very 1st BPAC meeting (when it started out as a committee). This year, we have focused our work largely on advocating for projects and programs that help improve accessibility, connectivity and safety infrastructure for people walking or biking within larger framework of mobility-equity. We have provided extensive input to Department of Transportation (OakDOT) staff regarding policies and projects. BPAC also serves as a key point of community engagement on transportation issues where public participants at Commission and committee meetings often provide valuable insights and feedback on agenda items. Commission meetings are held regularly and in-person on the third Thursday of each month.
An Overview of the Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission The role of the BPAC is to advise the City of Oakland Department of Transportation, the Oakland City Council and other city departments on pedestrian and bicycle issues, with an overarching objective of ensuring that walking and bicycling projects and programs in Oakland are safe and equitable. The BPAC is charged with advising the City on bicyclist and pedestrian-specific plans, policies, projects, and programs, as well as the accommodation of bicyclists and pedestrians in all plans, policies, projects, and programs. In addition, the BPAC specifically reviews Transportation Development Act Article 3 funding allocations as required by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
The BPAC is comprised of nine commissioners. Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor of Oakland, and commissioners serve three-year staggered terms during each appointment. The BPAC commissioners come from a very diverse range of backgrounds and areas of expertise and each one brings their unique experiences as a bicyclist and pedestrian in Oakland. Many commissioners have deep connections to multiple parts of the city, and all take seriously their responsibility to improve safety and access for people walking and biking throughout the city. BPAC commissioners are committed to ensuring the commission is made up of motivated individuals who represent the entire City of Oakland. When new openings arise due to term limits, we undertake a recruitment process for new commissioners by making recommendations to the Mayor who has the authority to make appointments, subject to city council approval. This year, the BPAC has recommended the appointment of four new members and two alternates. 6 The BPAC has established two standing committees: Infrastructure; Policy and Legislation; and each year the BPAC forms an ad-hoc Recruitment Committee. There are also multiple liaison roles, including an Open Forum liaisons and liaisons to the City Council’s Public Works and Transportation Committee. Overall, the BPAC is also guided by our Strategic Plan which we seek to update every year and this year. For 2024 and 2025 we have focused on the following goals:
• Be strong advocates for bicyclist and pedestrian safety and hold the City accountable • Be a two-way conduit for information on bicyclist and pedestrian projects • Encourage equity-driven investments and policies and increase community involvement in high-injury and historically underserved areas
• Build relationships with policymakers and provide feedback on policies that affect walking and bicycling in Oakland
BPAC Meetings and Activities in 2025
The BPAC holds regular in-person commission meetings on the third Thursday of each month. Most meetings were just over two hours long. The Commission held twelve meetings in 2025, with two meetings held at a remote location outside of City Hall (at the East Oakland 81st Avenue library in June and the Fruitvale Carmen del Flores Recreation Center in August). We have had steady in person attendance as well as regular zoom attendees. Meetings are streamed and recorded, and viewable in real-time by members of the public.
Standing agenda items include:
• Review of recent fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes for prior month. • Open-forum.
• Updates and reports from committees and liaisons of the BPAC. • Discussion of future agenda items.
Topics Discussed in 2025
The Commission’s work in 2025, as typical per our charge, focused largely on examining and hearing updates on many of the specific programs and projects that impact safety on Oakland’s streets. Below are summaries of topics discussed at BPAC meetings over the course of the year:
Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Projects and Grant Proposals • West Street.
• Grand Avenue Paving project.
• Embarcadero Access and MLK MTC complete street checklist • I-880 freeway undercrossing
• 42nd Ave/High Street Improvements and complete streets checklist • Hegenberger Rd and San Antonio Caltrans planning grant and application • Chinatown Complete Streets proposal.
