Redwood City launches Slow Streets program

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Cities all across the Bay Area are closing streets during the shelter in place order. The goal is to give people the chance to stay close to home, but still be able to get outside without worrying about the dangers of traffic.

It’s called the Slow Streets Program and Redwood City just launched its on Friday.

10 streets within the city are closed to make it safer for people to be outside while giving them more room to maintain their distance.

“Really being able to provide streets in their own neighborhoods where they can get that recreation and physical activity close to home,” said Jessica Manzi, Transportation Manager with the City of Redwood City.

It’s a temporary and soft closure. Emergency vehicles and people who live in these areas can still drive on the blocked off streets, but the hope is there will be less traffic and cars will driver slower in places that need it the most, “We’re prioritizing streets in neighborhoods where we have most residents living and low income neighborhoods,” said Manzi.

Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo, Foster City and Alameda all have their own versions of this program in place too, but one Redwood City man isn’t on board with the move.

“I think their heart is in the right place, but idea is misplaced. It’s a ghost town what’s the point in closing down the street that nobody is on,” asked Michael Fritz.

Manzi said the concern in closing popular streets was that it would cause traffic in other areas, “While it’s true they might not have been busy streets, the advantage of using those streets is when you close them they’re not diverting traffic to a large number of side streets.”

The closures in Redwood City include, C Street, Katherine Avenue, Vera Avenue, Allerton Street, Stambaugh Street, Flynn Avenue, Cypress Street, Page Street and Ebener Street.