Oakland crews ripped out several citizen-built traffic circles and other safety measures in the San Antonio neighborhood of East Oakland on Tuesday. KTVU covered the story. Be sure to check it out:
As explained by KTVU, resident-advocates installed these roundabouts to try and stop side shows and the constant reckless driving that endangers their children. An advocate who spoke to Streetsblog said there have been many, many collisions on the street. After years of pleading with the city to make things safer, they gave up and fixed the problem themselves.
In Streetsblog's view, the installations of dirt-and-rock-filled tires covered with bright-yellow reflective tape were very well done (and reportedly it didn't take long nor cost more than a few hundred dollars). Remember that next time your city claims it doesn't have the budget to make streets safe.
Look at the pictures. There's no reason a driver who is sober, reasonably attentive, and following the speed limit should ever hit them.
Nevertheless, a city spokesperson characterized them as "dangerous." The question is: dangerous to whom?
Indeed, the installations are dangerous—to reckless drivers, such as the one who tried to speed over them and whose car is pictured below (the driver was uninjured, said advocates). But a driver who can't manage to see and avoid an area demarcated by a double yellow line, full of tires wrapped in reflective tape (even in the middle of the day) needs to be stopped immediately. The alternative is to allow them to run over a family, which, in the American traffic engineering profession, is apparently preferable.
Until now, citizen advocates in the neighborhood didn't seek publicity about the installations, to avoid having them ripped out. But the city, which is in the middle of a traffic violence crisis, decided that ripping out traffic calming was a good expenditure of resources. The city no doubt spent more money removing this than it cost residents to put it in.
Advocates aren't done with this fight. More below from one of the residents, in a note that was forwarded to Streetsblog (Streetsblog is withholding names to guard against prosecution/reprisals):
Today the city removed our installations on E21st and the roundabout on 18th & E20th. They brought several trucks and crews. They attempted to remove the roundabout on 18th and E20th but we stopped them - we blocked their trucks with our cars. They'll be back but we live here, we can and will stop them again. They did this without warning and without offering any solutions.
Advocates vowed to replace the installations that were removed.
This is Oakland's District 2, under councilperson Nikki Fortunato Bas. Streetsblog has already covered her apparent disinterest in safe streets. This is also at least the second time a guerrilla safety project has been ripped out in District 2. Streetsblog has reached out to Bas's office and will update this post.
"Bas's office knows about the projects; we have a meeting with them," wrote one of the advocates who worked on the installation and spoke with Streetsblog. "We've been begging Bas, OakDOT, and OPD to do something."
Contrast that with District 3, where advocates were able to get a response from Councilperson Carroll Fife about reckless driving on West 8th. That street now has city-installed roundabouts, speed bumps, and other safety measures that are working to keep reckless driving under control.
Bas, meanwhile, is running against John Bauters (the former "bike mayor" of Emeryville who is known nationally for his dedication to safe streets) for Alameda County Supervisor.
Note: a representative from Councilmember Bas's office emailed Streetsblog two days after the publication of this post to confirm that she agrees with the city's decision to remove the tires.