7 Programmatic Presentations and Discussions:
• Community-initiated traffic calming pilot guidelines – OakDOT staff • Vision 980 project – Caltrans
• Region 4 Bike Plan - Caltrans
• General Plan updates on LUTE, OSCAR, Infrastructure elements – City Planning Bureau • Slow Streets Draft Network – OakDOT staff
• OakDOT organizational and budget update – OakDOT staff • MTC and AC Transit policy updates
• Measure U – OakDOT staff
• SOS annual report – OakDOT staff
• ADA lawsuit settlement (referred to the Policy and Legislation committee) – OakDOT staff • Bay Wheels E-Bike update – OakDOT staff
• Q&A with OakDOT Director Rowan
• Q&A with CM Unger (Chair of the Council’s Public Works and Transportation Committee) • Oakland Fire Code Updates and discussions with the Assistant Fire Marshall • City Parking and Enforcement Policy
Advocacy Letters. The BPAC took action to submit letters of support/recommendation for specific projects including:
• Measure U bond sale
• Hegenberger Rd and San Antonio Caltrans planning grants • Expanding pedestrian ROW improvements
• MTC and AC Transit policy updates
• City General Plan update
• City Fire Code amendments
• Parking Enforcement reorganization
Special Group Planning Input Sessions
• On our participation and outreach for the annual “Bike to Work Day” (led by WOBO) • An Oakland General Plan group visioning charette (and formation of a General Plan ad hoc working group)
BPAC Committees and Liaisons Summaries
BPAC Committees are an important organizational element of the Commission, as they provide a forum for detailed discussion on specific topics that might otherwise be too time consuming for the full BPAC to address at regular Commission meetings. Actions originating at the committee level can be forwarded to the full BPAC for further discussion and consideration on an as-needed basis.
Committees report back to the full commission at the monthly BPAC meetings. The BPAC 8 committees are also an important linkage to volunteer members of the public, as membership in each committee is open to the public. The BPAC by-laws also provides an opportunity for members of the public to join and to chair individual committees.
In addition to the BPAC’s two standing committees (Infrastructure; Policy and Legislation) and one annual ad hoc committee (Recruitment), Commissioners and members of the public have been designated as liaisons to monitor other commissions’ work that may impact pedestrians and bicyclists and assist with specific tasks relating to BPAC’s work. The following provides updates regarding the 2025 activities of the Committees and liaison work:
Infrastructure Committee:
This committee examines Oakland streets and sidewalk plans and provides detailed feedback to staff. These meetings are held every other month, or as needed, and the committee reports back to the full BPAC. Agenda materials, presentations, and schematics are distributed in advance of meetings, when possible, to assist committee members with formulating questions and ideas.
Committee meeting agendas and notes are available online.3 The intent of this committee is to provide space for in-depth reviews of items that would not ordinarily be accomplished during a BPAC meeting, and especially items that help inform broader design policies and standards, which will ultimately streamline the workflow for staff.
In 2025, the Infrastructure Committee consisted of 4 commissioners and 3 members of the public.
It is open to the public and does have public attendance. The BPAC’s infrastructure committee typically is the first line of review and consideration of support letters of support as appropriate for Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and Active Transportation Program (ATP) Grant Applications.
The Oakland BPAC Infrastructure Committee met six times in 2025, for a total of 13 agenda items covering every City Council district. Some highlights included continued coordination with staff on the implementation of traffic calming along neighborhood bike routes through routine paving projects, as well as continued development of Oakland's Slow Streets Network recommendations.
The committee also provided input on Oakland's Community-Led Traffic Safety (CLTS) pilot program, reviewed the Caltrans Bay Area bike plan update, and coordinated with staff on bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure design standards to apply to projects routinely across town, helping to streamline project development.
The committee provided design review on the following: Embarcadero West access improvements, Lakeshore Avenue separated bike lanes, Highway Safety Improvement Program
3 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qqS46y3dWNeAxMVwU3HTwjunj-b0pwANtZix-CisiWA/
9 projects, 2026 paving projects, the 7th Street West Oakland separated bikeway, the Port of Oakland 3rd Street and Adeline Street projects, and Alameda CTC's San Pablo Ave corridor projects.
