2.17 22-0144 Subject: 14th Street Safety Project
From: Transportation Department
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Approving The 14th Street Safety Project; Approving The 14th Street Safety Project Parking Management Plan; And Adopting California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Findings
Hi Council, my name is Bryan Culbertson and I am a resident of West Oakland.
14th Street is particularly special to me because I bike and walk along it almost every day, and I've had so many close calls that I will bike on the sidewalk at times. I heard from Amy at the Alameda Public Defenders office on 14th that going out to lunch feels so dangerous right now and she is looking forward to the protected bike lanes.
This vote and your future efforts are more significant than this one project.
I organize with a group of Oaklanders who hold space at locations of traffic violence to remember their life, boost voices of those most impacted, and envision Oakland with beautiful comfortable safe streets.
We have heard at 55th and Shattuck, 16th and International, and 14th and Jefferson that the dangers from cars are seen daily. Kids walking and biking to school where drivers will not wait for them at crosswalks, business owners worried about a car running into their store, a family moments from death saved by a curbside tree
Think of them as you guide Oakland to build streets that bring us together, streets that are comfortable enough to be the front porch of our neighborhoods.
Please support this project. It is a long overdue safety improvement. After last week's fatal hit and run, OakDOT should install a quick-build road diet and bike lane literally tomorrow to reduce the chance of more death and destruction while this project waits for full build out.I urge the council not just to approve this project, but also to seriously consider what needs to change to radically speed up safety improvements on our streets. What can the City Council do to empower and facilitate OakDOT to deliver more safety and sooner? The status quo is broken and your leadership is desperately needed.
As a father of two in my 40s that has spent the past four years biking my children to and from four different daycare centers and preschools located on or near 14th St in West Oakland, Downtown, and east of the lake, the recent death and the long delay of this project hits very close to home for me. That dead father could have been me and the fatherless children could have been mine. For the past four years, every time I've biked my kids to school we've put ourselves in danger of that fate solely due to the City of Oakland's inability to deliver 14th St safety improvements sooner. By the time this project is finished, my kids will be out of preschool and the opportunity for an entire generation of Oakland children to have a safe route to preschool will be gone forever. I hope you don't fail the next family as badly as you've failed the current generation of downtown families.
I am in support of the 14th Street Safety Project. As a resident of downtown Oakland and mother of a small child whose preschool is just off 14th Street, I spend a lot of time in this neighborhood and am in support of safety improvements. My husband and son often bike through downtown and protected bike lanes would help me know that the City is doing their part to increase safety for all residents and visitors. With improved bike infrastructure and pedestrian safety improvements, I also know the City is doing what they can to reduce car traffic and make it a better place for my child to live when he grows up. Thank you.
As a biker and walker around downtown, I am shocked that we have continually let these preventable traffic deaths happen. We need temporary barriers in the interim so cyclists and walkers can use this public space safely. I urge the city to treat street redesign in Oakland as the emergency that it is.
I am a Bart commuter, cyclist and parent of a toddler living in Old Oakland. My family moved from SF to Oakland last year and have been largely happy with our decision to move to Oakland. Unfortunately, the downtown area is so unfriendly towards pedestrians and cyclists, which was a disappointing surprise for our family. My daughter and I have been nearly hit by speeding vehicles on two separate occasions, despite every effort to be smart and careful pedestrians. It's a terrible feeling as a parent to feel so unsafe walking just a few blocks from our home or walking to and and from preschool. There is no reason Oakland should tolerate this lack of basic safety.
Improvements like those proposed for 14th street are a big win for Oakland. Encouraging walking, biking, and transit usage, makes cities more livable, drives business, and helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions. Currently going east west in the downtown area is challenging even for experienced cyclist. Protected bike lanes are also important since painted bike lanes like those on Clay often have cars double parked in them causing cyclist to have to merge into and out of the car travel lane. Improvement like those proposed for 14th street are really great for everyone and should be the standard for most to all roads in Oakland.
