Oakland is about to redesign one of its most dangerous roads—and you get to vote on the final plan
73rd Avenue's big rebuild to add bike paths and reconfigure vehicle lanes is down to three options. Oakland is planning to redesign 73rd Avenue, one of the city's most dangerous streets, with five days left for public input. The public can choose between three design options, including a two-way bike path in the middle of 73rd, a "local access lane," or a regular Class II-A buffered bike lane, without physical barriers separating cyclists from vehicle lanes. The second option would add concrete strips to separate the roadway in each direction in two parts, with the right-hand lane becoming a slower frontage road that locals, cyclists, and businesses can use. The project, officially named the “73rd Avenue Active Routes to Transit” will also include new painted crosswalks and bus boarding islands. If approved, construction could begin as early as 2026.
Published : a month ago by Jose Fermoso in
Oakland is seeking public input on its plans for a big redesign of 73rd Avenue between Macarthur Boulevard and International Boulevard—and there are five days left for residents to vote.
The choice is important for the future of East Oakland. Seventy-Third Avenue is an arterial road, which residents, industry, and public transit agencies use heavily. It’s also one of Oakland’s most dangerous streets based on the number of collisions that lead to severe injuries and deaths. Around 153 people were involved in collisions while walking, biking, and driving on 73rd between MacArthur and International between 2019 and 2023.
Once the public votes online for one of three possible designs, engineers will submit a grant application to local and regional funders to pay for construction. If the grant is awarded, the city could break ground as early as 2026.
People can choose from three main design options until next Monday, Apr. 1.
One option has a two-way bike path in the middle of 73rd, which may also include a path for pedestrians.
The second option—called a “local access lane”—would add concrete strips to separate the roadway in each direction in two parts, with the right-hand lane becoming a slower frontage road that locals, cyclists, and businesses can use.
The third option would add a regular Class II-A buffered bike lane, without physical barriers separating cyclists from vehicle lanes, but with a wider painted area, rather than the narrow painted bike lane that’s currently in place.
The city considers the project critical to improving road safety in a highly populated, historically underserved part of Oakland. It would connect the Eastmont Transit Center, located next to government and social services offered at Eastmont Mall, to other major transit and community hubs in East Oakland, like the Coliseum BART station and International Boulevard’s transit and retail options.
Officially called the “73rd Avenue Active Routes to Transit” project, the road redesign will include other improvements besides bike paths. Newly painted crosswalks would be added throughout 73rd, as well as bus boarding islands, which are sidewalks extended into the road to help people get on and off the bus faster and make the road narrower, encouraging drivers to slow down.
An earlier failure to secure funding for transforming the road led to a bigger, bolder concept
In 2022, OakDOT submitted a 73rd Avenue planning grant to the California Transportation Commission’s Active Transportation `Program that sought funding for buffered bike lanes and new protected intersections. The commission rejected that grant request, however, and Oakland did not receive an ATP grant during that fifth cycle of the grant program, which provided $440 million to California communities.
Charlie Ream, OakDOT’s acting lead for the 73rd Avenue project, told the Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission last week that this rejection forced his team to reimagine the corridor in a way that would be more impactful to the East Oakland community and would catch the CTC’s attention. What they came up with is a $25 million overhaul of the road.
At that bike and pedestrian commission meeting, OakDOT staff told the commissioners they’re hoping residents vote for the local access lane or median cycle track options because these designs would create a much safer street than relying only on a buffered bike lane.
The local access lane design is unique because it takes away a driving lane from the regular traffic by adding a concrete strip, creating a new single-lane frontage road next to the sidewalk. On the left side of the strip, vehicles can travel at higher rates of speed while on the right side, speeds are much slower and traffic is limited to people who live on the block or need to temporarily park their cars to shop or make deliveries. Bicyclists and people using scooters can also travel in this lane. The local lanes also force drivers to merge in and out of them at each block, which will prevent people from using the right side as a shoulder lane to bypass traffic, like people currently do illegally in International Boulevard’s rapid bus lanes.
Ream told the bike and pedestrian commission that this design was inspired by work in San Jose on 10th and 11th Streets, where several local access lanes were added in 2021. San Jose’s outreach at the time of construction highlighted the street design’s ability to keep people on bikes and scooters safer because they are able to travel in the local lanes and stay to the right at intersections without needing to enter the main roadway where cars and traveling at faster speeds.
A San Jose spokesperson told The Oaklandside the city saw a 6.28 mph reduction for measured vehicle speeds on 11th Street after adding the local access lane.
“We are really enthusiastic about this design application on 73rd Avenue,” Ream said about how the local access lane option could increase safety. “We’re working with the communities to achieve a full understanding of the benefits and the drawbacks of this approach.”
The other option favored by OakDOT, the median cycle track, is similar to the $35 million Bancroft Avenue project. That project will include a pathway that cyclists and pedestrians can use, but it does not have a fence to separate it from vehicles on both sides of the road, similar to West Oakland’s Mandela Parkway median.
OakDOT planners say they are analyzing whether the median cycle track on 73rd would be easy for cyclists to access and how pedestrians could use it, if that makes sense at all.
BPAC meeting attendees asked the planners to consider adding “quick build” improvements to 73rd Avenue to improve conditions and save lives by slowing down cars for the next two years while city seeks grant funding and gears up for construction. Some also want the city to reduce the speed limit on the street, which is currently 30 mph.
There are people in East Oakland who do not want the city to reduce the number of lanes on 73rd to slow down cars. Kaye Mraz, a volunteer for the Eastmont Neighborhood Council, told The Oaklandside that OakDOT planners spoke to the community and that many people told them they want to keep the wide lanes, even though they’re known to lead to more violent collisions.
“We like to be able to change lanes and we don’t wanna feel locked in. In Oakland, things happen, and you want to be able to get out of the way,” Mraz said. “Most importantly, this is a thoroughfare to the airport, so we need to keep the traffic moving at a reasonable speed.” Mraz said she would oppose the city reducing the speed on the street below 30 mph.
The East Oakland resident said that if OakDOT decides on a design, they’d prefer the median bike lane because it would protect cyclists.
“I understand bikes are important, but we hardly have any bicycles going down 73rd,” said Mraz. “That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have them, but they need to be separated from the cars.”