Editor's note: When reading this news, ask yourself in what other profession one could repeatedly lie to the public and violate basic safety protocols but remain employed?
Caltrans crews recently removed bike lanes in Oakland as part of the intentionally misnomered "Alameda-Oakland Access Project," (OAAP) a freeway ramp-widening and reconfiguration project masquerading as multi-modal.
From Bike East Bay's Robert Prinz:
We and other members of the public were never informed about the Oak Street ... bike lane closures shown on pages 2, 3, and 12 of these plans. As shown on these pages they are maintaining multiple lanes for cars on Oak between 6th and 9th Streets but zero dedicated lane for bikes. On Oak Street between 2nd and 6th Streets they are maintaining the curbside car parking on the west side of the street but not the critical northbound bike lane connection between Jack London Square and Lake Merritt BART.
With the removal of the painted bike lanes, which were woefully inadequate on a multi-lane street such as Oak Street to start with, Caltrans now expects cyclists to share a lane with traffic. Keep in mind that this is also a major route to I-880 and is plagued with non-stop speeding traffic and red-light running. The removed bike lanes are on a major bike commuter routes that connect the Oakland ferry terminal, Lake Merritt BART, and thousands of residential units.
"This is unacceptable," wrote Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless. "Caltrans Complete Street Policy, now five years old, says Caltrans will provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities on all projects and in all project phases, including construction and maintenance."
Nobody, really, should be surprised. Caltrans, Alameda County, and the consultants who work for them have acted in bad faith throughout this project. Its planners even published this ridiculous rendering to try to portray the OAAP as multi-modal:
The above image generated bile for anybody who knows anything about the deafening, polluted hellscape that is the Posey Tube. People occasionally ride in it out of necessity. Nobody has ever jogged in it. But with Caltrans, it's always rinse and repeat: Caltrans and the county officials and consultants it collaborates with are completely disingenuous and don't care a bit about safety. They hold sham public outreach meetings and then ignore everything the public requests for safety. This is shown in project after project.
Nobody knows more about Caltrans and their continued malfeasance than Ward-Waller. She was Deputy Director of Planning and Modal Programs at Caltrans. Ward-Waller was fired in 2023 for doing her job; calling out the detrimental effects of Caltran's continous freeway widening.
Prinz, meanwhile, emailed Oakland DOT, the Alameda County Transportation Commission, and Caltrans to demand they restore and protect the bike lanes during construction of the OAAP. He even emailed an example from a now-completed construction project on Broadway to show how simple this is—just move the crash barrier over a bit and divide the bike and pedestrian space:
Streetsblog also reached out to Caltrans and the city of Oakland for comment. There were no replies.
In Streetsblog's view, the reality here is simple: Caltrans is beyond repair. It needs a brave lawmaker to start breaking it up, blacklisting the bad actors, and reconstructing the agency with people who genuinely care about safety and the communities they serve. Until that is accomplished, all projects should be suspended immediately.
And if that means contracts have to be torn up and lawsuits launched and defended, so be it. That's better than getting another round of cyclists and pedestrians killed and maimed. Besides, there's a long record of documented violations to bring to court.
"I reminded Caltrans staff about these guidelines multiple times throughout the OAAP development process over the past several years, and was told that the OAAP project would follow them," said Prinz. "Public commenters at informational meetings about the OAAP were also told the same thing by staff."
Ward-Waller, meanwhile, reminds that Caltrans has internal guidelines for when it's appropriate to use a sharrow. Oak Street absolutely does not qualify. "There's no excuse for Caltrans District offices continuing to ignore this policy and implementing projects this way," she said.
