The City of Oakland’s new director of transportation, Ryan Russo (238-2967 rrusso@oaklandnet.com) spoke. The Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to build a staff of 360. Most staff are being transferred to the DOT from Public Works and other units in the city. The DOT is responsible for lights, signs, crosswalks, curbs, sidewalks, parking meters and the implementation of Measure KK that gives them $350 million for ten years. The 2017-19 budget will enable the DOT to build the staff from its existing 270 with 90 new positions. Objectives include making the streets more walkable, bike friendly and drivable for overall safety.
Joe Wang, supervising transportation engineer, spoke next. ( jwang@oaklandnet.com 238-6107.) Wang heads the pilot project for parking in the hills begun with the help of Councilmembers Kalb and Campbell Washington. The project compiled a list of streets of less than 20 feet in paved width and solicited the community and the fire department for other potentially fatal narrow streets. Four locations were identified and new parking restrictions were put in place at those locations. The DOT is holding off in the next phase because of push back from these neighborhoods.
The next speaker was Michael Ford (238-3099 mford@oaklandnet.com.) Ford heads the city’s parking enforcement (PE) unit. It was recently moved from OPD to the DOT. PE dispatch (238-3099) is staffed from 8:30-5:30 Monday through Friday. PE dispatch responds to citizen reports during the day, rather than having all of their officers out on patrol. He encouraged hills residents to call dispatch when a car is observed parking unsafely or in a no parking zone.
The DOT Strategic Plan calls for reducing street paving from an 85 year cycle to a 20 year cycle.
The goal is a parking plan that assists community safety. OFD says the fire trucks need a minimum width of ten feet on straight streets and at least fourteen feet to round most corners. When OFD cannot get through they will request another fire truck to approach from another direction. This decreases likelihood of saving the person’s life. A young woman’s life was lost earlier in the year when a street was blocked by parked vehicle.
Safety tips:
Nixle alerts for red flag alert days, www.nixle.com
AC Alert: Search for AC Alert on the web, an alert service by Alameda County.
Move your car off the street. Use your driveway.
Use See Click Fix to report missing parking signs. SeeClickFix app is available for iOS and Android.