Recent its_cp218 items

Traffic Calming & Spillover Effects: An Analysis of Oakland’s Built Environment Approach to Traffic Safety

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Traffic calming is increasingly used by cities as a strategy to reduce speeding, improve safety, and support walking and biking on neighborhood streets. While many studies and evaluations focus on whether traffic calming is effective on the street where it is implemented, far less attention has been paid to what happens beyond the treated street. In practice, traffic calming interventions can influence driver behavior, traffic volumes, and perceptions of safety on nearby streets, producing spillover effects that can be positive, negative, or unevenly distributed. Understanding these spillover effects is especially important as cities like Oakland scale up neighborhood traffic calming programs as part of broader Vision Zero and Safe System strategies.

Balancing Safety and Equity in Traffic Enforcement: An Analysis of Automated Speed Enforcement in Oakland

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This report evaluates Oakland’s speed camera pilot through a safety and equity lens, using a thorough academic literature review, descriptive analysis of Oakland Police Department stop data, spatial analysis of speeding-related crashes, regression models, and comparative case studies from San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon. Findings show that officer-based traffic enforcement has deeply declined since 2020, leaving a large gap in traffic enforcement that automated cameras appear to be positioned to fill. Spatial analysis shows that speeding-related crashes are highly concentrated along major corridors in East Oakland and Hispanic/Latino communities experience higher exposure to the effects of speeding. Additionally, road width and speeding appear to have a very strong relationship, especially on Hegenberger Road. Our regression analyses indicate that camera placement is strongly associated with crashes, rather than race, income, or age alone—suggesting that...

Transit Improvements for the Oakland Department of Transportation

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We find that UBM has the potential to increase equity and accessibility for those who face barriers to accessing transit due to many factors including the cost. Additionally, we find that these kinds of programs can be impactful for those classified as “unbanked” or “underbanked”, who are low income at much higher rates than traditional banked folks. Though there are many benefits to these programs, they often have unreliable funding sources that can make it difficult to make these programs long-term. In the case of OakDOT’s UBM program, we find that it is mostly funded through grants. Within this report, we seek to look into ways that OakDOT can better fund its UBM program in the hopes of making it a permanent program. Additionally, we find that there are other ways that Oakland may be able to expand their UBM program that would greatly benefit the region. Through our case studies of the cities of Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon, we find the ways in which they...

Slip Lanes in Oakland: Safety Analysis and Proposed Improvements

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Oakland, California’s road network contains some of the most dangerous streets in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2022, 36 people died in traffic incidents in the city, with pedestrians and bicyclists making up half of all fatalities. Crashes in Oakland disproportionately occur in the city’s Equity Priority Communities and along its High Injury Network, and across the region, Alameda County has one of the highest rates of pedestrian fatalities.

Oakland’s roadways are also home to nearly 100 slip lanes: separated, one-way right-turn lanes designed to improve traffic flow. While slip lanes enable drivers to make smoother and faster turns, they prioritize vehicle speed and efficiency and increase the risk of pedestrian collisions at intersections. This report documents the locations and existing conditions of 94 slip lanes in the City of Oakland. We find that one-third of all slip lanes in Oakland are located along the city’s High Injury Network, with just over half (52%)...

City of Oakland Department of Transportation Best Practices Report

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Guided by themes of equity and resiliency, 218 Consultants conducted research on best practices for building an innovative Department of Transportation (DOT) in Oakland, CA. Recommendations for implementing best practices lie within five sub-topic areas: internal and external coordination, funding, public engagement, project prioritization, and performance management. 218 Consultants recognizes that these are not the only topics relevant to the success of an innovative DOT; nonetheless, each is individually important and an opportunity for innovation, and their collective impact will help the DOT develop effective, proactive transportation solutions.

College: An Avenue for Change

Mon, 3 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

College Ave is an important north-south corridor in the City of Berkeley, extending from the southeast edge of the UC Berkeley campus down into Oakland. It is home to a mix ofresidential and commercial buildings and is well known for its quaint community character,especially within the Elmwood District. This makes it not only an important link in the street network, but also a bustling destination for many. Vehicles, buses, bikes, and pedestrians share the narrow corridor, which can lead to conflicts between users. The corridor has been identified as one of three “Priority Development Areas” in the City to be upzoned, which would entail changing parcel-level zoning codes to incentivize denser development. Though the City currently has no plans to improve the right-of-way along with the parcel-level zoning codes, this will be vital to ensuring a functioning and thriving CollegeAve as density increases in the years to come.

Our report identifies existing conditions for...

Aligning Street Safety and Emergency Response in the Berkeley Hills

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our work revealed that the current status quo may be dangerous for people living in the Berkeley Hills. As the City considers upzoning single-family residential districts in the Berkeley Hills, impeded emergency response access, hindered evacuation, and traffic violence have the potential to compound existing risk. To address these challenges, a diverse set of infrastructure and policy prescriptions should be implemented.

Oakland's Street Infrastructure and Policing: Preliminary analysis of (1) the effects of street infrastructure projects on street safety and police activity in Oakland and (2) the City of Oakland’s budget

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our project was largely inspired by the report Decarcerating Transportation - a Mobility Justice Framework, by the Anti-Police Terror Project. This report gives background on the link between transportation and the criminal legal system and the negative repercussions especially for communities of color. It also provides a roadmap with concrete policy recommendations for localities to take on the task of decarcerating transportation, with the goals of removing police from public transit and traffic enforcement, universalizing accessibility to public transportation, and ending punitive systems involving fines and fees that further exacerbate financial insecurities of marginalized communities.

