Agenda Item
24-0298 2) A Resolution Directing The Department Of Transportation To Reallocate Department Funding And Staffing Resources In Order To, By March 1, 2025, Publish Standard Plans, Including Recommended Dimensions, Materials, And Traffic Control Plans And Begin Accepting Applications For A 3-Year Pilot For A Community-Led Traffic Safety Program, Allowing Businesses, Schools, And Community Groups To Apply For Permits To Install Temporary Traffic Safety Projects On City Streets; And Issue Up To 4 Permits Per Year For Traffic Circle Projects And Up To 4 Permits Per Year For Curb Extension Projects On Local Streets; And Issue Up To 2 Permits Per Year For 2-Day Lane Reduction Special Events On Roads Classified As Collectors, Minor Arterials, Or Major Arterials Adjacent to Locations Serving Vulnerable Populations; And Requiring Pilot Projects To Meet Defined Equity Criteria; On The April 23, 2024 Public And Transportation Committee Agenda
Oakland streets are unacceptably dangerous - setting another record for fatal collisions in 2023 - yet the city continues to place a low priority on traffic calming installations. We need to make creating traffic calming the top priority for OakDOT.
I serve as chair of Oakland's Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) but write today in my personal capacity. In that role I've heard repeatedly that the city does not have sufficient maintenance staff and systematic ways to install immediate traffic calming measures in locations that are known to be dangerous - the High Injury Network, locations with frequent street racing, red-light violations, and regular speeds surpassing set limits. Instead the city installs calming devices AFTER a death occurs.
As a parent of a toddler, the anxiety experienced while walking to preschool or the park in this city is unacceptably high.
From 2019 through 2021, the city recorded 1,505 crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists. During that period 119 people were killed on our streets and 11,439 were injured - many involving high-speed, hit and run crashes. But data doesn't fully capture how dangerous streets undermine quality of life - leading to people engaging less in active transportation and even visiting local stores.
This legislation is an important step advancing traffic calming, but we still need much larger resource investments, staffing, flexibility and putting short-term traffic calming as OakDOT's top priority.