Speak up for sidewalks, and another tragic loss
This past Tuesday, The Transportation Committee forwarded three action items to the full City Council that, if passed, will go a long way towards accelerating OakDOT's ability to make our pedestrian right-of-way safer and more accessible for everyone, but especially folks with limited mobility. Our earlier POST explained the details.
These items will appear on the "consent calendar" for the July 15th City Council meeting. This means that it will likely just be voted on in a bundle of many other measures all at once. But one council member, with the agreement of one more, can remove them from consent and make them separate items. Based on Tuesday's meeting, this may in fact happen.
Can you send in an email, call your Councilmember, or attend the meeting to speak up for pedestrian safety? It's easy to do, and will help firm up support for this urgent need! AGENDA for this meeting, where you can sign up. The particular items we are speaking to are S5.33, S5.34, and S5.35, which you can read at the link above. If you plan to speak at the meeting remotely, you will need to do this by 3PM today (Monday). In-person comments can be signed up for at the start of the meeting.
Your City Council
- Kevin Jenkins, Council President, District 6 kjenkins@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7006
- Zac Unger, District 1: zunger@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7001
- Charlene Wang, District 2: cwang@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7002
- Carroll Fife, District 3: cfife@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7003
- Janani Ramachandran, District 4: jramachandran@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7004
- Noel Gallo, District 5: ngallo@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7005
- Ken Houston, District 7: khouston@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7007
- Rowena Brown, at-large: atlarge@oaklandca.gov (510) 238-7008
A driver killed a neighbor last week while she was crossing the street
Last Monday, July 7th, around 9:30 PM, a woman was crossing Bancroft Avenue in the crosswalk at 82nd Avenue, when she was struck and killed by a driver who then fled. The woman's name has not been released by authorities yet. An article from KTVU highlights that this intersection is known to be dangerous, with many non-lethal incidents prior to this week's tragedy.
Indeed, both 82nd Avenue and Bancroft avenue in those sections are part of the High Injury Network, those 8% of Oakland streets and intersections that have been demonstrated over time to be where 60+% of the fatality and serious injury collisions take place. This concentration is no coincidence. These streets are themselves dangerous.
Please stay tuned for more about a TVRR response to this tragedy.
Thank you for staying engaged, and for all you do. We can make a difference here in Oakland when we act together!