This year the committee has received increased attendance not only by members of the public, but also by staff from the DOT and other departments / agencies. These meetings have become a valuable resource for making project information and updates available to the public, as well as for increased info sharing and coordination between staff. In response, the Infrastructure Committee moved to a larger meeting space this year to help accommodate the growing attendance.
Policy and Legislative Committee:
The Policy and Legislative Committee is composed of BPAC Commissioners and other volunteer members of the public. This Committee examines Oakland’s streets through the lens of safety and movement challenges faced by pedestrians and bicyclists, and makes related policy suggestions for city agencies to consider. The Committee’s meetings are held in person once per quarter, at which topics to develop policy recommendations to be presented to the BPAC are decided upon.
February meeting
• Received presentation from Mike Wilson on Berkeley street trauma prevention. This new position within the Berkeley Fire Department looks at ways to reduce street trauma injury and fatality through better street design. At the same time, it looks at needs to have good response time for emergency vehicles.
• Improved reporting of traffic injuries and fatalities. Presentation from Megan Wier (OakDOT) and Matt Beyers (Alameda County Public Health Department). Oakland and Alameda County are working to improve data on injuries and fatalities related to vehicular incidents.
May meeting
• Presentation by Jason Patton (OakDOT) and Fire Marshal Felicia Bryant (Oakland Fire Department). Fire Code Approval Cycle and OFD/OakDOT collaboration. OakDOT and OFD have been collaborating on street design since 2022. This collaboration has allowed the design of safer streets while meeting the requirements for emergency response. • Pedestrian Right of Way. Sarah Fine (OakDOT) presented on a pending ADA lawsuit and consent decree. Oakland will suggest ways to increase the speed of improving ADA access in Oakland, including waiving existing local contracting requirements, improving sidewalk repair assistance, improve employee retention and improving pre-authorization.
July meeting
• Liza Lutzker (UC Berkeley, Safe Transportation Research and Education Center). Safety- Safety Dilemma. Examines when fire or emergency response and street safety goals come into conflict.
October meeting
• Javan Smith (Assistant Fire Marshal (Oakland Fire Department). Talked in broad terms about plans for fire code amendments but was unable to provide text of amendments. 10 • Michael Ford and Kerby Olsen (OakDOT). Examine ways that parking policy affects traffic safety, including increased parking enforcement, Sunday metering, enforcement of misuse of disabled placards.
• Jason Patton and Pierre Gerard (OakDOT). Presentation on new data collected by OakDOT.
Map showing speed limits data for streets in Oakland, also includes data on recorded traffic speeds and volumes.
Additionally, the Committee, through its ad hoc General Plan working group, developed recommendations for BPAC to provide specific policy input to the Oakland General Plan Update, particularly the Land Use and Transportation Element.
Open Forum Liaisons:
The liaisons continue to track and monitor issues raised by the public during Open Forum. Open forum is an important component of the BPAC, as an Open Forum item is included in every BPAC meeting for the public to comment on items not on the regular agenda. Over 280 Open Forum public comments have been made since 2015. In many instances, this could be the only opportunity for members of the public to comment on specific bicycle and pedestrian issues.
Indeed, many of the comments BPAC hears deal with larger transportation issues and are not always specific to bicycle and pedestrian topics that closely relate to certain members of the community.
Open Forum through 2025 was comprised of Commissioners Patricia Schader and Jimmy Jessup.
The liaisons track issues brought to the BPAC at its monthly meetings. We track the issues and make it available for public view at http://tinyurl.com/Oakland-BPAC-OpenForumTracking
In 2025, Open Forum received 53 comments between January and December, made by 20 different individuals. This is an increase of 12 comments from 2024, and comprises a 50% increase compared to 2023, when 27 Open Forum comments were made. Multiple BPAC meetings, notched 6 Open Forum comments. It is also noted that exact delineation between different comments from single commenters is typically made to the best estimate of the liaisons and can be somewhat of an imprecise science.
