• On-street parking is important to a broad range of users from long-term residents without off-street parking to business owners and visitors. It’s particularly important to users with accessibility needs. Spaces for home health caretakers and for loading and unloading groceries are important, especially for seniors and people with disabilities.
• There are concerns about loading and deliveries blocking bike lanes, including on the Fifth and Forbes corridor, O’Hara Street, and North Oakland streets such as Bayard St.
• There are concerns about vehicles that often double-park on the street.
• There is a lack of space for pick-ups/drop-offs along select corridors.
• There are concerns about illegal curb cuts, such as at non-permitted parking lots.

Purpose and Goals

• Oakland’s transportation landscape at the curbside must meet the needs of a variety of users and services, including people walking and rolling, parked cars, deliveries, ride-hail apps, and micromobility.
• Oakland has many different demands on its valuable curbside space, and curbside management is needed to systematically prioritize and proactively allocate finite and limited curbside space to balance a variety of uses including residential, commercial, mixed use, or industrial
• Curbside management in Oakland is fundamentally about creating an organizational scheme that improves mobility and safety for all via prioritized and optimized curb space use
• In high demand locations such Fifth and Forbes Avenue, Oakland must ultimately ask users to trade proximity for time
• Curbside regulations can put a price or a time limit on convenience
• There are six essential functions of the public right of way that are essential to Greater Oakland’s curbside management:

1. Mobility –the movement of people and goods
2. Access for People—people arriving at a destination or transferring between modes
3. Access for Commerce—goods and services reach customers and markets
4. Activation—offers vibrant social spaces
5. Greening—enhances aesthetics and environmental health
6. Storage—storage of vehicles and equipment

Process

• A general curb space allocation selection process for Oakland is as follows:

1. Inventory existing conditions, including condition of the curb, illegal curb cuts, and street trees beside curbs, to understand current curbside uses and infrastructure constraints
2. Identify land use and activity considerations to develop modal prioritization and modal demand for curb space
3. Identify possible curb space reallocation scenarios
4. Assess and present alternatives for public feedback
5. Refine and implement treatments

• Greater Oakland can successfully improve transit operations, especially for the new Downtown-Uptown-Oakland- East End Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, by using the following strategies to manage the curb:
  • Reallocating on-street parking space to other uses, including pick-up/drop-off zones for ride hail vehicles, or non-transportation uses including “streateries”,expanded sidewalk space, or curb bump-outs with green infrastructure
  • Providing space for transit stops amenities including shelters, seating, and transit information
  • Reconsidering the location of loading zones to support businesses and accommodate deliveries
  • Considering areas surrounding commercial corridors to minimize neighborhood disruption while identifying opportunities for deliveries on appropriate side streets

What should be considered

• Curb space is flexible and can be changed quickly, temporally, and iteratively to best serve ever-changing corridor priorities. For instance, deliveries might be prioritized at a certain time of day, while visitors to area restaurants and retail could be prioritized at other times.
• Create a Curbside Management team to make decisions about where and when to manage the curb for disabled access, commercial loading, shuttle zones, passenger pick up and drops offs and other various curb zones, in consultation with community stakeholders and resident representatives. Because curbside regulations, enforcement, and adjudication are handled by different agencies, a curbside management team comprising representatives from all affected agencies would be well-positioned to coordinate and manage the dynamic needs of the curbside space.
  • In Seattle, Transit-Oriented Development staff decide whether vehicles are allowed to “park” and the Curbside Management Team makes decisions about the type of curb regulations to install and maintain.
  • Curbside changes can be sustained and expanded when decision-makers and stakeholders are informed about the tradeoffs involved in curbside use. Planning, outreach, and program evaluation can build the success of the program.
• Tradeoffs and the Oakland community context should be analyzed
  • A solution that works in the urban core may not be appropriate for an auto centric business campus or an institutional area
• Oakland can consider the following strategies for commercial streets in Oakland:
  
