More Bus Rapid Transit for Oakland

Earlier this week Oakland City Council unanimously approved plans for a Bus Rapid Transit line along International Boulevard. The buses will have a dedicated center lane, so service can be faster and more dependable. Plus more crosswalks, bulb-outs and bike lanes — what’s not to love?

Assessing the economic viability of a potential BRT line on International was part of the larger Complete Streets internship project that got me involved with transportation planning about a year ago now, so this news is particularly exciting.

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“Resistance is exhausting”

This summer Mills College launched a program called Investing in Oakland @Mills. The idea was to get Mills students teamed up with organizations in Oakland. Each project was supervised by a Mills faculty member or staff person and a person from the outside organization, and hired 4 or 5 interns.

I was selected to intern with the Oakland Department of Public Works. The bulk of my internship consisted of researching Complete Streets, Better Streets and Green Streets, three different public infrastructure paradigms. Three different ways of deciding how to make a street more than a place the most possible cars can drive and park on. There’s a lot I could say about the research, but for now I’ll just give you one takeaway: whether you want your streets to be Complete, Green or Better, planting trees is a solid start.

I’m also a Doctor Who fan.

So imagine my excitement when this week’s episode featured Gibbis, a gopher-ish fellow from the planet Tivoli, “the most invaded planet in the galaxy.”

Gibbis works in town planning, “lining the highways with trees, so invading forces can march in the shade.”

That’s me! That’s my job, too!

It’s so nice to see yourself represented on TV.

For a more informative and less nerdy take on how I spent my summer vacation, check out this article from The Campanil, the Mills newspaper:

Summer interns invest in Oakland by Heather McDaniel