First off, if you look closely, the police cars overhead lights are on/flashing, which indicates that they're either there on a car-stop, or an emergency call. Not just parked there just because. Secondly, they stop and park slightly out away from the curb for safety reasons, and also if they get an emergency call, they are able to pull away quickly.

This may not be the best photo to represent the problem but this is on going problem. Oakland has almost no traffic control officers that results in more Speeding, reckless driving, driving while drunk or high or both, total disregard for bikes or pedestrians, using bike lanes and open parking stalls as passing lanes, unregistered cars, unlicensed drivers. FYI the police get to park where ever the want for what ever reason because they need to be as close to there cars as possible in this crazy city. Please we need a lot more traffic control officers.

To be clear, I posted this because I am specifically requesting physical infrastructure improvements (physical barriers for bike lanes as a standard in high collision areas), not requesting an increase in policing (which unfortunately has a set of entrenched social costs such as unequal enforcement and police violence). Since I posted this I wanted to be clear about what I am requesting.

Felix, to put up physical barriers to separate the bike lanes from vehicle traffic, particularly if this area is partly residential, would not be acceptable for the people who live around there. Also, if there are any businesses that rely on the street parking, that would cause problems for them as well.

Thanks for making this report Felix, and obstructed bike lanes are indeed a problem both here and in many other locations around the city. This impacts on the safety of many people who use these facilities including kids and families that the city is trying to encourage to bike to school in order to reduce morning congestion and encourage youth to be more physically active.

There is a plan for a small redesign on Bancroft between Church Street and 74th Ave to make the bike lanes more continuous there, as opposed to the existing shared-lane markings, but not much more in the works yet.

Throughout 2017 Oakland will be updating the citywide bicycle master plan, which will determine the priorities for bike network improvements over the next 10 years or so. There will be a lot of community input opportunities both for people who are already biking as well as for everyone else in the neighborhood, to ensure that changes to improve safety don't also result in unintentional negative impacts on others. Stay tuned to the city's website at www.OaklandBikes.info for opportunities to weigh in, or subscribe to the city's email list for updates at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/CAOAKL/subscriber/new?topic_id=CAOAKL_51.

Thanks for the heads up Robert. I'll keep my eye out to stay involved in this process.