The city of Richmond wants to deter reckless drivers — in this case those who like to spin “donuts” — as part of an ongoing effort to make its streets safer for all.
From 2023 through July 2025, the city received nearly 80 requests to address the problem of curb donuts and sideshows, according to Janney Lockman, project manager of the city’s new Donut Deterrence Program.
The program expects to target six intersections: the entrance of Atchison Village at First Street and West Macdonald Avenue and two blocks away at Curry Street; May Road and Santa Rita Road in east Richmond; 24th Street and Esmond Avenue in the North and East; South Second Street and Maine Avenue; and South Second Street and Florida Avenue two blocks away in the Santa Fe neighborhood.
“People complain about what is in front of their house,” said Gail Payne, senior transportation planner for the city. “We’re trying to balance what happens at those intersections with what’s happening on major streets.”
When they start deploying more anti-donut measures, the city hopes to emulate its success with road markings and safety obstacles installed at Key Boulevard and Barrett Avenue as part of its citywide Traffic Calming Program pilot project, where they installed a traffic circle and curb extensions to thwart reckless driving and improve pedestrian safety. People shared their concerns about reckless driving at that intersection in 2022, and the deterrents were installed two years later.
Acknowledging that addressing people doing donuts in their cars is more of a quality-of-life issue, Payne said the city’s top priority is making its roads safer for drivers, pedestrians and others.
“That’s where we struggle with balance,” Payne said.
The city’s public works department has a long list of unfunded capital projects, but staff members are attempting to address citizen complaints cost-effectively while prioritizing the most serious concerns.
Traffic calming measures to be installed near high-injury corridors
The city examined crash data and found that during a six-year-period ending in 2025 there were an average of six fatal crashes and 31 with severe injuries every year. During that time there was an average of 49 crashes involving pedestrians and 32 involving bicyclists every year.
City officials found that 63% of those crashes occurred on only 8% of city roads. Those “high-injury corridors” include the city’s usual suspects: Barrett Avenue, Cutting Boulevard, Macdonald Avenue, San Pablo Avenue, and 22nd and 23rd streets, where just recently an 81-year-old man was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while in a crosswalk on Hellings Avenue.
But they also happened on smaller sections of roads including Harbour Way South, Seventh Street, 13th Street and Lincoln Avenue.
Plotted on a map, the collisions resulting in severe injury or death happened near where the donut deterrence measures are planned.
Public Works Director Daniel Chavarria said that adding safety measures at one intersection could have ripple effects in another, like how a roundabout to curb donuts also forces drivers to slow down. But, he said, when it comes to people doing stunts in their cars like donuts, you can’t just ask drivers to move along.
When trying to thwart sideshows and other forms of reckless driving, cities prefer to opt for the cheapest methods — education and enforcement — before committing to the longer, more expensive approach of engineering a solution. But they’ve found drivers spinning donuts takes more nuance.
“The problem with donuts is that you can educate and enforce, and they just move to the next intersection,” Chavarria said.
Lockman said the donut deterrence project is in the concept design phase as the consultant, Kimley-Horn, determines which measures could have the greatest impact, with costs varying widely from $20,000 to $300,000 per intersection. The city plans to start the projects “as funding is available.”
One such funding source could be the $550 million settlement from Chevron. But Chavarria said the city has about $1.5 billion in infrastructure needs, so it needs to look at cost-effective ways to make the biggest impact.
“There’s a lot of needs in the city, and we can solve several problems with single objects,” Chavarria said.
That’s what they’ve learned through their Traffic Calming Program. The city has completed projects, mostly speed humps, and installed flashing pedestrian crossing beacons on Carlson Boulevard. The last part of that project is adding striping and improving signage at the Point Richmond rail crossings on Cutting Boulevard from South Garrard to Hoffman boulevards, an area that also attracts drivers who spin their cars in circles.
Donut barriers: Downside is they can impede emergency vehicles
But city planners can’t just start putting barriers in the streets to ward off stunt drivers. After the concept is designed, it goes through an internal review process with other departments, such as the police and fire departments, who need to be able to quickly drive their vehicles through city streets with as few impediments as possible.
In late fall 2025, the city tested ways to prevent reckless driving at South 37th Street and Wall Avenue by installing curb extensions and striping. Before making the changes permanent, public works worked with the fire department to ensure that large emergency vehicles such as a ladder truck could still safely and quickly make it through the area.
The proposed street remediations are to combat what’s typically one or two cars spinning out at a time, not the large-scale sideshows more often seen in other East Bay cities such as Oakland or Vallejo.
While sideshows spiked in Richmond during the height of the pandemic in 2022 with 129, that number is down 50% in recent years, according to Richmond Police Department dispatch report data previously analyzed by Richmondside. That same data shows there have been 18 reports of sideshows to Richmond police so far in 2026 but few were confirmed.
Police data shows West Cutting and Canal boulevards just outside Point Richmond are a popular spot for sideshows. That intersection isn’t currently on the donut program list.
Sideshows — or even single cars doing donuts — often draw the ire of neighbors and result in more calls to city officials, who then direct staff to respond, Chavarria said.
Not all residents see donuts as a problem
But some neighbors who live near the intersections the city is targeting for its prevention efforts say city resources could be spent better elsewhere.
Richard Graham has lived near 24th Street and Esmond Boulevard for 20 years. He said there used to be more people doing donuts but that’s since faded away. He said maybe once every three months he’ll hear someone squeal their tires for a short period, which he assumes is just kids who live nearby.
“They maybe do a few donuts and then they’re gone,” Graham said. “It ain’t like it used to be.”
Graham said whatever money is slated to be spent on calming traffic would be better spent on addressing more pressing issues in the neighborhood, including sex workers in the area.
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“They maybe do a few donuts and then they’re gone. It ain’t like it used to be.”
— Richmond resident Richard Graham
Most of the six intersections on the city’s list had faint signs that someone had done a donut or two, as of late July. But none Richmondside visited had the typical thick black marks left by drivers burning out their tires there regularly or multiple marks that might indicate a recent sideshow.
May Road and Santa Rita Road near De Anza High School also made the city’s priority list. It’s a four-way stop with four lanes on Santa Rita and two lanes on May.
There were signs that at least a few cars had been doing donuts at the intersection, but resident Diana Johnson said she’s never seen anything resembling a sideshow in the five years she’s lived in the area.
“I have never seen anyone do a donut up here,” Johnson said.
Johnson said some people drive over the speed limit in the early evening, but she attributes that to people rushing to get home after work. She is concerned that someone is going to take one of the curvy roads too fast and hit someone crossing the street.
