Oakland's Broadway Auto Row is a strip of land along Broadway between Grand Avenue at the Southwest, and 40th Street to the Northeast. The strip has a history of land use for car dealerships, light industrial businesses, and other automotive service businesses that serve motorists. The businesses and sales in the area are a part of Oakland's economic base. In recent years, the area is seen as ripe for mixed-use development intensification, and other bicycle and pedestrian improvements

Tax Base

With annual tax revenues of more than $3 million for years, the dozen or so dealerships on Broadway have historically been one of the city's largest sources of sales tax revenue. During his term in office, former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown appeared in a series of televised "Buy Oakland" commercials. Notwithstanding Browns public advocacy for Oakland-based businesses, sales taxes on new automobiles sold in California are remitted to the buyer's municipality of residence, no matter where in the state the vehicle was purchased.

Development Intensification

In recent years, real-estate developers, city planning officials, politicians, and others have discussed and made plans to relocate the historic Auto Row to a site at the old Oakland Army Base

Oakland Army Base

The Oakland Army Base, also known as the Oakland Army Terminal, was a former United States Army base in the San Francisco Bay Area of California...

 at the foot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge in West Oakland. Plans are to build a Bay Bridge Auto Mall on 28 acres (113,312.1 m²) at the site.

Transportation Infrastructure

Originally developed as Oakland's first street leading from the Jack London Square waterfront, Broadway remains one of Oakland's busiest streets, carrying copious quantities of peak period private automobile trips, in addition to bus, bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

AC Transit's

AC Transit

AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...

 51A line runs through the area down Broadway to connect the people of the Rockridge

Rockridge, Oakland, California

Rockridge is a residential neighborhood and commercial district in Oakland, California. Rockridge is generally defined as the area east of Telegraph Avenue, south of the Berkeley city limits, west of the Oakland hills and north of the intersection of Pleasant Valley Avenue/51st Street and...

 district, and other neighborhoods of North Oakland

North Oakland, Oakland, California

North Oakland is an area in Oakland, California, bordered by West Oakland, downtown Oakland, Oakland Hills and the adjacent cities of Berkeley, Emeryville and Piedmont. Annexed to Oakland in 1897, it is known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and is the childhood home of both Dr. Huey P....

, with Oakland's Downtown. The 51A line is one of the system's busiest, carrying a large volume of passengers through the corridor.

A lighted, flashing pedestrian crosswalk is located on a long block of Broadway near 30th street, in-between intersections, to give greater visibility to pedestrian traffic in the area.

A Class 2 bicycle lane runs along the right-hand edge of Broadway, but only between 27th Street and MacArthur Blvd. As of the summer of 2008, an Oakland bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization: Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) has advocated for expansion of the bike lane to a greater portion of Broadway.