Title
Adoption of Resolution Adopting the Draft Active Transportation Plan. The City previously certified a Final Environmental Impact Report for the Alameda General Plan 2040 Update. Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15162 and 15163, none of the circumstances necessitating further CEQA review are present. (Planning, Building & Transportation 20962740) [Continued from December 6, 2022]
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Draft Alameda Active Transportation Plan provides a roadmap for making walking and biking safe and desirable every-day transportation options in Alameda. It is a plan for people of all ages and abilities - including children, seniors and people with disabilities - that will contribute towards addressing the City of Alameda’s (City) safety, greenhouse gas reduction, and transportation mode shift goals, and enhancing the health and livability of the Alameda community. The Active Transportation Plan replaces the City’s 2009 Pedestrian Plan and the 2010 Bicycle Master Plan.
After an initial extensive community engagement period in late 2019 to solicit the community’s concerns and ideas, draft recommendations for a vision statement, goals, bikeway network, pedestrian strategy and programs were presented to the community in mid-2020. In October 2022, a complete draft Plan was released for public review. Input was collected at 14 public events and meetings, including five (5) Commission and Board meetings; seven (7) presentations/tabling for local organizations; and via an online survey. The Final Draft Plan incorporates many of the suggestions made by the diverse array of reviewers.
On November 16, 2022, the Transportation Commission unanimously recommended that the City Council adopt the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan (Exhibit 1), including the seven Appendices (Exhibits 2-8), and with the additional changes recommended by staff and the Transportation Commission and described in this report.
Staff is recommending that the City Council adopt the Active Transportation Plan and appendices and direct staff to make the final changes included in the Transportation Commission’s recommended revisions.
BACKGROUND
Over the course of the past three-plus years, the City and Alameda community have been working on development of the Active Transportation Plan. The planning process began in fall 2019 with an intensive and inclusive public engagement period to learn what the community saw as the assets and needs of the existing biking and walking environments. In summer 2020, draft recommendations for bicycle and pedestrian projects, programs, policies, and priorities were presented to the community virtually and input was solicited. After a pause, in early 2022, staff and the consultant team incorporated the community feedback on the recommendations, developed and applied the prioritization methodology to the capital projects, and assembled a Draft Plan for public review, which was released and reviewed extensively by the community in October 2022.
Over the course of the three years, the City held or attended a total of 50 public events and meetings, and local organization meetings. The Plan was also informed by the work of a Community Advisory Group, which included 11 community members representing renters, older adults, high school students, transit riders, people with disabilities, parents of school-aged children, walking and bicycling advocates, and members of the Latinx and Asian-American communities.
Additional highlights of the comprehensive community engagement include:
• Over 2,100 public comments on existing walking and biking conditions via interactive online maps;
• Over 1,000 responses to 9 online surveys;
• Over 550 public comments on the recommended bicycle network, via an interactive online map;
• 97,000 engagement emails sent (in phases 2 & 3);
• 10 workshops and events with traditionally underrepresented groups, including people of color, high school students, lower-income residents, seniors, and un-housed populations;
• 8 workshops with business associations;
• 10 virtual open houses and listening sessions;
• 6 Transportation Commission public workshops;
• 2 workshops with the Commission on Persons with Disabilities;
• 2 workshops with the Recreation and Parks Commission;
• 3 workshops with the Social Services and Human Relations Board; and
• 1 presentation to the Planning Board.
The extensive community engagement is described in detail in Appendix B of the Plan and information about the public input process is also available at www.ActiveAlameda.org <http://www.ActiveAlameda.org>. The webpage includes all of the previously released draft recommendations and reports, engagement events, and the October draft Plan.
DISCUSSION
The Active Transportation Plan describes the work that is needed in the long-term and also over the next eight years to make Alameda a city where people of all ages, abilities, income levels, and backgrounds are safer and more comfortable walking, biking, or rolling as a preferred mode of transportation.
The Plan is designed to help implement the safety, greenhouse gas reduction and transportation goals in existing City plans, including the 2021 General Plan, the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, and the Vision Zero Action Plan.
Plan Overview
After an Executive Summary, and Introduction (Chapter 1) which includes an overview of community engagement, the plan lays out the Vision and Goals (Chapter 2). The bicycle and pedestrian improvements and programs included in the Plan are intended to help the people of Alameda reach a vision of what Alameda can be:
Alameda will be a city where people of all ages, abilities, income levels, and backgrounds can safely, conveniently, and comfortably walk, bike, and roll (using wheelchairs, mobility scooters and micro-mobility devices) to their destinations and to transit. As a result, Alameda will be a healthier and safer place to live, work, and recreate; Alameda will have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions; and the quality of life in Alameda will be enhanced for everyone.
