Eyes on the Street: First Look at Oakland’s ‘Slow Streets’
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This past weekend marked the start of Oakland’s ‘slow streets’ program, designed to give people more space to get some exercise while maintaining social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Oakland’s ‘Slow Streets’ remain open to motorists who are accessing their homes, but drivers are required to take them slowly. The city has stressed that these streets are available for local residents only.
Faces from #OaklandSlowStreets today pic.twitter.com/OrrWdM3nAc
— Bike East Bay (@BikeEastBay) April 11, 2020
As Bike East Bay’s Dave Campbell pointed out in Streetsblog’s story on Friday, it’s also an opportunity for advocates to volunteer in their neighborhoods to help keep things going smoothly. Below is a picture of some of those advocate-volunteers from over the weekend. Extra points if you recognize who’s who behind those stylish masks:
Oakland followed the principle of “keep it simple stupid” and closed streets using a few signs, as seen below:
In some cases these were backed up by paper signs taped to poles:
West Street, where the above two photos were taken, was quiet today (on a workday) but apparently had some local activity over the weekend, as this photo from Oakland DOT shows:
Oakland is leading the pack nationally with these plans, but a few other cities across the country are also opening streets in this way, such as Boston and Minneapolis. New York attempted an abortive “pilot” open-streets program, but as Streetsblog NYC’s editors opined, so over-policed them as to defeat the purpose of promoting exercise while social distancing. And San Francisco, as mentioned, has so far spurned even something as simple as closing Golden Gate Park to cars.
For more information on Oakland’s program, check out the city’s ‘slow streets’ page.
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