Tag Archives: Past campaigns

More Bike/Ped Planning Staff

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VICTORY! Increased Capacity of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Program

In November 2008 WOBO members successfully lobbied City Council to fund a new staff person critical to the successful implementation of Oakland’s bike plan!!! This new staffer will do design and engineering to smooth projects starting in 2009. We are thrilled with this accomplishment and look forward to riding on the results!

In December 2007, WOBO and other community groups successfully pushed for the City Council to pass the new Bicycle Master Plan. However, a plan on paper is only as good as the folks who are there to implement it.

We will need to continue to push the City Council and the Community Economic and Development Agency (CEDA) to add more staff to support walking and bicycling in Oakland. We still simply do not have enough staff to get new bike and pedestrian projects planned and implemented. We need will still look for every opportunity to add staff so that new development (especially along our priority campaigns along East 12th and 15th Streets, Webster-Franklin, Telegraph-Broadway, Harrison and 27th all get implemented with good bike-ped input and oversight.

Email your councilmember to thank them for adding this position while reminding them we will still only have THREE in a city that employs almost FIVE THOUSAND. For comparison, San Francisco has 13 bike/ped staff but only double the population!

Early Campaigns and Accomplishments

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History and Early Accomplishments

 

WOBO has already had a few victories:

  • WOBO secured a City Council commitment and funding to get an important new bicycle and pedestrian transportation engineer position funded, even while the city was cutting staff positions across all departments;
  • WOBO advocated for the City Council to pass the new Bicycle Plan in December 2007, and we’re working with City Hall to actually implement it;
  • Secured a commitment and funding to hire a new bicycle/pedestrian traffic engineer, who will give the City capacity to actually implement improvements;
  • Obtained new pedestrian-initiated signals and crosswalks on Harrison at Westlake Middle School and on Bay Place at the Oakland Whole Foods;
  • Got the city agree to prioritize bicycle routes in the City’s repaving program, ensuring that the most feasible & important routes are expedited;
  • Completed traffic-calming sidewalk bulb-outs and a sidewalk garden at Vernon and Lee Streets;
  • Pushed the City Council to adopt a new bicycle parking ordinance, which requires secure and adequate long-term and short-term parking for bicycles in construction and remodeling projects;
  • Advocated successfully for electronic bicycle lockers at MacArthur BART, Rockridge BART & 19th Street BART;
  • Completed a streetscape project at 40th Street at the MacArthur BART station, which includes new lighting.
  • We pushed for and got bike and pedestrian friendly traffic calming devices installed on Oakland Avenue and we’re working in the community based planning process to get additional planned for lanes and improvements installed on Harrison and further up Oakland.

Bike Parking

Bike parking

New Bike Parking Ordinance ADOPTED
The City of Oakland’s Community & Economic Development Agency adopted the Bicycle Parking ordinance in summer 2008 with WOBO’s enthusiastic support. It will require bicycle parking for various types of development.  WOBO members attended all of the meetings and developed unanimous support from City Council which passed it with total consensus.

According to the City of Oakland, “Adoption of a bicycle parking ordinance (has been) a priority recommendation in the recently approved Bicycle Master Plan (2007), as well as the prior bike plan approved in 1999.

The ordinance addresses bicycle racks, lockers, cages and showers, and how these facilities would be included in future development.”