My name is Shawn Lee, I’m a lifelong voter and resident of District 1, but as an Oaklander of Chinese descent, I also spend a lot of time, work, and life in D2’s Chinatown.

I would like to support opportunities for local neighborhoods to adopt slow street initiative, and for the Department to consider extending temporary slow streets and extensive traffic calming measures, particularly on 42nd, 59th, and Dover. As a commuting cyclist who cannot drive, these slow streets greatly increased my personal mobility.

I wish to note that far from it being only North Oaklanders who support slow streets, the two most successful permanent slow streets, in progress before the Pandemic, are 8th St in West Oakland and Ney Ave in East Oakland. The issue is not that flatlanders or residents of ethnic communities are universally opposed to slow streets, and in fact in Chinatown we have some of the highest vehicular injury rates in the City and traffic calming measures. It’s just that they need to be designed in consultation with the Community, and temporary traffic calming structures are a wonderful way to accomplish that.

I support the slow streets program. As a resident of Oakland without a car, I appreciate the cleaner air, safer place for transport and recreation, and precious space for community gatherings. I would like to see these continue, especially in East and West Oakland.

Slow Streets were an incredible addition to our neighborhoods and I hope we can bring them back as soon as possible, along with more permanent and robust safety infrastructure. As a North Oakland resident I went for walks and enjoyed my neighbors' company along Dover, and Colby & 59th, and also used these routes as nearly car-free bike routes (much more comfortable than the parallel, unprotected bike lanes on Alcatraz, Shattuck, etc). With the rollout of this program, Oakland briefly became a leader among American cities, and I hope we can return to that by setting up our Slow Streets again.

It's a mistake to treat all of Oakland with a one size fits all approach. The Slow Streets signs on 42nd literally had weeds growing around them; they'd been in place for nearly two years with no issues. 42nd Street served as a lower traffic East/West corridor for safer biking. Slow Streets in Longfellow and other areas were very successful and should remain. Let's not slide backwards like we almost did with the Telegraph Ave protected bike lanes. Let's keep moving forward instead of undoing the good work that's been done.

As a Shafter Ave property owner and daily bike commuter, the Shafter Ave slow street has been wonderful. I’ve been commuting with my five year old daughter on the back of a cargo bike, or sometimes letting her ride it herself, and it’s been so nice not to have to deal with aggressive drivers for that stretch. I was really sorry to see it go and hope it comes back.

I’d urge you, though, not to rely on neighborhood volunteers to maintain this essential infrastructure. If the goal is to get people out of their cars and onto more sustainable modes of transportation, we need a functioning network of streets that feel safe to use, not just a few islands where there is a motivated volunteer. Please look at this as one of the things that makes Oakland a great place to live and allocate funding accordingly.

I live next to Lake Merritt, where pedestrians and bicyclists have to compete with fast-moving traffic along Grand and Lakeshore. Please empower neighborhoods to take more ownership of their own road safety. Allow neighborhood volunteers to maintain slow streets signage. We need to place people over fast-moving cars.

Hi, I write to support the continuation and expansion of Slow Streets, and voice my strong opposition and disappointment that OakDOT has removed the Slow Streets barriers. In a time where pedestrian fatalities are at an all-time high due to reckless driving, Oakland should be expanding Slow Streets and making the barriers more robust, not removing them. It is inexpensive and easy to install concrete construciton barriers or blocks to make slow streets even safer, with less maintenance required than the barricades.

Instead of listening to residents and expanding the program, OakDOT recenty ended the Slow Streets program even though 77% of residents who completed the surveys say they support the Oakland Slow Streets program, and 95% of respondents said said they would use Slow Streets after Shelter in Place. This also includes residents at every income level and among residents with disabilities.

Slow streets work. During the program, there were no fatal or severe pedestrian or bicyclist related crashes on any Oakland Slow Streets. They also did not impede essential services including emergency first responders.

Residents want more Slow Streets, not fewer. The survey showed top themes from respondents who wished to expand the number of streets and make the program permanent. The need for slow streets is not limited to a global pandemic, when we also face an epidemic of car violence that terrorizes, injures, maims, and kills.

I live on the border of Santa Fe and Longfellow. My partner and I walked down Dover Street everyday during the slow street program. It was so nice to watch neighbors and families bike and walk down the street and not have to worry about cars speeding through injuring people. This feels like a really great low cost win win program for folks. If anything, we should be looking at expanding this program. 100% of streets are tailored towards cars. We do have the power to change that.

I live on Alice Street in downtown and my family has thoroughly enjoyed Oaklands Slow Street program. It has given us the ability to safely use our streets outside of a vehicle and has dramatically reduced the speed of those vehicles that still needed to access Alice St.

Not having the slow street program puts people back into vehicles for their main method of transportation, discouraging those that by preference or need would rather use non-vehicular modes for transportation.

Let’s keep our streets safe for people to use them to gather, exercise, and get around in a way that builds a sense of community.

I live in Bushrod. My children used to ride their bikes on Dover St. It was a perfect example of a successful slow street: cars already dominate MLK and Shattuck. Now that slow streets has ended, there is no safe way for my kids to ride to Dover and Bushrod parks. Please reinstate slow streets.

I adored using Oakland's Slow Streets Program and watched so many others enjoy them as well. Particularly, I was excited to see so many families using the safer streets to walk and bicycle. Given the ongoing climate catastrophe, Oakland should implement as many programs as possible to encourage community members to engage in active transit. If Oakland leaders believe that climate change is an immense threat to humanity, they should be working to make permanent programs that encourage lowering emissions. Thank you.

In favor of continued slow streets implementation (& improvement).

Oakland was first to implement slow streets and received national accolades for doing so. SF, with a better funded department, performed analyses on the impact of their slow streets and identified them as succeeding spectacularly across a number of criteria.

Oakland should not throw its hands up and allow the slow street network to fail simply due to lack of bandwidth. Vast portions of Oakland lack sufficient park space and slow streets offered a rare opportunity to address these severe deficiencies. True, implementation was far more successful in North and West Oakland but that does not mean its relative failure in other parts of the city is an indictment on the project.

No - instead it should highlight that those are areas where comparable benefits were perhaps unmet. What could the city have done more to provide all of Oakland with the same benefits enjoyed by some communities? I think the equity opportunity here is not the destruction of a beautiful moment in which we reimagined safe public space in the name of equity, but rather an opportunity to ensure that, in order to truly be equitable, all neighborhoods receive the requisite support they deserve to enjoy these same opportunities.

I live in West Oakland and love our slow streets. Please retain and expand them. We should have more pedestrian and bicycle spaces. Thank you!

I live in West Oakland, close to the 32nd street slow street, and Slow streets have been a bright spot of the last two years. I started running to stay active during that time and I arrange my routes around slow streets. I feel safer there since they’re a place where I'm slightly less likely to encounter cars.

Unfortunately many people in cars treat stop signs as a suggestion. Having the slow streets markers in place forced drivers to slow down. Since the signs were removed, people drive much faster and more dangerously.

I bike for transportation and while I'm comfortable biking on most streets, when I'm biking with my family, the slow streets are vastly appreciated.

Removing the slow streets was a major step backwards for pedestrians, bikers, and anyone else who enjoys not being hit by car. We need to be focusing on how we can move to a less car-centric future, and slow streets are one smart step in that direction.