During the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, several communities implemented a trial program called Slow Streets, which slowed traffic on neighborhood streets, allowing for safer neighborhood outdoor activities and social distancing.

In California, San Francisco, Oakwood and Redwood City all enacted Slow Streets programs. The East Coast also got on board with notable cities like Buffalo, N.Y.; Jersey City, N.J.; and Miami Beach, Fla., welcoming Slow Streets.

Redwood City, Calif.

According to Redwood City’s associate engineer Erik Zhen, the city implemented the Slow Streets program shortly after the pandemic started in April or May 2020.

“As a means to give space for people to participate in social distancing,” he said, adding, “Someone in the community saw they had a program in Oakland and asked if we could do something similar, so we did internal surveys.”

Zhen said initially the pilot program was meant to only last a few weeks, so they placed very temporary A-frame signs that stated, “This is a slow street, local traffic only.” The A-frame signs blocked off both entrances to the street on either end.

“They could still drive through; they just had to drive around the A-frames,” he said.

He admitted the city had to replace equipment frequently at first, and the cost to the city initially was approximately $10,000 for A-frames, signs and staff time. Zhen said Redwood City did another set of surveys to determine if the neighborhood wanted to continue with the slow streets program.

“There was a mix of opinions and feedback — some didn’t like it because they couldn’t get on the street as easily.”

Zhen said city officials decided to let the majority of residents decide if they wanted to continue. “If more than 50% of survey respondents (residents had to respond to be counted) wanted to keep it, we’ll keep it.”

Redwood City later replaced the A-frames with more permanent delineator posts. Zhen said engineers take guidance from the city council and the transportation advisory committee.

Malahat Owrang, senior transportation planner for Redwood City, also weighed in, saying the city originally had 12 slow streets.

“Based on survey results, we did eliminate some, modified some and made the rest semi-permanent,” she said.

Currently, there are 10 slow streets, but she said the city is coming to the end of the three-year pilot program, so another survey will go out in January as officials are considering “marrying the slow streets program to another program.”

She explained last summer Redwood City developed a bicycle-pedestrian plan to create bike boulevards. She said since the state and federal COVID emergency has been lifted and the pilot program ended, “We have to make a decision to either fade it out or marry it to another program.”

Owrang said three of the 10 slow streets have already been earmarked to become bike boulevards, so those are treated separately. “Even if we fade out the slow street program, those three corridors will remain capital projects.”

One street has already been transitioned to a bike boulevard. “It was a good example of how a slow street can be easily transitioned to a bike boulevard.”

She said when officials began discussing the bike boulevard program, they looked at the whole city to determine what neighborhoods would be appropriate for a bike boulevard. Some criteria included low traffic volume, low speeds, close proximity to schools and connection to downtown. Three of the slow streets meet that criteria so surveys will be sent to all the slow street neighborhoods in January informing them that the pilot program is ending but telling those three neighborhoods of the potential to become a bike boulevard instead.

Bike boulevards have traffic circles, speed humps, signage and pavement markings. Owrang shared one street has already been turned into a bike boulevard and the city held contests for the residents to submit a design for art inside the traffic circle. She said she got the idea when at a conference in Florida.

The Redwood Art Commission chose the winning designs and Owrang contracted the work. “It took about two to three months. It’s very fun and colorful!”

The difference in cost for slow streets versus bike boulevards is about 10 times more for a bike boulevard.

“It was probably $20,000 for the 10 delineator posts and the bike boulevard cost about $230,000 for engineering, construction, materials, etc.,” she said.

Redwood City Council is “very supportive” of the bike boulevard program, and Owrang said the city received good feedback from the community with the bike boulevard, “especially because it’s right next to an elementary school — any sort of traffic calming close to our schools our council is supportive of.”

She explained the city also has a Vision Zero initiative, prioritized by the city council to eliminate traffic-related deaths and severe injuries. “We are, unfortunately, one of the highest in traffic fatalities and severe injuries, that’s why our city council implemented Vision Zero so any traffic calming and traffic safety (programs) they are on board,” she said.

Owrang pointed out, “From the public’s standpoint the slow streets program was a simple street closure, but behind the scenes, multiple staff hours were spent coordinating with the fire department and emergency responders, coordinating with transit organizations and the school district to maneuver school buses around and lots of communication with the public who were confused at first about what a slow street means.”

She said some residents were concerned about the impact on property values and didn’t like the temporary look of the signs; they were concerned delivery trucks would be confused and not deliver to them, while other neighborhoods loved it and wanted it to expand.

Educating the community took a lot of staff time, Owrang said, and they created brochures and other educational materials that were mailed out.

Redwood City has a population of about 87,000, according to Owrang, but with several major employers in the city, including Stanford University, Google and Oracle, it adds to the traffic. “We’re a very active city,” Owrang said, concluding, “We liked the program. It was a good experience test to see how the community responded and which communities need traffic calming.”

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