The issue tracking sheet categorizes comments in three categories. “Announcements” denote comments such as a recap of past events, a future event announcement, or note of congratulation that are meant for informational purposes to staff, commissioners, and members of the public. “No Follow-Up Needed” comments typically indicate that a comment or issue is addressed or resolved to satisfaction by staff or commissioners during the meeting, or that the commenter has made or is referred to make input to the City via 311 or SeeClickFix during the Open Forum response immediately following the comment. Finally, “For Investigation, ” indicates issues that the Open Forum Liaisons will endeavor to follow-up on and track to closure. Of the 45 comments made during 2025 BPAC meetings, comment categorization totals are as follows (with 2024 comment categorization totals in parentheses):
• Announcements: 40 total, or 75% of all comments (24, 60%) 11 • No Follow-up Needed: 8 total, or 15% of all comments (10, 25%) • For Investigation: 5 total, or 10% of all comments (6, 15%) These figures show a clear shift in how participants use the Open Forum: in 2023, only 8 of 27 comments (30%) were announcements; this rose to 60% in 2024 and nearly 75% in 2025, indicating that the space is increasingly being used for sharing updates rather than discussion.
Of the five actions for investigation, two have been marked as resolved from the perspective of the Open Forum Liaisons. This does not necessarily indicate that, for instance, physical infrastructure changes have been installed on-site in response to an Open Forum comment, but rather that the liaison’s role is complete, such that commenters have been connected with resources, an item is taken up by another BPAC committee, or otherwise that an action plan to address the issue has been initiated by another party.
Additionally, Open Forum can serve as a conduit to feed the future topic list for BPAC meeting agendas. Regardless of whether an item is an "Announcement, ” “No Follow-Up Needed” , or “For Investigation, ” the topic may be worthwhile spending time on with additional preparation and in a future meeting forum. Most topics listed in the 2024 Open Forum Annual report have been addressed as an agenda item on a meeting of the Commission, including the Vision 980 Project, Community Traffic Calming Pilot update, and Highway Safety Improvement Plan countermeasures and scoring. Topics that liaisons indicated as potential items for a future agenda from 2025 comments include the following (some of which were already incorporated into a meeting of the Commission or a relevant Committee):
• Replacement / maintenance of damaged ped/bike infrastructure • Oakland Encampment Management and Trail Access
• Measure U and update of bond sales
• 3rd Street Project and alignment with the City’s Bicycle Plan
Challenges and Recommendations
As part of our annual report, the Commission respectfully submits the following recommendations to the City Council:
1. Advocate a Bold Vision for a “Citywide Greenway Network” with a Concerted Infrastructure Investment and Implementation Strategy
Our commission, working with community partners as part of an ad hoc General Plan working group, has backed the notion of Oakland laying out a realizable “20-year” vision for “Citywide 12 Greenway Network.”4 A greenway network would mean accessible and inter-connected car-free bicycle and walking paths – often within vegetated/tree-canopied or nature corridors (e.g. creekside linear parks) providing connections to recreation opportunities, parks, school yards, neighborhood centers, and other key destinations. Greenways often follow public rights-of-way such as along rail, flood control, or utility corridors; they might follow existing wide “park-like” street medians and cross through existing parks; and they prioritize minimal road crossings and present easy gradients.5 Specifically, we are advocating a citywide structural framework that builds on Oakland’s rich landscape of creek ways and flood plains which already topographically carve out a suggestive green connector “linear park” pattern linking the hills to the Bay which notable urban designers have famously highlighted over the last century since the 1915 Hegemann Plan. A citywide greenway network will serve as a framework for developing an equitable active transportation network over the next twenty years that can effectively and comfortably link key destinations and neighborhoods while also being an integral part of the Oakland’s resilience and sustainability policies and strategies. Furthermore, as a policy, we are also advocating that every neighborhood in the flats of Oakland be within at most a half mile from this network.
In September the BPAC forwarded our recommendations to the City’s General Plan Update staff advocating how, by 2045, Oakland can be a city characterized by “safe public spaces, active mobility, reduced automobile dependence, and equitable thriving communities.” As the City’s General Plan 2045 effort is taking shape, we wish to vocally reiterate these recommendations again within this report to you all the legislative and policy leads for the City.
