Title
Recommendation to Authorize the Mayor to Sign a Letter of Support for Caltrans to Seek Funds to Study Safety Improvements and a Road Diet on Otis Drive as Part of Caltrans’ Route 61 Capital Preventative Maintenance Project. (Planning, Building, and Transportation 24562743)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jennifer Ott, City Manager
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) manages certain streets in Alameda as part of State Route 61. Their Ala-61 Capital Preventative Maintenance (CapM) project will resurface some of these including Doolittle Drive, Otis Drive from the Bay Farm Bridge to Broadway, and Broadway from Otis Drive to Encinal Ave.
After hearing extensive public feedback requesting safety improvements on Otis Drive between Broadway and Fernside Blvd, Caltrans is planning to study options to increase safety, including a road diet in this area. Caltrans now plans to work with the City of Alameda (City) to hold a public workshop to review design concept alternatives, and to bring a recommended design to the City’s Transportation Commission and City Council for endorsement.
To complete this effort, Caltrans will be requesting $700,000 in supplemental State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP) funding from the California Transportation Commission (CTC) in December 2024 and is asking for the City’s support. Exhibit 1 is a draft letter of support prepared by City staff.
BACKGROUND
Otis Drive between Broadway and Fernside Blvd is a High Injury Corridor in the Vision Zero Action Plan, based on injury crash data. Otis Drive carries significant automobile through-traffic, but it is also a residential street fronting Krusi Park, which connects to Otis Elementary School. This stretch of roadway includes uncontrolled, four-lane crossings for key school and bicycle routes. In recent years, the City has received community reports about safety issues on Otis Drive and has shared the concerns with Caltrans.
In 2020, the City requested that Caltrans evaluate a road diet with the goal of reducing traffic speeds and making it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists to travel across and along Otis.
In 2021, in a letter from the Mayor to Caltrans, the City recommended more funding for this project to address sea level rise adaptation measures, a road diet, and bikeways. Later that year, the City implemented a road diet on a City-controlled section of Otis Drive further west, between Westline Dr. and Willow St.
On August 28, 2024, Caltrans presented their CapM project to the Transportation Commission, showing a design that continued the existing four-lane roadway configuration with some updates but without many of the City’s recommendations. Community members, including Otis School, submitted 42 pages of written public comments to this agenda item, focusing mostly on Otis Drive safety concerns.
In September 2024, Caltrans informed the City that they would study new safety improvements and road diet configurations, and they invite the City’s support for Caltrans to seek funding for the study.
DISCUSSION
In response to City comments, before coming to the City Transportation Commission, Caltrans studied a road diet on Otis Drive that included the signalized intersections at Broadway and at Fernside Blvd., as well as bike lanes. However, Caltrans found that the traffic volumes for this design were higher than Federal Highway Administration recommendations for road diets and thus did not include the design in their August 28 project design proposal. The Caltrans report mentioned that implementing a road diet on Otis Drive between Broadway and Fernside may be able to serve existing motor vehicle volumes as long as the signalized intersections are kept in their current configurations, but Caltrans did not pursue further study of this road diet option at that time.
Now, Caltrans has expressed willingness to further study safety improvements and bring alternatives to the community for review and discussion. The Caltrans maintained Route 61 portion of Otis Drive carries larger auto volumes than further west on the City maintained section, so it is imperative that road diet and/or other safety improvement alternatives be studied comprehensively, and that residents, the City Transportation Commission, and City Council get a chance to consider priorities and tradeoffs for this corridor. Therefore, staff recommends City Council support Caltrans’ pursuit of funding for the project in order to conduct this study.
ALTERNATIVES
• Authorize the Mayor to sign the letter of support as written in Exhibit 1.
• Authorize the Mayor to sign the letter of support with changes to the letter.
• Decline to authorize the Mayor to sign the letter of support. A letter of support is not a prerequisite for Caltrans to seek additional project funding; however, the City’s support would demonstrate to the CTC there is commitment to the safety improvements.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact to endorsing a letter of support.
Caltrans staff have requested that the City provide the traffic analysis of the alternatives, and City staff are negotiating with Caltrans about who funds this work. The work would cost approximately $74,000.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Otis Drive is identified as a High Injury Corridor in the Vision Zero Action Plan. Between Bay Farm Bridge and Broadway, Otis Drive is Tier 2 for all modes, Tier 2 for pedestrians, and Tier 3 for people in motor vehicles.
Otis Drive is designated as a Neighborhood Connector Street in the Street Classifications map of the General Plan as well as the Active Transportation Plan Pedestrian Street Types. Doolittle Drive is a Gateway Street.
The Active Transportation Plan 2030 Low-Stress Bikeway Network includes:
• Neighborhood Greenway on Mound St that crosses Otis Dr
• Shared-use path east of Bayview Dr on the southern side of Otis Dr, to provide a connection to Bay Farm Bridge.
The Active Transportation Plan Bikeway Vision Network proposes a regular striped bike lane on this section of Otis and a separated bike lane on Doolittle. Neither is included in the Active Transportation Plan 2030 Infrastructure Plan.
This action supports the City Strategic Plan Priority to Invest in Transportation, Infrastructure, Economic Opportunities and Historic Resources.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Providing a letter of support is not a “project” requiring environmental review under CEQA. Caltrans is the lead agency responsible for completing environmental review under CEQA for its own CapM project.
CLIMATE IMPACT
Providing safe, comfortable multimodal access can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation to approve a letter of support for Caltrans to request funds from the CTC to study a road diet and safety improvements on Otis Drive between Broadway and Fernside Blvd.
Respectfully submitted,
Allen Tai, Planning, Building, and Transportation Director
By,
Lisa Foster, Transportation Planning Manager
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibit:
1. Support Letter
cc: Erin Smith, Public Works Director