As evidence by the fatal hit-and-run at 14th and Jefferson last week, the corridor from Lake Merritt to I-980 is extremely dangerous. Since 2010, dozens of people walking and bicycling have been struck by vehicles along 14th. Vehicles regularly travel at high speeds and recklessly along 14th, even immediately adjacent to city hall. It is essential that the Council prioritize the safety of all users of the roadway. The proposed 14th Street Saftey Project will implement a road diet, which has been shown to reduce vehicle speeds, position people riding bicycles behind parked cars in protected lanes and out of danger from passing vehicles, and implement “directional” curb ramps at pedestrian crossings making it easier for pedestrians to cross the street. These are the type of Vision Zero design elements we need throughout the city to reduce speeds and protect those most vulnerable on the road from injury and death due to carelessness, recklessness, or distraction by some drivers. I urge you to fast-track the 14th Street Safety Project and all future redesigns on dangerous corridors, or we will continue to see breaking records of lives lost to traffic violence in the City Oakland future.
Please support final approval of the 14th Street Safety Project. This is an extremely dangerous corridor and the project is long overdue. The city needs to move faster to implement design improvements that will slow vehicle speeds and provide more physical barriers to protect everyone using the streets, especially pedestrians and bicyclists who are most likely to be killed or severely injured by aggressive driving, recklessness, and distracted drivers.
The current conditions of 14th and so many other streets are horrible. The wide, overcapacity streets in so many parts of the city do little to discourage high speeds, drifting across lanes, fast turns, parking in bike lanes, street racing, and other dangerous behaviors. We need road diets, protected bikeways (including with parking protected areas), more frequent use of bollards at intersections, crosswalks, and on center lines, and "bulb outs" of corners at many intersections - among other treatments.
The design for the 14th street safety project would vastly improve the corridor, not only by implementing these critical safety treatments, but also by creating better spaces for pedestrian activity near storefronts.
In the future the city should streamline the process for project development and approval, while also requiring and making more resources available for "quick build" temporary safety installations on dangerous corridors like 14th Street while awaiting project funding, approval and construction.
This Saturday, I woke to heartbreaking messages from distraught friends - friends who had recently learned that their mutual friend had been struck and killed by a vehicle while biking on 14th Street this past Thursday. With protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures, his death could have been prevented.
While we cannot bring this father of two young children back to life, the City of Oakland can take meaningful steps to prevent future cycling deaths and injuries from occurring in the future. I urge you to support the 14th Street Safety Project so that we can take tangible steps to create a safer Oakland for all.
On June 10, a 43 year old man was killed by a car in front of his kids while biking home together through downtown Oakland. I was biking through downtown with my two kids just 30 mins earlier that same evening, and can only count myself lucky to be alive. 14th St is an essential, nearly unavoidable route from Eastlake, Fruitvale, and the rest of East Oakland to commerce and services downtown and beyond, yet it is a terrifying place to bike. Street upgrades, including protected bike lanes, have been planned, designed, and widely acknowledged as necessary for this corridor for seven years, but not approved or built. It is far past time to make this street safer. Instead of a site of discomfort, violence, and death, it can be a street Oakland could be proud of. There's no excuse for the inaction.
As a West Oakland resident for many years, I always wished there was a way to safely and easily bike to Lake Merritt. Right now, that’s not really possible for people who live in West Oakland. I now live in downtown near 14th Street with my son and wish that traffic was slower and safer. Please make these upgrades.
As a parent who frequently rides across downtown Oakland with my child I am terrified that I might become another cyclist killed on 14th st. It’s disappointing that with all the transportation improvements to make cycling, waking, and public transportation better around Oakland there is still no safe way to ride a bicycle across downtown Oakland.
Additionally, we should be doing everything we can to maximize bicycling, walking, and public transportation if we are to even have a chance at mitigating the effects of climate change, especially now that the transportation sector is the largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Let’s get going! I urge council to support the 14th st safety plan and I look forward to getting involved in this work and helping it be successful moving forward.
