Deadly Bay Area streets spark officials to make traffic safety improvements

OAKLAND — International Boulevard in Oakland is home to a vibrant mix of cultures from downtown Oakland to the San Leandro border. Colorful, cultural street murals cover restaurant facades and the street is peppered with food carts and vendors selling everything from fruit cups to T-shirts. But navigating the vital, busy thoroughfare can be a heart pumping challenge for pedestrians and drivers alike.

The city of Oakland and Alameda County transportation officials are now pouring several million dollars into making the street safer, more transit friendly and easier to navigate.

And they are not alone.

Major planning efforts are happening throughout the Bay Area to make it easier for people to get around, whether it’s reconnecting communities severed by freeways or highways, or figuring out ways to make streets safer to cross and transit more easily accessible.

Last month, Caltrans also announced $149 million for three projects, including one in South San Francisco to add safe walkways, bike lanes, bus stops and other upgrades in areas with neglected transit infrastructure, including El Camino Real. The busy six-lane thoroughfare is the site of multiple pedestrian fatalities on the Peninsula each year.

In Oakland, data collected by a grassroots pedestrian and bike safety group called Traffic Violence Rapid Response, shows that International Boulevard is the most dangerous street in the city.

At least 18 pedestrians have been killed in vehicle crashes on International Boulevard in the last two years, and 25% of traffic fatalities in the city happen on that street. The rapid response group found that dedicated “bus-only” lanes — an effort to speed up commutes — are part of the problem because the lanes create an unobstructed path for speeding and reckless driving.

“I think these bus lanes cause more harm than good,” said Naseer Abuaarsh, whose family runs a gold trading store on International Boulevard. “I think it just causes more traffic and people are impatient and hop into the bus lane and then they get hit.”

But it’s not just speeding and reckless driving creating problems along the Oakland corridor.

A 10-block stretch of International between 42nd and 53rd streets — often referred to as “The Blade,” “The Walk” or “The Track” — is a hub for prostitution and youth sex trafficking.  Police say men looking to pay for sex often make illegal U-turns to talk to a sex worker or stop in the street without warning.

What’s more, illegal side shows, including one earlier this month that police said drew more than 100 cars, are common on the weekends, especially during the summer months.

In a few weeks, the city of Oakland, in partnership with AC Transit, will begin street improvements from 14th to 107th avenues. Crews will install yellow vertical posts every 10 feet to separate the lanes going in opposite directions and white vertical flex-posts every 15 feet between the “bus-only” lanes and regular traffic lanes. The Tempo Bus Rapid Transit, which carries more than 15,000 passengers on an average weekday, has sliced traveling times significantly but some drivers ignore the indicator signs.

Plans call for new white painted text emphasizing the “bus-only” lane and permissible turns as well as new speed limit and road violation signs.

“Speed cushions,” which are similar to speed bumps but wider and less jarring, will be installed on a small stretch of International below 45th Avenue to keep drivers from plowing through the “bus-only” lanes.

Improvements are being funded by a $400,000 grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and $1.8 million from the city of Oakland, officials said.

George Spies, co-organizer with the rapid response group said the group would also like to see concrete curb separators.

“Somebody who is prone to reckless driving can drive over, through or around those plastic posts but a concrete separator is going to be much more effective in preventing drivers from entering the bus lane,” he said.

On the Peninsula, Patrick Gilster, director of planning and fund management with the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, said the authority plans to make sidewalk crossings safer along El Camino and develop new bike and pedestrian routes to more areas and to reach Caltrain, BART and other public transportation.

That could include building pathways over or under the elevated Caltrain tracks and adjacent Highway 101 corridor to better connect the downtown area to the city’s job center and biotech hub in its former industrial core to the east.

Accessible pedestrian signals and countdown pedestrian signals have been or will be added at 181 locations. And Caltrans is painting red curbs from crosswalks to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

And last week, the Regional Network Management Council, a coalition of Bay Area transit agencies, earmarked more than $18 million for eight projects under the Bus Accelerated Infrastructure Delivery program, commonly known as “BusAID.”

The transit improvement projects are in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. They include  $1 million to improve transit signals on Park Street in the city of Alameda; nearly $500 million for speed controls on Monument Boulevard in Concord; $1.7 million for a part-time bus lane pilot program on Alvarado Niles Road in Union City; and $4.5 million for bus boarding islands on Senter Road in San Jose, among other projects.

The Metropolitan Transit Commission is scheduled to vote on the projects in May and implementation for some projects could start soon after, an MTC spokesperson said.

“It’s not only important for transit riders because our goal with BUS AID is to make buses move faster. And rapid bus transit depends on safe transportation for everybody in the corridor, including pedestrians and the private car owner. Buses move faster when everybody moves safely,” said MTC spokesperson John Goodwin.

Staff writer Ethan Varian contributed to this story.