Our recommendation also highlights another critical aspect to how “bold and visionary” plans can actually and systematically become implemented. Large, intricate, or complex types of public- private collaborative infrastructure and community redevelopment is best coordinated by a dedicated “office of infrastructure and investment” to coordinate financing, real estate, planning, environmental, public works, and transportation expertise and authority as well as coordinating
4 By way of an example, in 2014, San Francisco established a “Green Connector Network” plan to increase attractive, comfortable, safe inter-connected access between special streets, paths and staircases, parks, open space, and the waterfront.
5 Some elements of this network already exist or are under construction (examples include the East Bay Greenway, Mandela Parkway, and the San Leandro Creek Greenway).
13 with outside local, state, and federal agencies. We envision the establishment of such a new office that could, for example, be sustained by and manage an “enhanced infrastructure financing district” to complement potential infrastructure planning and budget allocations associated with the City’s CIP and Measure U program and, through its centralized auspices, maintain focus and accountability on forward progress for our City’s envisioned transformation.
2. Stopping Fatal and Injurious Traffic Crashes
Probably the perennial issue that is most central to our work – and shared by the City/OakDOT - is pushing for policy or infrastructure solutions that can gain reductions in injuries and fatalities – especially those involving pedestrians and bicyclists - resulting from high intra-urban traffic speed and traffic conflicts to a de minimis level. We are further motivated to be relentless on this front noting that such traffic injuries and fatalities continue to disproportionately occur in Oakland's Priority Equity communities and on the High Injury Network a s well as disproportionately impact BIPOC communities, seniors, children, and people with disabilities.
From June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024 there were 1,397 crashes with 24 people killed and 1,876 people injured that were reported for Oakland to the statewide tracking system (SWITRS). 215 of these crashes included pedestrians and 95 of these crashes included bicyclists. Many of these involve a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle going an “unsafe speed. ”6 Importantly, from our perspective, while overall pedestrian and bicyclist traffic crash fatalities per City data have thankfully gone down to a near five-year low of 11 in 2025 (8 pedestrian and 3 bicyclists) we need to keep moving this trendline downwards.
The following City “Safe Oakland Streets” map depicts fatal and injurious traffic crashes in relation to Oakland’s 2025 High Injury Network (source: https://www.oaklandca.gov/Public-Safety- Streets/Traffic-Safety/Safe-Oakland-Streets/Monitoring-Traffic-Deaths-in-Oakland).
6 Other common causes of severe and fatal crashes in Oakland include failure to yield, unsafe turning, red light running, and driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
14 What we also recognize is that the data and information about fatalities do not fully convey the scope of the problem of what many term “traffic violence.” We applaud the efforts of OakDOT who have sought to secure funding and implement major street redesign projects (e.g. with road diets, lane narrowing) and initialized a three-year pilot for community-led traffic safety (CLTS) work, and recently has made strides with the automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera program implementation. In addition to supporting the enhancement of these efforts, the BPAC has also advocated for better data collection, more pro-action on speed limit policies (viz. state law), and more coordinated enforcement technologies and policies that do not involve direct police interventions (which can cause unintended reactions, chases, and so forth). Since the enactment of AB 645, for which the BPAC wrote in support, we are seeking to continue providing input to the City Council regarding the implementation of speed enforcement policies.
3. Implement immediate Traffic Calming Interventions
One of the most immediate approaches to proactively addressing our dangerous streets while increasing the overall comfort and ability for people to walk and bike (thereby reducing VMT) is investing more in near-term traffic-calming installations. The evidence is clear that people are deterred from walking, biking, and rolling when they have well-founded safety concerns. To make our streets safer and to make other non-vehicular options safe and convenient require continued commitment to providing the necessary resources (and staffing) to expand neighborhood-initiated “quick-build” traffic-calming work.