Old Road, New Directions

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Old Road, New Directions

Assessing the Past & Current Impacts of the International Boulevard BRT Project in East Oakland

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The practice of transportation justice requires a courageous and honest assessment of both the negative and positive impacts to low-income communities of color and people with disabilities from transportation projects and policies--past and present. This report seeks to use transportation justice to explore those impacts of East Oakland Bus Rapid Transit. The report is prepared with Just Cities, a restorative justice in planning and policy social enterprise based in Oakland, in partnership with the Fall 2019 UC Berkeley City Planning Graduate Transportation Studio. This report provides a preliminary analysis of currently available information and data regarding the past and current impacts of the EBBRT on the people, environment, businesses, and homes around International Boulevard (East 14th Street)--while providing critical insight behind the planning and development process. The EBBRT project is expected to launch in March 2020. While this analysis cannot provide critical feedback...

The Third Crossing: A Megaproject in a Megaregion

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Bay Area is experiencing a period of rapid economic and population growth that is testing the transbay transportation system and exacerbating equity concerns around housing and health. Along with growing challenges in system operations, these conditions make it particularly important to consider the case for a new transbay crossing that could potentially help improve urban and regional accessibility, unlock new land uses, and create a more resilient transportation network for a stronger, healthier, more equitable region. This report analyzes the potential of a new transbay crossing to provide additional travel capacity between San Francisco and the East Bay, complementing the existing Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) tube and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. This project would be larger in scope than the combined scale of many other major Bay Area transportation projects of recent years and has the potential to be significant for the ninecounty region, the Northern California...

Link21 Transportation Planning and Funding

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The looming mass transit fiscal cliff threatens the viability of long term operations of BART and future Link21 projects. BART’s historic reliance on farebox recovery for financial stability necessitates an evaluation of available funding sources in an effort to increase funding for both long term project planning and ongoing operations. Given existing State and Federal policies that call for increased investment in public transit and rail and California’s stated goals around greenhouse gas emission reductions and equity improvements, the time is ripe for changes to the current funding mechanisms which have long favored highway and road projects over transit and rail. A streamlined process to ensure continuous and advanced planning is necessary for the successful completion of megaregional transit and rail projects that cross political jurisdictions. Further, this type of planning and funding is necessary for California to remain competitive for Federal funding opportunities,...

Diridon Reimagined: A Review of Planning for San José's Transit Hub

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Diridon Station in San José is emerging as the nexus for several major regional transportationinvestments taking place in the South Bay, including BART to Silicon Valley Extension (BSVP2), Caltrain electrification, and California High-Speed Rail. A redesigned and improved station has the potential to transform Downtown San José, with opportunities for increased connectivity, economic accessibility, and efficacy of transit networks. The Diridon Integrated Station Concept Plan (DISC) envisions a plan to redesign the station, emphasizing connectivity between transit modes and placemaking within San José. Local leaders, planning staff, transit advocates, and community members see the station project as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to meaningfully improve transportation networks in the region. As such, the stakes are high to ensure that the decades-long plans and investments required for a renewed Diridon Station are truly seamlessly integrated and lead to a completed project...

Bancroft Avenue - Transformational Spaces: Addressing Road Safety Challenges through Community Design Workshops

Thu, 1 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Bancroft Avenue, located in East Oakland, represents a tremendous opportunity to reimagine traffic safety for Oakland residents. Of particular interest to this project is a section of the street extending from Seminary Ave to 67th Ave, which is sandwiched between more recent development on Seminary and a raised center median that widens at 67th. This area can and should be a safer place for residents to get around, regardless of their mode of transportation. A plurality of the population in this area is Latinx, so outreach and assessment of community needs should take this into account. Most residents of the area commute to work using a private vehicle, even though the area is served by public transit and the corridor has a bike lane. Good alternatives need to be provided for those households that do not have access to a private vehicle, which are about 15% of all households in the area.

Jack London BART Station Siting

Thu, 1 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Link21 Program includes a new train crossing under the San Francisco Bay, which will improve connectivity between the Peninsula/Downtown San Francisco and the East Bay, as well as improve service frequency and mitigate congestion across the Bay Bridge. Six concepts have been developed for Link21, two of which involve a BART transfer station in the Jack London District. The scope of our project involves an existing conditions analysis and plans/policies review prior to conducting a BART station siting process for a potential Jack London BART station. Jack London is one of Oakland’s oldest business districts and is located south of Downtown Oakland, bisected from the city core by Interstate 980 and Interstate 880 overhead. Jack London’s position by the Oakland Estuary waterfront positions itself as a hub for port/industrial activities, commuter ferry passengers, intercity rail (Amtrak) passengers, and tourism.

Oxford for All: A Complete Streets Vision for Oxford Street in Downtown Berkeley, California

Thu, 1 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Oxford Street is the western boundary of University of California, Berkeley campus and connects the university to downtown Berkeley and the BART station. Oxford for All is a vision developed by the UC Berkeley Department of City and Regional Planning Transportation Studio that envisions an Oxford Street that seeks to serve all users, regardless of ability or mode choice.

To better understand the planning context and needs of the corridor’s residents, the project team conducted the following: Historical context research, Academic literature review, Review of relevant planning documents and plans, Interviews with professional and academic subject matter experts, Case studies of other urban university campuses, Review of planned developments, Pedestrian and cyclist counts, Community outreach event, Survey of businesses.

This work revealed that Oxford Street does not serve all road users adequately. The street design prioritizes driving, with wide streets, narrow sidewalks,...