This project is long overdue. We need to be doing everything we can to make our streets safer for biking and walking. It is unacceptable that a bicyclist died on 14th Street this week. It is unacceptable that this project has not yet started. It's time for Oakland to step up its game and build bicycle infrastructure. I bike everywhere with my daughter on the back of my bike, because it is fun and sustainable -- my bike doesn't pollute, it doesn't require gas, it doesn't need a parking spot. And yet, every time we hop on the bike I wonder if I'm putting her in danger. Why isn't my city doing anything to ensure we're safe?
Fix staffing and funding issues so OakDOT can be successful.
As a resident of Oakland who drives, walks, bicycles, AND takes public transit I support this project and demand that it be accomplished in a timely manner. Too many people are being injured, killed, and put at risk on our streets.
Please approve the 14th Street Safety Project. Dmitry Pulitov was hit in front of his two young children and died because 14th Street is so wide that drivers speed along it, and people on bikes aren't physically protected from cars. The project will bring direly needed physical protection and a reduction in car lanes that will keep people safe while encouraging slower car traffic. There is no safe bike route from West Oakland into downtown and to Lake Merritt. Making 14th Street safer will encourage more people to bike downtown and bring more foot traffic to businesses and social activity to our sidewalks. The 14th Street Safety Project needs to be approved and built without delay.
Please support this project. As a cyclist, I use my bike to run short errands, take my kids to school, and get some exercise. Every time I ride in Oakland, I'm taking my life in my hands. Just a few days ago, a dad the same age as me, with the same number of kids, got killed in front of his children, just days before Father's Day. At the vigil, his children held up a sign saying "I miss Dad". It could have been me and this killing haunts me.
This was not an "accident", it was the result of the dangerously-designed streets. If we put speed bumps, diverters, cobblestones, etc. on the road, people have no choice but to drive slowly and more safely. Relying on speed limits and enforcement is clearly not working, especially as OPD no longer enforces any road rules (why do we pay them a half billion dollars a year again?).
I want to ride around beautiful Oakland with my children without fear. They do it in other global cities by learning safe street design from one another. Let's not re-invent the wheel. Let's make this street safe for the cyclists, pedestrians, and people of Oakland.
Please support this item and take a step towards ending these preventable deaths!
Hi Council, my name is Bryan Culbertson and I am a resident of West Oakland.
14th Street is particularly special to me because I bike and walk along it almost every day, and I've had so many close calls that I will bike on the sidewalk at times. I heard from Amy at the Alameda Public Defenders office on 14th that going out to lunch feels so dangerous right now and she is looking forward to the protected bike lanes.
This vote and your future efforts are more significant than this one project.
I organize with a group of Oaklanders who hold space at locations of traffic violence to remember their life, boost voices of those most impacted, and envision Oakland with beautiful comfortable safe streets.
We have heard at 55th and Shattuck, 16th and International, and 14th and Jefferson that the dangers from cars are seen daily. Kids walking and biking to school where drivers will not wait for them at crosswalks, business owners worried about a car running into their store, a family moments from death saved by a curbside tree
Think of them as you guide Oakland to build streets that bring us together, streets that are comfortable enough to be the front porch of our neighborhoods.
Absolutely support...Let's get it done!
Please support this project. It is a long overdue safety improvement. After last week's fatal hit and run, OakDOT should install a quick-build road diet and bike lane literally tomorrow to reduce the chance of more death and destruction while this project waits for full build out.I urge the council not just to approve this project, but also to seriously consider what needs to change to radically speed up safety improvements on our streets. What can the City Council do to empower and facilitate OakDOT to deliver more safety and sooner? The status quo is broken and your leadership is desperately needed.
As a father of two in my 40s that has spent the past four years biking my children to and from four different daycare centers and preschools located on or near 14th St in West Oakland, Downtown, and east of the lake, the recent death and the long delay of this project hits very close to home for me. That dead father could have been me and the fatherless children could have been mine. For the past four years, every time I've biked my kids to school we've put ourselves in danger of that fate solely due to the City of Oakland's inability to deliver 14th St safety improvements sooner. By the time this project is finished, my kids will be out of preschool and the opportunity for an entire generation of Oakland children to have a safe route to preschool will be gone forever. I hope you don't fail the next family as badly as you've failed the current generation of downtown families.
