A year after Oakland declared that the sorry condition of its bus shelters posed a danger to transit users, a plan is finally in place to remove half of them and better maintain the rest.
Sean Maher, the city’s public information officer, said in an email to The Oaklandside that the city is in the final stages of reviewing and executing a contract with a new vendor, District Works, to take over maintenance from the city’s previous contractor, Clear Channel Outdoor. District Works is an Oakland-based company led by Oakland native Andrew Jones, and Clear Channel Outdoor, known primarily as a billboard company, is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.
At an interagency meeting of Oakland and AC Transit last year, Oakland’s transportation director, Josh Rowan, and parking director, Michael Ford, said they were considering removing the shelters in the worst condition and replacing them with benches. However, local transit advocates pushed back, arguing that it was wrong to remove shelters ahead of the rainy season, and that decision was postponed…