Stripes states in cuprates were studied using a dynamical Gutzwiller approximation within a realistic model of the CuO planes. Our results explain in a simple way the behavior of the chemical potential, the magnetic incommensurability, and transport experiments as a function of doping. O and Cu-centered stripes become quasidegenerate for small overdoping with important consequences for the dynamics. A low-energy collective mode softens with doping and merges with the Drude peak at optimum doping in good agreement with experiment.