Intelligent Transportation Systems - City of Oakland

development, and relinquished a portion of its right-of-way alongside the project.
Creative financing was tapped throughout the project; for example, since the Unity
Council was ineligible for Federal Transit Administration grants for the child-care center,
BART accepted the funds and allocated them to the Unity Council. The sustained public
involvement in the project, led by the Unity Council, was creative and effective.
Furthermore, transit-oriented development was shown to successfully stimulate
economic development and promote environmental justice in a low-income urban
community.
As the City of Oakland develops its Citywide ITS Strategic Plan, the current traffic
impacts of the Fruitvale Transit Village itself should be considered, as should the
important lessons from the project process, articulated above.
Safe Routes to School Program (Example of LOCAL ACCESS)
California’s Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Program allocates $25 million per year of
funding to safety-related transportation improvements in several categories, such as
sidewalk improvements, traffic calming and speed reduction, pedestrian and bicycle
crossing improvements, and traffic diversion improvements. The projects are intended
to reduce childhood injuries and fatalities, to reduce childhood obesity, to reduce risk of
later cardiovascular disease and respiratory illnesses, and to connect children with their
communities and natural environment.
The City of Oakland was awarded a SR2S grant for $459,000 in 1999, for modifying and
installing traffic signals, installing crosswalk lights, and constructing bulb-outs at 20
Oakland schools. The City was also awarded a SR2S grant for $449,500 in 2000 to
continue the program for 14 more Oakland schools. The Citywide ITS Strategic Plan
could provide more opportunities for continuing the SR2S initiative. For example, bicycle
detection technologies, such as video detection, have recently been evaluated in the
Bay Area. Video detection for bicycles provides bicyclists, especially left-turning cyclists,
a safe and protected method for crossing busy intersections. Signal timings can be
adjusted accordingly to accommodate the cyclists during school beginning and dismissal
times. The City is implementing video detection for vehicles at newly installed signals
citywide; thus, incorporating bicycles into the video detection would be cost-effective.
Other ITS technologies, such as mobile DMS discussed later in Section 4, safely reroute
vehicles around or away from schools during incidents or emergencies.
Coliseum AMTRAK Intercity Rail Station (Example of REGIONAL ACCESS)
A new Amtrak train station is being proposed for the Oakland Coliseum area across from
the Coliseum BART station on San Leandro Street. The station will be served by
Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor trains. The station will be multimodal, facilitating transfers
between Amtrak, BART, AC Transit, and eventually the BART connector to Oakland
Airport. A pedestrian ramp will connect to the existing elevated walkway between the
Coliseum BART station and the Coliseum.
The City’s ITS deployment surrounding the Coliseum area should take the presence of
this new Amtrak station into account. For example, pick-up and drop-off activity can be
facilitated by various ITS applications such as DMS during incidents or Coliseum events.
Traveler information kiosks can provide instant information regarding Airport travel and
incidents on the adjacent roadways.
City of Oakland ITS Strategic Plan
18 September, 2003