OakDOT’s proposed “Slow Streets Network” provides another framework for facilitating traffic calming interventions in a shorter timeline that larger streetscape investments. The BPAC strongly supports the work of OakDOT to realize broad measures to achieve traffic calming via “Safe Oakland Streets” and the overall work of the Quick Build Complete Street infrastructure Division (CSID) to utilize traffic calming devices such as high visibility crosswalks, flex-posts, speed humps, raised crosswalks, center-line hardening, and traffic circles to slow vehicular speeds on neighborhood bike routes.
The BPAC has been advocating to ensure – to an even greater depth – that such “Slow Street” and “quick build” interventions be community driven and more proactively initiated and supported across Oakland’s neighborhoods most in need. Towards this, one specific avenue we recommend is to have slow street designs be part of reinvigorated neighborhood-level planning work (e.g. with existing entities like neighborhood councils) wherein technical assistance, capital support, and project delivery is provided by the City (this would probably entail cooperative approach between Community Development Division, a renewed Neighborhood Support Division, planning, public works, and OakDOT).7 This level of directed and sustained programmatic investment in effort should also be formally articulated in the City’s General Plan update (neighborhood level
7 Some of this also speaks to a citywide need for contracting reform where we can rely on a “bench” of pre- approved local small contractors to help install neighborhood-initiated quick-build projects.
15 infrastructure) and supported, as appropriate, with Infrastructure-bond and any future pedestrian safety bond measures.
4. Enhance the Building of Complete Streets
In accordance with the two policies above, as far as infrastructure policy, the BPAC is happy to keep working in good faith with the City to develop balanced and thoughtful approaches to achieving safe, accessible, complete streets – whether through dedicated grant funding or retrofits via enhanced re-paving projects. We fully understand the level of trade-offs that need to be considered given the politics of streetscape design. We ask that the city move with due flexibility and non-fixed formulas. When it comes to a base need for enhancing walkability, safety, and inter-modal access, we think we can be part of finding common ground.
For example, while OakDOT must plan for and achieve general road paving goals, we wish to see a priority focus on paving improvements that also address walkability and are able to be complemented by needed ADA ramps, bike lane separators, pedestrian refuge islands, dangerous intersection reconfiguration, and even landscaping and paring policy recalibration. Specifically, on this last point, we recommend that the City does not dilute the capacity of parking enforcement in terms of prioritizing safe pedestrian and bicyclist facilities as the parking policy is updated. Parking policy can affect the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, including reducing drivers circling in looking for parking, reducing parking in bike lanes (as well as daylighting zones and crosswalks).
Finally, moving towards complete streets via the opportunities of re-paving is a commendable approach but we also wish to highlight the need to assure re-paving priorities also help deliver a “complete network” of city designated biking streets where one is not dangerously confronted by egregious potholes and other existent obstacles. In other words, while it may not be cost effective to re-pave entire streets (until their scheduled time) – targeted “bike lane” and pedestrian sidewalk repaving and infrastructure repairs must happen quickly and with dynamic responsiveness saving the city millions in unnecessary legal costs and potentially saving lives.
5. Recognize both Traffic Safety and Emergency Response Another way the BPAC has been engaging in policy discussions that impact street design is with the Fire Code amendments/update process for 2026. The issue here is on the conflict between the Fire Department’s desire, based on emergency response requirements, to update the Fire Code to accommodate minimum 20 feet of unobstructed road width on streets with buildings lower than 30 feet and, most significantly because this involves potentially higher traffic volume streets, a minimum 26 feet of unobstructed road width (not including shoulders) for streets with buildings over 30 feet. This policy would create conflicts with goals of street traffic calming, for example, that pushed for narrower traffic lanes coupled with protected bike lanes. Accordingly, the BPAC has been pushing instead of an unnecessary mandate having a case-by-case solution for a given street that is undergoing a street traffic calming retrofit. In some cases, solutions would involve equipping certain buildings with more robust sprinklers or even encouraging the City’s Fire Department to acquire more agile fire engines and associated apparatus. Our recommendation is that the City 16 does not have to sacrifice the goals of either traffic safety or emergency response safety and instead accommodate both.