I am in support of the 14th Street Safety Project. As a resident of downtown Oakland and mother of a small child whose preschool is just off 14th Street, I spend a lot of time in this neighborhood and am in support of safety improvements. My husband and son often bike through downtown and protected bike lanes would help me know that the City is doing their part to increase safety for all residents and visitors. With improved bike infrastructure and pedestrian safety improvements, I also know the City is doing what they can to reduce car traffic and make it a better place for my child to live when he grows up. Thank you.
As a biker and walker around downtown, I am shocked that we have continually let these preventable traffic deaths happen. We need temporary barriers in the interim so cyclists and walkers can use this public space safely. I urge the city to treat street redesign in Oakland as the emergency that it is.
I am a Bart commuter, cyclist and parent of a toddler living in Old Oakland. My family moved from SF to Oakland last year and have been largely happy with our decision to move to Oakland. Unfortunately, the downtown area is so unfriendly towards pedestrians and cyclists, which was a disappointing surprise for our family. My daughter and I have been nearly hit by speeding vehicles on two separate occasions, despite every effort to be smart and careful pedestrians. It's a terrible feeling as a parent to feel so unsafe walking just a few blocks from our home or walking to and and from preschool. There is no reason Oakland should tolerate this lack of basic safety.
Improvements like those proposed for 14th street are a big win for Oakland. Encouraging walking, biking, and transit usage, makes cities more livable, drives business, and helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions. Currently going east west in the downtown area is challenging even for experienced cyclist. Protected bike lanes are also important since painted bike lanes like those on Clay often have cars double parked in them causing cyclist to have to merge into and out of the car travel lane. Improvement like those proposed for 14th street are really great for everyone and should be the standard for most to all roads in Oakland.
As evidence by the fatal hit-and-run at 14th and Jefferson last week, the corridor from Lake Merritt to I-980 is extremely dangerous. Since 2010, dozens of people walking and bicycling have been struck by vehicles along 14th. Vehicles regularly travel at high speeds and recklessly along 14th, even immediately adjacent to city hall. It is essential that the Council prioritize the safety of all users of the roadway. The proposed 14th Street Saftey Project will implement a road diet, which has been shown to reduce vehicle speeds, position people riding bicycles behind parked cars in protected lanes and out of danger from passing vehicles, and implement “directional” curb ramps at pedestrian crossings making it easier for pedestrians to cross the street. These are the type of Vision Zero design elements we need throughout the city to reduce speeds and protect those most vulnerable on the road from injury and death due to carelessness, recklessness, or distraction by some drivers. I urge you to fast-track the 14th Street Safety Project and all future redesigns on dangerous corridors, or we will continue to see breaking records of lives lost to traffic violence in the City Oakland future.
Please support final approval of the 14th Street Safety Project. This is an extremely dangerous corridor and the project is long overdue. The city needs to move faster to implement design improvements that will slow vehicle speeds and provide more physical barriers to protect everyone using the streets, especially pedestrians and bicyclists who are most likely to be killed or severely injured by aggressive driving, recklessness, and distracted drivers.
The current conditions of 14th and so many other streets are horrible. The wide, overcapacity streets in so many parts of the city do little to discourage high speeds, drifting across lanes, fast turns, parking in bike lanes, street racing, and other dangerous behaviors. We need road diets, protected bikeways (including with parking protected areas), more frequent use of bollards at intersections, crosswalks, and on center lines, and "bulb outs" of corners at many intersections - among other treatments.
The design for the 14th street safety project would vastly improve the corridor, not only by implementing these critical safety treatments, but also by creating better spaces for pedestrian activity near storefronts.
In the future the city should streamline the process for project development and approval, while also requiring and making more resources available for "quick build" temporary safety installations on dangerous corridors like 14th Street while awaiting project funding, approval and construction.
This Saturday, I woke to heartbreaking messages from distraught friends - friends who had recently learned that their mutual friend had been struck and killed by a vehicle while biking on 14th Street this past Thursday. With protected bike lanes and traffic calming measures, his death could have been prevented.
