Introduction
The Franklin Street Paving Project will repave Franklin Street from 6th Street to Broadway. The project will also implement the City's 2019 Bicycle Plan recommendation by installing a separated bike lane on the East side of Franklin Street between 11th Street and 22nd Street/Broadway. It will repurpose one lane of vehicle traffic to narrow this high-speed roadway, calm traffic, and shorten pedestrian crossings.
Project Rationale
OakDOT prioritizes roadway safety improvements based on safety needs, coordination with other projects, and geographic location in high-equity priority neighborhoods. With a dense concentration of vehicle collisions on Franklin Street, this street is on the City's High Injury Network (HIN) which represents the 6% of Oakland's streets that account for over 60% of severe and fatal crashes. Repurposing a lane of travel on Franklin will shorten pedestrian crossing distances, slow vehicle speeds, and allow less opportunity for reckless driving/speeding. These improvements will target aggressive speeding which led to vehicles crashing into Wise Sons Deli (Franklin and 17th Streets) two times in 2023 and 2022.
This project bisects two of Oakland's Highest Equity Priority Census Tracts per the City's Geographic Equity Toolbox, which takes several demographic factors into account to target investment in the highest-need neighborhoods in the City. This project will connect to several ongoing projects including the 14th Street Safety Project, the 19th Street BART to Lake Merritt Urban Greenway Project (on 20th Street), and the Telegraph Avenue KONO Corridor Project. These connections will form a complete grid of slow, calm streets in Downtown Oakland that are prioritized for people walking, biking and taking transit. This grid of connected streets will allow residents of these high-equity priority neighborhoods to travel safely around and into/out of Downtown Oakland.
Schedule
- Outreach - Summer 2024
- Construction - Fall 2024