6. Bridge I-880 to Connect East Oakland and the Waterfront The BPAC continues to strongly advocate for OakDOT and the City to allocate and seek funding to uphold its articulated “town for all” commitment to realizing improved bicycle/pedestrian connections in East Oakland bridging the dense array of neighborhoods and the nearby waterfront and shoreline parks/Bay Trail now effectively separated by the barriers of the freeway, railroads, and industrial facilities. Routes for pedestrians and bicyclists to reach the recreational areas along the shoreline for residents in East Oakland, unlike residents near Jack London Square and Lake Merritt, are few and existing routes are extremely dangerous. One only needs to try and walk or ride down 66th Ave. from San Leandro Street to the beautiful MLK Shoreline to fully understand the dangers involved.
There are opportunities, however, to design and develop safe, welcoming, attractive, accessible crossings over the freeway such as green “freeway park lids” at critical nodes like connecting to the proposed in-fill BART station in the San Antonio District; connecting the Melrose neighborhood to Tidewater Park, and connecting across from the planned Coliseum Development – the long hyped “Coliseum BART to Bay Trail” project that has been teased for 20-years but never fulfilled. Without doubt, proposed and needed connections are not cheap and require strong leadership and coordination with other agencies including Caltrans, MTC, and even UPRR. Oakland must advocate for itself and start the process. Our community partners and advocacy bodies are our strongest assets. Unfortunately, on-going delays, other priorities or opposition to resourcing collaborative approaches have left these bikeway and pedestrian gaps and hazards unchanged.
We are reservedly buoyed by the fact the on-going General Plan Update is signaling an intent for realizing these types of connectors. We also are extremely happy to see that the community- initiated Lisjan/San Leandro Creek Greenway Project connecting Deep East Oakland to the MLK Jr.
Shoreline Park is now opened (despite ongoing obstacles with UPRR). We note how the BPAC was one of the key early supporters of this project when the City of Oakland was silent. Our voices are very clear and collected on the imperative to build out these needed connections.
7. Continue to Grow BPAC’s Relations with Community, Business, and Agency Partners Finally, we are always looking to bolster the profile of the BPAC and our engagement work with Oaklanders and how we can effectively lift up concerns that we hear. In addition to reaching out to neighborhood groups, CBOs, local biking and walking groups, we are also interested in developing relations between BPAC and the business improvement districts (BIDs) to foster dialogue in what safe, active, complete, pedestrian-friendly shopping destination streets might look like and how we can work together to achieve these.
Another key area that has come up this year is how we can help the City build stronger on-going relations with Caltrans in consideration of their “maintenance and rehabilitation” work on the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) that impacts Oakland as well as their right-of- 17 way control of certain street corridors (e.g., portions of International Blvd, San Pablo Ave, freeway interchange areas like Grand Ave/Santa Clara Ave) and how we can merge and better coordinate the Caltrans D4 bike/ped goals (and the work of their active transportation group) and Oakland’s streetscape, traffic calming, and inter-connected greenway network plans.
All in all, a very effective way to build the energy to sustain such relationships and evolving partnerships is to continue and even expand the community.spirit we all feel when we can bicycle and walk together for events such as Bike to Work Day and broad “Ciclovia/Sunday Street” type of events across the districts of our City.
We look forward to working with you all to fulfill these recommendations in the upcoming year and to having you all join us in biking and walking – safely and comfortably - across Oakland.
