CalBike Webinar: Improving our Communities with Slow Streets
The Slow Streets movement wasn’t new when the pandemic hit in 2020. Berkeley had restricted traffic on neighborhood streets that became bike boulevards decades earlier. But the sudden demand for safe space to walk and bike when everyone was staying home fueled a surge in Slow Streets.
Slow Streets are shared spaces where only local car traffic is permitted and people walking, biking, and rolling take precedence in the street. Cars must travel slowly, being mindful of the shared space.
Many of the programs instituted by California cities at the height of the pandemic were temporary, taken down once life began to return to normal. But the experience of the freedom of Slow Streets left a lasting impression and a movement for spaces where kids can safely play in urban environments.
On Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 10 am, CalBike hosted a webinar on Slow Streets as part of our Summit Sessions 2025 series. Robin Pam, from KidSafeSF, and Shannon Hake from the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA) shared experiences from the advocacy and government agency sides of creating and implementing Slow Streets. Justin Hu-Nguyen and Robert Prinz from Bike East Bay discussed a Slow Streets pop-up event that their bike coalition recently did on one of the Berkeley streets designated as a Slow Street during the pandemic.
View the webinar recording below and scroll down to see each presenter’s slides.
Changing the face of San Francisco
Some of the biggest victories for car-free and car-lite streets in California have been in San Francisco in the past few years. Advocates won a car-free JFK Drive through Golden Gate Park, then won it a second time — decisively — when opponents took the fight to the ballot box. More recently, the Great Highway near Ocean Beach, which was car-free during the pandemic, became a permanent park and promenade space.
SFMTA has a program formalizing neighborhood Slow Streets shared by local car traffic and people biking, walking, and rolling, and local advocates continue to work with the city to expand safe spaces for people of all ages to enjoy.
Slow Streets in the East Bay
Bike East Bay recently hosted a pop-up Slow Street on 9th Street in West Berkeley. The street is part of Berkeley’s extensive network of bikeways, and parts of it are a shared Bicycle Boulevard. Advocates see a better way to create a safe space for biking and walking, and their pop-up gave people a chance to experience and provide feedback on potential features for the street in a future redesign.
