San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Seniors thrive when cities make streets more walkable
Similar to other cities with aging populations, Oakland has embarked on an initiative to create a “livable community for all ages.” Last year, the Mayor’s Commission on Aging hosted a series of listening sessions to hear from seniors on how to improve the city’s efforts on age-friendly considerations, such as transportation, housing, employment, civic engagement, outdoor spaces, social participation, community and health services. Those 65 and older constitute 13 percent of Oakland residents, a share expected to grow rapidly.
I have found in my research that walkable neighborhoods and good public transportation help elders thrive. Given that many of Oakland’s seniors are poor and/or racial and ethnic minorities at greater risk of linguistic isolation, I hope the city makes pedestrian safety a priority.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has written legislation to ensure safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists that would go a long way toward advancing that goal. Senate Bill 127 would require Caltrans to include features such as sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks as part of road maintenance and improvement projects on state-owned highways, such as Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco and MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland.
“These highways are disguised as neighborhood streets, but they’re death traps,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of the advocacy organization Walk San Francisco.
I think a lot about Oakland’s elder residents during my walks in the city. Like the low-income seniors I study, I don’t drive and rely on foot and public transportation for work and my daily errands. Walking to BART from my home on High Street, I love strolling past the street vendors serving steaming cups of champurrado and peeking into the shops and garages on International Boulevard. Passersby greet me with an easy smile, a head nod, a friendly “hello” or “buenos días.”
But traffic hazards nick away at this glorious street life.
Daily, I discover more car debris littering the street from the previous day’s fender-benders: A spray of broken windshield glitters like bits of aquamarine at the Foothill Boulevard intersection. Ruby pieces of a smashed taillight sparkle in the sun. Ripped-off front bumpers and tire rims pile at curbs. Sooty tire tracks cut across the corner where I wait for the stoplight to change. I shudder to think about the path charted by an elder, a person with disabilities or someone with children in tow. In California, pedestrian fatalities of people age 65 and older increased almost 20 percent from 2015 to 2016.
My walks in East Oakland, compared with those in San Francisco, Berkeley and Alameda, have convinced me that Oakland can — and must — do better to ensure pedestrian safety and not only for older adults but for residents of all ages and abilities. Across the bay, San Francisco’s Vision Zero initiative provides a blueprint for prioritizing pedestrian safety.
That citywide effort seeks to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by designing and building safer streets, enforcing traffic laws and educating the public. Bright yellow banners on Nob Hill lampposts show figures crossing with wheelchairs and walkers. “Drive slow. Seniors crossing,” they read in English, Spanish and Chinese. Walking from my home across the Fruitvale Bridge to Alameda, about 2 miles away, I discover other measures that could improve pedestrian safety in my corner of East Oakland. Busy Park Street contains generous helpings of pedestrian warning lights sprinkled between light-controlled crosswalks, spaced two and three blocks apart. At the push of a button, a walker can stop traffic as needed.
Berkeley has installed similar lights at some busy intersections. Contrast this safety bounty with the sparse traffic lights on High Street to slow speeding cars between Interstates 580 and 880. Crossing is nearly impossible when the bus drops me off after dark. Other major corridors such as Foothill and MacArthur boulevards could benefit from improved crossings, though the new Bus Rapid Transit system going in on International Boulevard between San Leandro and downtown Oakland promises some new safety features (along with fears of gentrification).
Such stark divides reflect decades of inequality between Oakland’s poor and working-class flatlands and more affluent areas of the Bay Area. Remedying these inequities is long overdue. But traffic dangers will not fix themselves.
The Safe Transportation and Education Center at UC Berkeley recommends walking audits to assess pedestrian conditions and collect important data that can inform urban planning around pedestrian safety. Roads built to move cars, not pedestrians, will require deliberate effort to adapt to more walkers and cyclists.
We have pressing incentives to the improve pedestrian safety: Climate change necessitates reduced dependence on vehicles. Millennials and older adults both want to live in walkable areas. Investments now will pay off in the future well-being of generations. Improving walk-ability not only protects people from injury in traffic accidents, it also provides a free and accessible way to improve cardiovascular health through exercise and emotional health by decreasing social isolation, a concern for older adults living alone.
Finally, improving pedestrian safety promotes stronger community bonds. Encouraging greater commingling of residents is a worthy goal, especially given the unease stirred by rapid gentrification. Walk-ability improves community engagement and access to cultural resources in the built environment, such as plazas, murals, parks, food carts and small businesses. People are the key ingredient in making the built environment a place. In time, the familiar strangers you greet on the street can become neighbors. But that potential rests on safe passage for pedestrians. If we want to nurture the vibrancy of urban life in Oakland and cities across the Bay Area, we need to address pedestrian safety now.