18 Appendix A: Commissioners
BPAC Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor of Oakland and commissioners serve three-year terms during each appointment. Efforts are made to appoint Commissioners from each of the city’s council districts and bring a range of experience. The 2025 BPAC Commissioners were:
Priyanka Altman (District 1): Priyanka Altman is an avid pedestrian and cyclist in Oakland and joined the BPAC in 2024. She lives car-free and is committed to making Oakland’s streets safer and more enjoyable for all users. When she’s not meeting with the BPAC, she volunteers with Bike East Bay, plays violin in the Oakland Civic Orchestra, and runs with Oakland Track Club. Spot her most days strolling with her dog Molly in Adams Point and by the lake, rain or shine! Kirsten Flagg (District 5): Kirsten has proudly called Oakland home since 2011. She's grateful to live in a city with strong social justice roots, vibrant and diverse communities, as well as tons of natural beauty - and she's excited to give back by joining the BPAC. As a mother, cyclist, and healthcare provider, Kirsten is particularly passionate about the BPAC's work to ensure equitable access to bike and pedestrian friendly streets. Kirsten currently lives in East Oakland with her husband, kid, mom, dog, and seven chickens in East Oakland. She can be found biking to her work at a community clinic, getting dirty in her garden, or jogging around the neighborhood.
Grey Gardner (District 2): Grey is a District 2 resident living in the Eastlake / Ivy Hill area, who has served on BPAC for six years. Having commuted to work by bike for over twenty years and frequently walking throughout Oakland with a toddler, he is eager to see Oakland’s roads become increasingly safer and more comfortable for bicyclists and pedestrians. He previously served as a public defender outside of California and presently works on drug policy and criminal-justice reform issues in California and nationwide.
Jimmy Jessup (District 1): Jimmy joined the BPAC in March 2024. He grew up in Western Colorado, holds a Chemical Engineering degree from Rice University and a Master’s in Urban Planning from Texas Southern University. His impressions and enthusiasm for meeting the needs of all transportation users is shaped by living and working in numerous European countries and American regions. He loves nothing more than a brisk morning jog or exploratory cycle ride through the city, observing the street activity as it begins to come to life.
Alex Perry (District 3): Alex was born and raised in Alabama before relocating to West Oakland.
After becoming disabled in 2023, he shifted his focus to advocacy work, drawing from his background as a labor and transit community organizer, as well as his experience being a founding member of the Tuscaloosa Pizza Crew Bicycle Club. Alex is a firm believer that given its climate and topography, there is no reason Oakland can't be the most bicycle and pedestrian friendly city in the country. As a commissioner, he aims to push back against discriminatory policymaking and foster effective communication between grassroots organizers and city decision-makers. In his spare time, Alex volunteers at his local bike co-op, fixes vintage electronics, and spends quality time with his idiot cats.
19 David Ralston, Chair (District 2): David works as policy advisor for the regional Bay Area Air District focusing on local health equity land-use planning, environmental justice policy, and community engagement around designing and implementing green infrastructure. David has also worked as a strategic planner and urban economic analyst for the City of Oakland’s Redevelopment Agency helping to realize key bicycle/pedestrian projects such as Fruitvale Alive, the Laurel to Mills access project (LAMMPS), and the San Leandro/Lisjan Creek Greenway. David enjoys working with local community and neighborhood groups as part of a larger goal to build out an accessible grassroots-led inter-connected citywide “green network” that reflects the culture and diversity of Oakland. David is an avid bicyclist and hiker when he is not at the Lake or relaxing at home with his family in District 2.
Patricia Schader (District 7): Patricia grew up in East Oakland and currently resides in Deep East Oakland. When she moved back to Deep East Oakland the first item that she noticed was the lack of infrastructure. As an avid cyclist and runner, for every bike ride she would have to drive somewhere to ride because of the lack of infrastructure. However, she noticed other parts of Oakland have great bike lanes, walking paths and wide sidewalks with children in other areas on bikes in the bike lanes enjoying their bikes. She joined the BPAC to advocate to improve Infrastructure in East Oakland and bring equity and equality to the underprivileged citizens and the at-risk children in East Oakland.
Nick Whipps, Vice Chair (District 6): Nick lives in District 6 and has been a member of BPAC since January 2022. He cares about Oakland bicycle & pedestrian equity and safety issues, especially in the Deep East.
Dianne Yee (District 3): Dianne is a transportation planner who grew up in the East Bay. She attended UC San Diego where she saw that suburban land uses and limited transportation choices are unsustainable and inconvenient. She continued her studies at Portland State University and earned her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning. She returned to Oakland to serve her community and because the Bay Area is home.