Support Oakland 35th Avenue Road Diet

Summary of Key Issues and Potential Remediation

Problems Observed:

• High collision rate along the corridor was found at McArthur Boulevard intersection, with 0.55 collisions per million vehicles entering the intersection (MV). This rate exceeds the California State average of 0.43 collisions per MV.

• The highest collision factor is unsafe speed.

• Vehicles turning left from westbound Redwood Road onto southbound Mountain Boulevard (East) exceed the storage capacity of the left-turn lane during the AM peak period.

• A scarcity of gaps in traffic on Redwood Road make it difficult for motorists to turn left from Mountain Boulevard (West) onto eastbound Redwood Road.

• The horizontal and vertical roadway curvature on 35th Avenue/Redwood Road limits the sight distance for motorists at Jordan Road and other unsignalized cross streets.

Potential Remediation Measures:

• Implement a road diet to convert the existing 4-lane facility to 3-lane facility (one lane in each direction with left turn lanes approaching intersections, from east of MacArthur Boulevard to west of Monterey Boulevard.

• Consider providing a bike lane at least along eastbound 35th Avenue and Redwood Road from east of MacArthur Boulevard to west of Monterey Boulevard through the uphill section of the corridor. If a road diet is implemented, consider installing bike lanes in both directions.

• Install curb extensions at pedestrian crosswalks to shorten the street crossing distance.

• Relocate some bus stops and crosswalks.

• Modify the Mountain Boulevard West intersection to prohibit southbound left-turning movements from Mountain Boulevard West, narrow the width of Mountain Boulevard, and install a pedestrian crosswalk.

• Improve signage for the Highway 13 on-ramp near Lincoln Square Shopping Center.

• Prohibit left-turning movements out of the east driveway of the Lincoln Square Shopping Center.
• Signalize the Lincoln Square Shopping Center west driveway to address the many broadside collisions in the vicinity.

The above information and more can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/7yq8vhx

A RESIDENT'S OPINION:

I am in favor of the road diet. I am a neighbor who drives, walks and bikes on our streets. My kids are at Redwood Heights and we have been walking with them to school (now they are old enough to walk on their own) for 7 years. We have no qualms about them walking to and from school without an adult EXCEPT for the Redwood Road crossing at Monterey. I bike to work three days a week and, yes, I drive up and down Redwood and through our neighborhood streets. My husband has been living on Guido street since 1962. He remembers when Redwood Road was a one-lane-each-way road.

Here are the reasons why I am in favor of narrowing the road:

1. Cars chronically drive too fast on RR. There have been multiple accidents. As a pedestrian who has crossed RR at Monterey 4 times a day for several years, I can attest to the fact that there are many drivers who come down so fast that they blow through the red light at that intersection and endanger the lives of school kids every morning and afternoon. The cars coming up that hill before the intersection are not much better. I have heard from families who live on the north side of RR (the Jordan Park side) that they would love to let their kids walk but they don't because of the danger of crossing RR at Monterey. We would have more walking kids and families in the neighborhood if it weren't for the dangerous speed of some drivers making a bee-line for 580 or 13.

2. We can not, as a neighborhood, only consider the convenience of drivers in this discussion. This is not just about "I have to make it up/down Redwood Road as fast as possible in my car therefore there must be no impediment put in my way." This is also a discussion about the health of our neighbors, their safety, the quality of life here in Redwood Heights. I do not want a high speed artery severing one half of the neighbourhood from the other as we have now. I want bicyclists, school children and pedestrians to be given fair consideration. We also live here and the car does not trump everything else.

3. The argument about backing out onto RR being near to impossible if the road were to be narrowed has a fatal flaw. If RR were to become one-lane-for-cars-plus-a-bike-lane road then it would actually be significantly easier to back out because you would be backing into the bike lane and not into traffic.

4. There are plenty of roads nearby that are one lane, serve as through-roads and do not have strangulated traffic. Lincoln and Tunnel spring to mind.

If a strong factor determining quality of life in Redwood Heights is ease of driving a car, then the road diet is not for you. If, however, you have a less myopic view of what constitutes a good neighborhood, then please let your voice be heard.