Hello there neighbors and fellow residents of Oakland,

The intersection of San Leandro St & High St in East Oakland desperately needs  turn lights in it's traffic lights. 

I am a resident of East Oakland and like many others use this streets / intersection to get to and from work every day, I sometimes can avoid it but not always.  

This intersection is downright dangereous to say the least, it is so busy, all day, every day, for both going straight and turning, that people end up using the corner gas station to make turns, making illegal turns on double yellow lines, driving on the wrong side of the road for a while, etc. just to avoid the long wait to be able to turn on this intersection.  I see thee this almost every time I drive here.

Most people use it to get to the freeway or home, so of course, people need to turn, the inability to turn on this intersection makes it so most people wait until the light is yellow or red to turn (or end up doing what I explained above)  All of this is very dangerous and totally unnecessary if we just had TURN LIGHTS.

I have called and emailed the issue and request to the Oakland department of Transportation several times and although I know they are busy with a lot of current street work, I feel like this is urgent.  I was told that they would take my report to their engineering department for review and to call back in 2-4 weeks to find out if it they thought this was a good idea, necessary or feasible/approved (?).

I have about 2 decades of volunteer work in community organizing and activism, so I thought I would put those skills to work and get the locals involved by start this signature petition, hopefully this way the ODT can see that the need for the turn lights is real and urgent for all the local residents that use this intersection. 

We have a lot of work to do in improving our underserved communities in this city, specially the ones located in East Oakland, we all understand that is urgent that we make our streets safer for all residents in these communities, we want to make sure our city officials and governing departments are aware of these realities and do something about it.  Regardless of household income and/or tax revenue.

Thank you for reading, signing and sharing this petition! 

All the best,

Claudia Marissa Schultz