Foothill Boulevard Traffic Safety Project (23rd Ave to Fruitvale Ave)

Foothill Boulevard is a High-Injury Corridor – one of the 8% of streets responsible for 60% of the severe and fatal collisions in the city. Since 2019, there were 87 crashes reported between 23rd Avenue and Fruitvale Avenue, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a six-year-old and his mother. Foothill Boulevard also provides a vital connection between East Oakland and Downtown Oakland via biking, transit, and driving. AC Transit Line 40, which runs on Foothill, has the third-highest bus ridership in the entire AC Transit system.  

In recent years, the City has installed several pedestrian safety islands, corner sidewalk extensions, and traffic signals/flashing lights on the project corridor. This Paving Project gives the City an opportunity to build even more safety features, since it is funded by Measure U, the City of Oakland’s infrastructure, housing, and paving bond. This funding requires the City to implement the recommendations of the City’s Bike and Pedestrian Plans when we repave a street, where feasible. The City’s Bike Plan recommends Class II buffered bike lanes on Foothill Blvd from 23rd Avenue to Fruitvale Ave. Due to limited roadway space, the Bike Plan recommendation may come with tradeoffs like fewer pedestrian safety islands, less on-street parking, and fewer left-turn lanes.  

In late Summer and Fall 2026, OakDOT will be engaging the community to answer the following questions: 

Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities to engage in the project. 

This project is part of the City of Oakland’s 2022 Five-Year Paving Plan, a more than $300M plan to repair Oakland’s streets. Design and construction are funded by Measure U, Oakland’s 2022 Infrastructure Bond, which requires the City to implement safety improvements with repaving when feasible. For more information, visit our Paving page.

To implement safety improvements on Foothill Boulevard between 23rd Ave and Fruitvale Ave during planned repaving.

This is a Paving Project. All OakDOT Paving Projects include important accessibility and safety improvements, including adding high-visibility crosswalks and upgrading curb ramps to meet ADA standards. Measure U, the City of Oakland’s Infrastructure Bond, requires the City to implement the recommendations of the City’s Bike and Pedestrian Plans along with repaving, where feasible. To add these improvements within the budget and timeframe of a Paving Project, they must be inexpensive and easy to implement. Examples include speed bumps, pedestrian safety islands, flashing crossing lights, new bike lanes, and bus stop improvements.

Paving Projects usually can't include intensive design elements like new traffic signals, widened sidewalks, or street lighting because of their cost to design and build. Paving Projects typically don’t include trees or other plantings, because Public Works is unable to maintain existing plantings in the city due to staffing and funding shortages.  

OakDOT does build more intensive capital improvements via other funding sources, including regional, state, and federal grants. Our Paving Projects, however, can install quick and inexpensive safety improvements while funding for more complex projects is sought.

Almost all traffic safety projects remove some parking to make it easier for drivers to see people walking and biking. The amount of parking removed on the Foothill Project corridor will depend on the general design that is chosen.

The project will be constructed as part of a 2028 paving contract.

Check out our Paving Plan map to see when/if your street is scheduled for repaving as part of the 2022 5-Year Paving Plan. For more information, visit our Paving Plan page.

Visit our Traffic Safety Request page to learn about ways to request safety improvements. You and your neighbors may also be able to apply to build your own improvements, through our Community-Led Traffic Safety (CLTS) pilot program. Visit the CLTS program webpage to learn more and see if your street qualifies. Councilmembers also sometimes have funding dedicated to traffic safety in their district. Contact your Council office for more information.

We want to hear how you use Foothill, what your traffic safety concerns are, and what you think about our two general designs for Foothill Boulevard. This input will be collected during outreach events, via a survey, or by emailing cdeluca@oaklandca.gov. If you have other ideas about how we can engage the community, please let us know! We’re happy to give presentations or walk the corridor with neighbors and other stakeholders.

Sign up for email updates to learn about chances to engage.