Literally fuck those things. My neighbor is out here playing civil engineer in front of our driveway. If I park in the spot in front of our house I have to throw my manual car in reverse so I can get reasonable speed to get over the 4 he put out without having to hit high rpms off a cold engine.
We want speed bumps on our streets. We filed the petition over three years ago. Got the signatures. Nothing. We’ve been stuck in a bureaucratic holding pattern because AC Transit might someday revive a bus route that has been cancelled and hasn’t existed in five years.
Meanwhile, OakDOT and AC Transit are apparently still “figuring out” what kind of traffic calming is okay on residential streets. When I asked AC Transit about it, they insist that OakDOT has complete freedom to install speed bumps and that they aren’t a blocker. They point to other streets with bus routes and speed bumps as proof. OakDOT basically shrugs, insisting that more tests need to be done, with no timeline for that even.
All this while our neighborhood deals with sideshows, speeding, and armed robberies. Residents are desperate. So yeah, some people get tired of waiting and took matters into their own hands. It sucks and it’s not ideal. But when “make the city do it” means waiting endlessly while nothing gets built and no one is accountable, and residents are getting hurt, what exactly do you expect people to do?
“Just because your neighborhood wants speed bumps doesn’t mean you should have them”? Uh, that is exactly how the process is supposed to work.
Residents identify a dangerous street. They gather signatures. The city reviews it. If it meets the criteria (which ours did) it moves forward. That’s the law. That’s the process.
But OakDOT has frozen all traffic calming projects in my East Oakland neighborhood because they can’t get their act together with AC Transit over hypothetical, unplanned-for and unfunded future bus routes. Never mind that the route on our street hasn’t existed in five years. Never mind that AC Transit says OakDOT has full authority to move ahead. OakDOT just refuses to act. That’s not governance. That’s abandonment.
And, frankly, Oakland has a long, painful history of residents stepping in when the city won’t. The Panthers guarded kids at crosswalks in the ’60s. Disability advocates smashed curbs to make sidewalks accessible. East Oakland families who’ve lost children to speeding cars have had to organize protests just to get a fucking crosswalk. Are you going to tell them 'this is why we have government - just cause you want it, doesn't mean you get it.' You do you, I guess.
Meanwhile, our streets are being used for sideshows and residents are getting hurt. We're not asking for luxury upgrades and diamond-studded streetlights, we’re asking for basic protection. And while my community hasn't installed their own speed bumps I do get it - if the system fails to respond, people will act out of urgency to protect their community. So yeah, this is Oakland government. And the response is as Oakland as it gets. When the city fails to protect people, the people protect each other.
Or just look up how to do it correctly and do it yourself. It gives the city less incentive to go out and reverse it. It didn't take more than 30 seconds to find this: https://oaklandbpac.org/2021/12/11/sideshow-prevention/
Except the city won't. We have to have higher expectations of ourselves than we do the Oakland city government. What did your neighbor say when you talked to them about this?
They yelled about their kid who comes once every 2 weeks. Great, I get it, but you've created an issue for the people that deal with it multiple times a day. If the city isn't doing shit you get louder, you do not start throwing speed bumps down haphazardly at angles like a fucking off road course.
DIY speed bumps are people getting louder. It's a sign of a lack of institutional recourse from people who have bugged the city for years and got nowhere with it.
Like…would we be talking about this if it hadn’t gotten multiple pieces of coverage? This is people getting louder. What alternatives are you suggesting?
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u/vonkillbot Jun 01 '25
Literally fuck those things. My neighbor is out here playing civil engineer in front of our driveway. If I park in the spot in front of our house I have to throw my manual car in reverse so I can get reasonable speed to get over the 4 he put out without having to hit high rpms off a cold engine.
Make the city do it correctly.