Description

Hi there. I am writing to you after I was almost killed crossing Broadway at 24th. Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration: everyone else in the road saw what happened and stopped to make sure I was ok. I was crossing the street at the same time as another person, who activated the flashing beacons, and cars were coming to a stop at the intersection, but the car traveling north on Broadway in the lane next to the parked cars sped through at around 40 miles per hour and came within inches of me. This is so far from an anomaly on this street: my partner and I have lived in the Packard Lofts at 24th and Broadway for six months and have heard or witnessed numerous crashes. The flashing beacons give a false sense of security to non-vehicle road users--around half of drivers fail to stop for them. I'm wondering if more true traffic calming is possible for this intersection? Could the city install an actual traffic light, or create bulb-outs at the crosswalk to slow traffic? I am open to chatting more about potential solutions (also, I work for SFMTA's Livable Streets Division, so am not a stranger to what's possible). I know this section of Broadway is on Oakland's High Injury Network, and hope that there are plans in the work to make this whole street safer. I'm lucky that I didn't become yet another statistic today.