The rows of thin plastic posts on International Boulevard are saving lives.
Almost immediately after the Tempo bus line went live on International Boulevard in the summer of 2020, people flagged its dangers, saying drivers were using the dedicated bus lane as a mini-freeway to bypass traffic slowdowns, leading to red-light running at very high speeds — and a rash of pedestrian fatalities.
Finally, starting in the summer of 2024, AC Transit and Oakland’s transportation department added plastic bollards to cut off access to the bus lane. And a new interagency report, released at an interagency meeting of the transit agency and the city on December 10 in Oakland, shows that pedestrian deaths on bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes fell from seven in 2023 to zero so far in 2025, partly due to those bollards and other interventions…