While we cannot bring this father of two young children back to life, the City of Oakland can take meaningful steps to prevent future cycling deaths and injuries from occurring in the future. I urge you to support the 14th Street Safety Project so that we can take tangible steps to create a safer Oakland for all.
How many people need to die until something gets done? Please, support this project ASAP.
On June 10, a 43 year old man was killed by a car in front of his kids while biking home together through downtown Oakland. I was biking through downtown with my two kids just 30 mins earlier that same evening, and can only count myself lucky to be alive. 14th St is an essential, nearly unavoidable route from Eastlake, Fruitvale, and the rest of East Oakland to commerce and services downtown and beyond, yet it is a terrifying place to bike. Street upgrades, including protected bike lanes, have been planned, designed, and widely acknowledged as necessary for this corridor for seven years, but not approved or built. It is far past time to make this street safer. Instead of a site of discomfort, violence, and death, it can be a street Oakland could be proud of. There's no excuse for the inaction.
As a West Oakland resident for many years, I always wished there was a way to safely and easily bike to Lake Merritt. Right now, that’s not really possible for people who live in West Oakland. I now live in downtown near 14th Street with my son and wish that traffic was slower and safer. Please make these upgrades.
As a parent who frequently rides across downtown Oakland with my child I am terrified that I might become another cyclist killed on 14th st. It’s disappointing that with all the transportation improvements to make cycling, waking, and public transportation better around Oakland there is still no safe way to ride a bicycle across downtown Oakland.
Additionally, we should be doing everything we can to maximize bicycling, walking, and public transportation if we are to even have a chance at mitigating the effects of climate change, especially now that the transportation sector is the largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Let’s get going! I urge council to support the 14th st safety plan and I look forward to getting involved in this work and helping it be successful moving forward.
This project is long overdue. We need to be doing everything we can to make our streets safer for biking and walking. It is unacceptable that a bicyclist died on 14th Street this week. It is unacceptable that this project has not yet started. It's time for Oakland to step up its game and build bicycle infrastructure. I bike everywhere with my daughter on the back of my bike, because it is fun and sustainable -- my bike doesn't pollute, it doesn't require gas, it doesn't need a parking spot. And yet, every time we hop on the bike I wonder if I'm putting her in danger. Why isn't my city doing anything to ensure we're safe?
Fix staffing and funding issues so OakDOT can be successful.
As a resident of Oakland who drives, walks, bicycles, AND takes public transit I support this project and demand that it be accomplished in a timely manner. Too many people are being injured, killed, and put at risk on our streets.
Please approve the 14th Street Safety Project. Dmitry Pulitov was hit in front of his two young children and died because 14th Street is so wide that drivers speed along it, and people on bikes aren't physically protected from cars. The project will bring direly needed physical protection and a reduction in car lanes that will keep people safe while encouraging slower car traffic. There is no safe bike route from West Oakland into downtown and to Lake Merritt. Making 14th Street safer will encourage more people to bike downtown and bring more foot traffic to businesses and social activity to our sidewalks. The 14th Street Safety Project needs to be approved and built without delay.
Please support this project. As a cyclist, I use my bike to run short errands, take my kids to school, and get some exercise. Every time I ride in Oakland, I'm taking my life in my hands. Just a few days ago, a dad the same age as me, with the same number of kids, got killed in front of his children, just days before Father's Day. At the vigil, his children held up a sign saying "I miss Dad". It could have been me and this killing haunts me.
This was not an "accident", it was the result of the dangerously-designed streets. If we put speed bumps, diverters, cobblestones, etc. on the road, people have no choice but to drive slowly and more safely. Relying on speed limits and enforcement is clearly not working, especially as OPD no longer enforces any road rules (why do we pay them a half billion dollars a year again?).
I want to ride around beautiful Oakland with my children without fear. They do it in other global cities by learning safe street design from one another. Let's not re-invent the wheel. Let's make this street safe for the cyclists, pedestrians, and people of Oakland.
Street should be safer. Please make it so.