A Tragic Loss, even as the International Quick Build Begins

Sadly, folks keep being killed in traffic violence. On Sunday July 21st, Steve Bloom was riding his bike home through the intersection of Broadway and 27th when he was hit by a driver who then fled the scene. Steve was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and died a week later at Highland Hospital. Sadly, Steve has no local family, and friends were unable to get in to see him before he passed. It’s all so damn tragic and needless.

A Call to Action

Steve was active in climate advocacy, as well as tenant organizing, and dreamed of the day when our streets will be safe for everyone. We all share that dream. In his honor, let’s get out and politicize his death, exactly as Steve’s friends tell us he would have wanted. We’ll let all of Oakland know that this dream can become real if we commit to it and make the changes we need.

• What: A Commemorative Protest Action
• When: Thursday, August 22nd, at 5:30 PM
• Where: The intersection of Broadway and 27th St.
• Your part: Please come, bring your people, and bring signs, candles, flowers, and determination for change. If you want to help organize, contact us at rapid.revolt.team@gmail.com. Thank you for being part of the change!
• Our demand: Rapid safety interventions at our most dangerous intersections, where the risk of injury and death are highest!

A real, hard-fought win!

The long-awaited quick build project on International Blvd (East 14th St) has finally begun. Two years and two months after our first vigil here, and 18 traffic deaths later, remedial changes are finally being made to Oakland’s most dangerous street. As you can see from the photos, there are two types of delineator posts: one for the mid-line in yellow, and one for in between the vehicle lane and the bus-only lane, in white. At the beginning of many blocks, a red bus-only paint treatment is included. The work should be done by mid-September.

Save for a few scattered blocks, this treatment will run the entire length of International, from just east of the Lake all the way to the San Leandro border. Bus drivers say it’s a tight squeeze, but they’re getting used to it. Neighbors say it’s nice, and early anecdotal reports suggest that traffic is calmer, despite some deliberate violations.

To every single person who attended any of the actions we have staged on International, you deserve the town’s heartfelt thanks. Dozens of people came out, made and carried signs, expressed their fear, grief and anger, wrote letters, spoke at meetings, and you were heard by the many city officials, both elected and staff, who came out to see for themselves the dangers posed here. Many thanks to all those officials who were moved by your witness, and by the evidence of their own senses, to step up, find the money, do the work, push the process, and get this project rolling. As always, thanks to the staff on the inside for doing the work!

What you don’t see here is speed cushions. However, these will be installed on a trial basis on some blocks after this work is done. Call it Phase Two. Again, we have demanded speed control here from the beginning, to much pushback from both AC Transit and the Oakland Fire Department. However, OakDOT has built upon a more advanced design and is confident that, after testing, they can install effective speed controls here. The trial is, primarily, to prove it to the doubters. We’ll keep you posted!

Other Good News

OakDOT announced that on upper Telegraph, from 51st to the Berkeley border, they will remove vehicle passing lanes and build protected bike lanes and bus boarding islands. In his letter about this decision, new Director Josh Rowan wrote, “The Upper Telegraph Avenue Project … is a complete streets project delivered in coordination with the City of Oakland’s Measure U-funded 5-Year Paving Plan. With projects like this, OakDOT seeks to fulfill the commitment to voters made with Measure U to “implement City of Oakland pedestrian and bicycle safety plans wherever and whenever street repaving and reconstruction is performed, with priority to be given to high-injury network streets.”

Your work is bearing fruit! TVRR, with other advocate groups like Bike East Bay and Transport Oakland, pushed for exactly this language in Measure U! Our vigils raised the issue to not-to-be-ignored status, and Council Members Kalb, Fife and Bas inserted our language as they approved the measure for the ballot. Then TVRR volunteers fanned out to mobilize voters and get Measure U past the 2/3 required vote (ed note: supermajority requirements are bad). It passed in November 2022, and now we are seeing the results of your work!

Other Calls to Action, if you can

1. If you have not signed the Better, Safer Grand petition, which would ask the city to improve bike/ped safety on Grand Avenue when it is re-paved in 2026, please do so HERE.
2. Walk SF is leading the charge on the “Speed Warning Technology” bill SB 961. Sponsored by Sen. Scott Weiner, the bill originally would have installed speed governors in all new cars, now it’s excess speed warnings for the driver. Every little bit helps! Here is Walk SF’s PAGE for contacting your Assembly member.
3. Relatedly, Senator Weiner is also sponsoring SB 960, a bill that would require CalTrans to implement their own (pretty good!) complete streets designs when repaving surface highways they control, across the state. CalBike is leading the charge HERE. Send an email to Buffy Wicks, chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This one could really save lives, and it’s hanging by a thread.
4. AB 2290, The Better Bikeways Act, has three provisions: 1) Prohibit Active Transportation Program funds for projects that create sharrows. 2) Require adopted bicycle or active transportation plans to be included in projects funded by the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program. 3) Establish the Bikeway Quick-Build Project Pilot Program within the department’s maintenance program.. Tell your State Senator Nancy Skinner you support it!

Thanks again!