Oakland closing additional streets to cars to promote social distancing

OAKLAND, Calif. (BCN) - Oakland city officials on Thursday announced an additional five miles of streets that will receive soft closures to help support physical distancing during the COVID-19 coronavirus response.

As part of Oakland's Slow Streets program supporting Alameda County's shelter-in-place order, several streets will be closed to vehicle through traffic beginning Friday including E 23rd Street, 26th Avenue, 25th Avenue, E 29th Street, Shafter Avenue, 48th Street, Tiffin Road, Potomac Street, Laguna Avenue, Carmel Street, Coolidge Avenue, Morgan Avenue, Maple Avenue, Wisconsin Street, Patterson Avenue, Bayo Street and portions of Sheffield Avenue, Webster Street and Steele Street.

On Friday, the streets will receive barriers, cones and signage indicating they are closed to through traffic.

The city launched the program on April 10 to support physical distancing for travel on foot wheelchair and bicycle and has since performed soft closures on about 20 miles of roadways, city officials said.

A map of all Oakland streets impacted by the closures can be found at www.oaklandca.gov/projects/oakland-slow-streets.