Through funding from the Oakland Department of Transportation, WOBO supports programs in East Oakland.
These include:
- the Bay Area Bike Rescue
- the Bike Fix at Oakland Public Library
- 90th Ave Neighborhood Action Council
WOBO also provides technical assistance to help Oakland residents apply for Community-Led Traffic Safety installations in their neighborhoods, funded by PeopleforBikes Local Advocacy Assistance Grant Program.
The Bay Area Bike Rescue works to take unused and salvaged bikes, fixes them, and gets them to people and groups in need of transportation.
Find the Bike Rescue at: 1411 23rd Ave Oakland, CA 94606
The Bike Rescue sells bikes to support its operations, and also donates bikes to individuals and organizations in need. Check out their website to see the most current statistics showing their impact and see open hours.
This bike recycling center has two main goals: use donations to connect Oaklanders with durable, customized bikes AND rescue parts from landfill to create new bikes or original art.
There are rows of bikes, with frames of every size and color–pink and purple bikes for kids, carbon road bikes, cruisers, hybrids, and even a few e-bikes. Those who want to build their own bike from the ground up would be at home here, too. Visitors can find bike essentials and even accessories. It’s truly a treasure trove of wheel rims, tires, tubes, and frames—with or without handlebars. There are even balance bikes, helmets, locks, mirrors, and water bottle cages.The inventory is never predictable though, it always changes and can be checked through Craigslist.
The Bike Rescue exists to take bikes that have been sitting in garages, left on the street, and to find a use for bike parts that their original owners never got around to using. In 2026 to date, they have saved 776 bikes from landfill and “re-homed” 245 bikes to community members.
Jafar, a volunteer, tells us that visitors see the rows and rows of bikes and ask where they could possibly go. By collaborating with other organizations like the Bike Fix, the Bikery, and Cycles of Change, the Rescue ensures that community members get durable bikes that will fit their needs. One of their most common collaborations is with Oakland social workers. When clients need a bike for transportation or recreation, social workers describe their needs and the Bike Rescue offers multiple bikes that can fit a client’s height and biking needs. Through this collaboration, youth and adults can get bikes that will work best for their purposes, whether it is for commuting or exploring trails on the weekends.
The Bike Rescue also collaborates with the Manzanita Recreation Center and the Unity Wheels Program through MCC and SRVIC. The latter program recently celebrated 1000 bikes delivered to refugees!
The bike can be a tool for economic development, allowing users to explore their neighborhoods and access additional work opportunities without the financial or logistical challenges of a car. According to the Muslim Community Center, “Many clients have told us that having a bike reduced their reliance on public transportation, enabling them to save time and money, and also that having a bike gave them a sense of independence and confidence as they adjusted to life in the U.S.”.
WOBO is supporting the Bike Rescue in connecting more Oaklanders with bikes. If you’d like to purchase a bike, make a donation, or request bikes for your organization, learn more about the Bike Rescue by visiting their website.
The Bike Fix at Oakland Public Library teaches Oaklanders how to repair their own bikes and pass on these skills to other community members. All services are provided free of charge.
Find the Bike Fix at:
Wednesdays, 2:30-5 PM
OR
Fridays, 2:30-5 PM
The Bike Fix is a weekly community bike gathering at two Oakland Public Library branches: 81st Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Deep East Oakland youth and adults who are interested in biking can’t easily access bike shops as there are none between Laurel Cyclery and San Leandro. And a simple issue like fixing a flat can be $30 or more each time.
In 2014, The Bike Fix started organically due to a collaboration between OPL and the Scraper Bike Team. Over time, it grew into a regular community gathering, with mechanics and community members noting a need for bike education in East Oakland.
By fixing someone’s bike, or teaching them how to do so, the mechanics empower visitors to maintain their bikes and teach others to do the same. RB, a library employee and longtime mechanic, mentioned that this builds community and camaraderie, as young people are likely to help others fix issues with their bikes, and this knowledge can be passed on. Learning how to fix your own bike is liberating, saves money, and builds confidence! Learning mechanical skills and how to navigate working on bikes is further encouraged by the Bike Fix’s “Earn a Bike” program. After folks come by the Bike Fix three times, they earn their own bike and can take it home. Other organizations like the Bike Rescue, Trips for Kids, Kidical Mass, and donations from community members supply bikes to the Bike Fix, ensuring that usable bikes are kept out of landfill and shared those who will enjoy them.
Learning to fix a bike increases mechanical literacy, but it also increases economic opportunity in Deep East Oakland. The Bike Fix at the 81st Avenue Branch is adjacent to two schools, and many students hang out on Friday afternoons to learn and earn their bikes. One of the current mechanics even went to school next to the library, attended the Bike Fix for years, and is now employed by OPL to be part of The Bike Fix. This integral program allows residents to grow deep roots and relationships, creates jobs, and also creates bike joy for community members in East Oakland. To get details about Bike Fix events, check out the Oakland Public Library website.
The 90th Ave Neighborhood Action Council:
WOBO and its Deep East Oakland outreach team members representing the neighborhoods East of Seminary from the hills to the flats past I-880 seek to facilitate the visioning of a thriving neighborhood through the convening of Neighborhood Action Council (NAC) members, which include residents in neighborhoods on and surrounding 90th Avenue, Scraper Bike Way, in Deep East Oakland, including but not limited to Elmhurst, Sobrante Park, Brookfield, and Columbian Gardens .
The NAC aims to connect neighbors with the right decision makers at the right time. WOBO is poised to elevate this important catalyst for change in Deep East Oakland as a result of multiple years of fostering trust through the annual presentation of East Oakland Futures Fest, a block party celebrating the community as it exists today and envisioning a thriving future for the black community. The creation of the NAC on 90th Avenue furthers the arc of WOBOʼs East Oakland Futures Fest journey:
● Visioning an Afro-centric future that is of the communityʼs own design;
● Building the foundation to understand the levers of power to effect change; and
● Activating local capacities to engender the change that residents want to see.
A NAC is well-positioned to convene authentic and facilitated discussions that best support the neighborhoodsʼ hopes and aspirations. Having a coordinated voice from East Oakland is ever more significant since the Coliseum / Airport Plan area scores the lowest on Walk Score compared to all other regions in Oakland. And when combined with the Central East Oakland Plan area, it is home to many high injury corridors.
Recruitment for NAC members begin at the end of summer 2026. Interested individuals can sign up for email updates here.
Technical Assistance:
WOBO also provides technical assistance to help Oakland residents apply for Community-Led Traffic Safety installations in their neighborhoods, funded by PeopleforBikes Local Advocacy Assistance Grant Program.
As of August 2026, we have:
●received 19 intersection suggestions from Oaklanders about CLTS installations, of which 9 are eligible for CLTS improvements
●advised 11 neighborhoods as they submitted their CLTS proposals to OakDOT
●received 2 CLTS approvals from OakDOT for residents to construct their own installations, making Oakland streets slower and safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
To learn more about resident-driven traffic safety installations and how you can create your own, visit our Community-Led Traffic Safety page.