  • Removing metered parking and replacing with designated ride-hail, private shuttle services, or delivery zones
  • Reallocating curb space from on-street parking in the urban core to more productive uses like pick-up/drop-off/delivery zones, micromobility corrals, or bicycle parking
  • Consider dedicated delivery pickup/drop off in areas with high demand/community generators (e.g., Sennott Street)
  • Considering price changes and time-limit adjustments for different uses in metered areas to balance supply and demand and incentivizing turnover in high demand or institutional areas (see Performance Based Parking Strategy for more information)
  • Consider adjustments and time-restricted limits, such as 5am-8am dedicated for deliveries and after 8am used for office and commercial uses
  • Times may be adjusted based on how the Oakland community uses curb space in respective times and areas
  • Consider how price changes and time limit adjustments for on-street parkingcan be used to encourage garage parking
  • Identifying short-term parking opportunities including providing temporary parking spaces on parcels slated for new development
  • Buses and bikes use curb space for very short amounts of time per rider but need space on main streets and should be considered for BRT implementation, including the two-way cycle track in the Fifth and Forbes corridors
  • Freight loading, for-hire passenger access, carshare, drop-offs and pick-ups in private shuttles, and short-term car parking can be moved down the block/ around the corner from destination buildings
  • Provide commercial loading zones at the right time of day and at the right price, especially in service alleys and highly commercialized urban areas in Central Oakland
  • Short-term parking and loading zones, often unpriced, are effective in combination with priced longer-term metered spaces
• Develop pricing policies to regulate curb space and incentivize equitable distribution of micromobility access, including areas in Oakland with mobility hubs
• Residential streets
  • Refer to the Manage On Street Parking Summary Sheet for residential parking adjustments
  • Identify curbside locations for mobility hubs with e-scooters and bikeshare bikes in residential areas with high pedestrian demand and the potential for last-mile connections
  • Dedicated freight loading zones in dense residential areas can reduce slow-downs on transit routes caused by blocked travel lanes and should be considered on streets with PAAC bus service
  • Consider providing rideshare spaces, including access for people with disabilities, as well as delivery and loading spaces, on residential streets, per outcomes of the curbside inventory and analysis
• Automated enforcement
  • Consistent, predictable, and unbiased automated enforcement is demonstrated to improve the efficiency of the entire street, and can be a strategy to improve transit service reliability
  • Automated enforcement requires procedural evaluation to ensure that Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) communities and lower-income neighborhoods are not disparately impacted. Evaluation of the appropriate neighborhoods and safety needs in Oakland for automated enforcement is essential
• The lowest effective fine for transit lane or parking violations should be used

What success looks like/potential for multiple benefits

• There are many essential benefits and ways to evaluate the success of curbside management programs in Oakland:
  • Reduces congestion
  • Speeds PAAC transit and BRT
  • Decreases greenhouse gas emissions
  • Saves people time
  • Improves safety for pedestrians and cyclists
  • Enhances access
  • Improves neighborhood commercial vitality
• Monitoring may include near-term proxy data analysis as well as longer term statistical trend assessment:
  • Mobility
  • Fewer blocked bike facilities
  • Fewer blocked transit lanes
  • Improved transit reliability
  • Reduced private vehicle ownership
  • Livability
  • Additional park/green space provided
  • Enhance public space activation
  • Accessibility
  • Reduced use of loading or parking zones for disabled persons
  • Fewer ADA lawsuits
  • Disabled loading and parking implemented and prioritized
  • Safety
  • Fewer near-miss conflicts
  • Fewer curb-access-related crashes
  • Reduced ped/bike conflicts
  • Efficiency
  • Innovative technology in place for efficacy monitoring
  • Public-private stakeholder body assembled and functioning

What pitfalls should be avoided

• Intensive community outreach needs to be conducted prior to any changes to the curb space, especially with Oakland’s BIPOC communities and historically underserved communities and neighborhoods.

1. In Oakland, Black residents are most represented in West Oakland, Asian residents are most represented in North Oakland, and white residents are most represented in Central Oakland.
2. South Oakland most closely represents the city’s overall racial and ethnic breakdown
• If pricing or time limit changes are proposed, the public should be informed well in advance of the changes, the rationale behind the changes should be transparent (increase curb space availability)
• Supporting street design changes with a curbside management system is a way to make sure that shifts to sustainable citywide mobility do not come at the expense of quality public space, mobility, or small business needs, especially in the Fifth and Forbes corridors
• Curbside demands will continue to change as technological and business practices change, but communities in Oakland can remain in the position of determining how their curbside space is allocated. Residents should have a seat at the table in these discussions.

When to start: 0-2 years

Duration: Ongoing

Estimated costs: $$ (out of $$$$)

Project lead(s): DOMI

Project partner(s): DCP, Pittsburgh Parking Authority, Magisterial District Court for Allegheny County (Fifth Judicial District of Pennsylvania), institutions

Potential funding source(s): City Capital Budget, grants