Study: International Blvd is Now Much Safer

This post originally appeared on the Traffic Violence Rapid Response website and is published here with permission.

Last week, OakDOT and AC Transit shared the results of the International BRT Safety Project and frankly the results are an eye-popping success. Traffic calming infrastructure saves lives. Please write City Council and AC Transit to thank them for their continued support for this project. Details at the end of this post.

Based on data collected since the installation in August of 2024, all signs point to a much safer street:

1. The number of private vehicles misusing the bus-only lane is down by 83%!

2. The measured "85% percentile" speed of cars that do enter the bus lane is down from 40mph to just under 30mph, while the general travel lane now matches the posted speed limit of 25mph

3. And most importantly, traffic fatalities are down from 10 in 2023 to 2 in 2025, and pedestrian fatalities are down from 7 in 2023 to 0 in 2025. Yes, zero!

We are not entirely out of the woods yet, but it means more of our neighbors are alive today because of these simple plastic posts and speed cushions.

You played a big part of this success!

The second vigil held by TVRR was for Emelia Martinez in June 2022, at 16th Ave, followed by Lolo Soakai later that same month at 54th Ave. With six people killed on International in 2022, we started asking questions and demanding answers.

AC Transit did hire a design consultant to look at spot treatments of signs and paint at a couple intersections, but we knew that would not be enough. TVRR conducted our own comprehensive study, Design Recommendations for Tempo BRT, that emphasized what East Oaklanders already knew:

1. Drivers used the uncongested bus-only lane to speed in front of other traffic. These drivers often traveled at high speeds for several blocks at a time, running red lights and endangering others on the street.
2. Drivers used the left turn lane to jump the queue at traffic signals by accelerating rapidly from the left turn lane into the bus-only lane.
3. Drivers used the bus-only lanes for illegal left turns and u-turns, commonly over pedestrian crosswalks after hardened medians.
4. Drivers used to use the bus-only lane as a left turn lane taking fast and reckless turns to avoid colliding with ongoing traffic.

These were persistent dangers with drivers misusing the bus-lanes to create dangerous conditions, especially for pedestrians.

In our study we demanded immediate changes to the design to dissuade dangerous speeding:

1. Speed cushions before crosswalks to slow cars who are misusing the bus-only lanes.
2. Vertical dividers between travel lanes and bus-only lanes that make it uncomfortable for drivers to enter the bus-lane or weave between lanes at speed.
3. Vertical dividers in the center to discourage illegal left turns and u-turns.
4. Red bus-only pavement at bus-only lane entries to clearly indicate the bus-lane

All the while, terrible tragedies kept happening, both fatalities and serious injuries. TVRR held more vigils. Community members came to joint meetings and insisted that something be done. Oakland City Council, by request of OakDOT, found an emergency $1.3M in December 2022 to radically expand the project AC Transit was considering.

Oakland residents kept making noise to City Council, OakDOT, the Mayor's office, and to AC Transit. This activism finally brought everyone to the table, and in June 2023, a corridor-long treatment of plastic post lane dividers was revealed. It was a positive surprise, especially for the scale, but it lacked speed cushions, so we kept at it. Under the leadership of Megan Wier, Assistant Director of OakDOT and a public health professional, a speed cushion trial was added to the project near Fruitvale. Construction started in July 2024 and finished by the end of the year.

One year later, what next?

International Boulevard is no longer the most dangerous street in Oakland. Our city-wide traffic fatalities have fallen so far this year, and based on this report, it may be due entirely to these changes. But there is still work to finish the job.

1. First, speed cushions need to be installed the length of the whole corridor, especially on blocks with bus stops
2. Anywhere we see damage to posts likely indicates the need for more substantial lane barriers such as rubberized bus-lane delineators or "armadillos"
3. Most importantly, everyone involved needs to learn the lessons of this tragedy and response. Oakland can quickly make our streets much safer with very little money, but we need to decide to do it sooner!

Lessons and Actions

Advocates creating pressure from the outside, and OakDOT finding solutions on the inside, is a combination that can deliver safer, more inclusive streets. Raising our voices works. Making the moral case for safety works. Demanding better works. Standing together across all our communities works. Working from the reality on the ground is necessary.

Eight percent of Oakland's roads generate over two-thirds of Oakland's serious injury and fatal crashes. OakDOT even publishes a map of this "High-Injury Network". What we did on International is what we can do for the next-most dangerous street in Oakland, and the next. Traffic violence is a scourge, but unlike some things, this is very solvable by us, right here.

Write your City Council Member and the AC Transit Board

1. Praise the life-saving progress on International Blvd
2. Point out that we know where the most dangerous streets and intersections are
3. Insist that they contribute their attention and energy and political capital on supporting and funding projects to address traffic violence with even more haste, now that these rapid responses have proven to work right here in Oakland.
4. Tell AC Transit to prioritize the safety of their riders before, during, and after they ride the bus. Insist that they work collaboratively with OakDOT to continue making safety improvements on International and every transit route.
5. Forward this post to others.