Oakland becoming a more pedestrian-friendly place

What’s going on?

The Oakland Transportation Management Association, an organization that… What’s going on?

The Oakland Transportation Management Association, an organization that focuses on any person, vehicle or cycle that traverses Oakland’s bustling streets, recently launched work on intersections along the most congested streets in the area, Fifth and Forbes avenues.

Every night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. since the beginning of July, construction crews have been digging up all intersection along the thoroughfares from Fifth Avenue and Thackeray Street to Fifth Avenue and McKee Place (six intersections total), and from Forbes Avenue and South Bouquet Street to Forbes Avenue and McKee Place (five intersections total).

According to Mavis Rainey, the executive director of the OTMA, 120,000 people on average trample through the streets of Oakland every day. They ‘compete,’ she said, with 70,000 vehicles — not including bicycles — on a daily basis.

Now the association is addressing how to organize this flow of travelers better with this ‘Hometown Streets’ project. In the construction endeavor that’s recently been closing the Fifth Avenue sidewalk in front of Towers, the association will see that curb extensions create extra sidewalk space that reaches into the lane of parked cars on the northern sides of Fifth and Forbes avenues and cut down crossing distances for pedestrians wandering across the lanes. Also, new lighting equipment will help calm traffic and will count down to pedestrians when crossing the streets, the project’s Web site said.

Why is this happening?

Mavis Rainey, the executive director of the OTMA, said, ‘We wanted to continue the effort to improve safety and mobility for pedestrians.

‘One of the things we looked at are identifying specific intersections with specific incidents and what the reasons were.’

The association took on the task of relieving ‘visibility difficulties for drivers’ when spotting pedestrians, and it’s attempting to help pedestrians in cases when motorists don’t stop when lights are red or slow down when they’re yellow.

Who’s paying for this?

Most of the money for the project is coming from the state of Pennsylvania, which supports OTMA, a nonprofit organization.

Following crosswalk construction and adding pedestrian interval signals in 2003, when the association worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in improving eight intersections along Forbes Avenue, the association and the City of Pittsburgh applied for more federal funding to address other crosswalks’ needs. They were granted slightly over $1.48 million.

After reaching out to community groups in the neighborhood to find additional dollars to meet the costs, Rainey said both Pitt and UPMC, as well as the Urban Redevelopment Authority, became partners on the project. Together, the groups put up the extra $700,000 to meet the project’s total cost of $2.1 million.’ Pitt alone has provided $250,000′ plus ‘in-kind’ support, non-monetary donations like the use of facilities or staff, for the project, said University spokesman John Fedele.

Rainey added, ‘Private, local and state monies have been used. It’s a collaborative effort, and the community has been behind this.’

Why should Pitt students care?

Pedestrian-vehicle accidents have been not absent around campus during the past few years.

Last year, four people were hit by cars on Fifth Avenue, including two at the intersection of Fifth and Bellefield avenues in North Oakland, according to Pitt police reports.

One pedestrian-vehicle accident occurred this January at Fifth Avenue and Halket Street.

While the risk of pedestrians being hit by cars exists at any busy city intersection, particularly those with high traffic volume like on Fifth Avenue, the Hometown Streets project addresses crosswalks primarily near the UPMC complexes rather than on University territory near high-traffic buildings like the Cathedral of Learning or the William Pitt Union.

The reason for this, Rainey said, is the project’s funding eligibility. Greater grants were available for the association if they improved upon crosswalks near elementary or high schools. In this case, the Frick International Studies Academy, a middle school at Thackeray Street and Fifth Avenue, met the requirement.

The association also looked to benefit a wide range of people, like hospital workers, students, the elderly, hospital-goers and Oakland residents and businesspeople.

‘A much broader mix of folks are coming into those areas,’ she added, addressing why the project targets central Oakland intersections rather than the crosswalks frequented by mostly faculty and students at Pitt’s campus.

‘It’s not a UPMC or Children’s vs. Pitt-based decision,’ Rainey said. ‘It’s truly how we can accommodate a mix of people.’

How will this change Fifth and Forbes avenues?

The crosswalk improvements will make pedestrians who cross the four-lane streets more visible to motorists before they set foot on the blacktop and reduce the time it takes them to cross.

‘ Rainey said it won’t change the traffic patterns much, either, as far as she knows.

Any jam-ups on Fifth or Forbes avenues might be the result of current construction on other roads, like the Boulevard of the Allies, surrounding Oakland.

And the synchronized green lights on Fifth Avenue that roll off one by one from red lights will be ‘enhanced,’ she said, for cars coming down the road.

Despite the project’s improvements, though, ‘Nothing’s going to decrease traffic unless we have fewer folks driving,’ she said.