There are five Plan goals that will facilitate achievement of the Vision and were used for the prioritization of the plan actions. They are:
• Safety. To increase the safety of people walking and biking
• Equity. To prioritize walking and biking investments in underserved communities and actively engage underrepresented groups in the planning process
• Mode Shift. To support a shift to walking and biking, which are more climate-friendly modes of transportation
• Connectivity and Comfort. To create a well-connected network of active transportation facilities that are comfortable and convenient for people of all ages and abilities
• Community. To create a strong culture of walking and biking
Existing Conditions (Chapter 3). Via an in-depth and data-driven examination of existing facilities; community perceptions and comments; analysis of network gaps, trip potential, stress levels and equity across the city; the Plan identifies the key opportunities for active transportation improvements, including:
• Ensuring that busy streets do not create barriers to bicycling, walking, or rolling, by making them safer to cross, including for people with disabilities;
• Improving sidewalk and shared use trail maintenance and making trail upgrades;
• Closing gaps in the existing bicycle network and ensuring the network provides direct connections to popular destinations including schools;
• Upgrading existing facilities and adding new facilities to create a low-stress, connected and comfortable bikeway network that serves people of all ages and abilities;
• Improving north-south bikeway connectivity; and
• Adding and improving pedestrian and bicycle crossings of the estuary.
Pedestrian Design Strategy (Chapter 4). The Plan establishes a three-step process that the City will use to guide decisions on how to design intersection and corridor improvements, using a pedestrian street typology and a matrix of possible design treatments.
Bicycle Network (Chapter 5). A top goal of the Plan is to create a citywide low-stress bicycling network connecting destinations all across Alameda, to serve the many people who are interested in biking more but nervous about sharing roads with faster-moving cars. A statistically significant survey conducted as part of the Plan found that nearly half of Alamedans fall into this category of bicyclists. The long-term Bicycle Vision Network (Figure 6) was developed, which includes new proposed projects needed to create a connected, comfortable, all ages and abilities network, and builds on the 65 miles of existing bikeways in place today and those nearing construction. The plan includes Figure 7 showing the proposed connected low-stress bikeways, which are bikeways for people less comfortable riding on higher stress facilities.
Neighborhood Greenways, sometimes called bicycle boulevards or neighborhood bike routes, are critical to building the low-stress network. They are streets designed to give priority to people walking and bicycling, and to allow bicyclists and motorists to safely share the road on low-volume, low-speed, local streets. Used in cities across the country, these comfortable, low-stress bikeways improve walking safety and calm traffic.
At the November 16th Transportation Commission meeting, the Commission discussion focused on the plan’s recommendations for Gibbons Drive as a future neighborhood greenway and Lincoln Avenue with future standard and buffered bicycle lanes. It was agreed that more specific focused planning and design will be necessary for these corridors to ensure that the needs of all modes are accommodated in any future redesign to improve bicycle and pedestrian facilities on these two corridors.
Trails Network and Water Crossings (Chapter 6). This chapter identifies the importance of trails, the revised Bay Trail alignment, and the improvements necessary to support high-quality bicycle and pedestrian access to and from Oakland.
2030 Programs and Projects. The final two chapters (7 and 8) are the 2030 action plan for the next eight years, prioritizing the programs and capital projects that will be needed to meet the Plan’s vision and support citywide policies and goals on safety, climate action and mode shift. The 2030 plan includes:
• 30 programs, from maintenance to safety education to school crossing guards, which will support and encourage safe and comfortable walking and biking.
• 32 specific capital improvement projects, including 27 that are primarily led by the City and five (5) being led by other agencies and private developers. The projects include some efforts that are fully funded and underway, programmatic efforts such as trail maintenance, and implementing a backbone network of low-stress facilities, called the 2030 Backbone Low Stress Bicycle Network (Figure 10).
To help keep the city on track to meet the Plan goals, 16 performance metrics are included to track and measure program and project effectiveness. The 2030 projects and programs represent a major commitment of resources by a variety of agencies and partners, including the City. Completion of the projects and programs identified for 2030 will require partnerships with federal, state, and regional transportation agencies that fund and/or construct improvements, and with local property owners and development partners that construct improvements on private property and the adjacent public rights of way. Some smaller projects will be funded and constructed entirely by the City. The City currently funds, either fully or partially, many active transportation projects and programs each year with local transportation sales tax funding from Alameda County’s Measure BB.
A significant limiting factor on how many projects can be constructed in Alameda is the capacity of the existing staff and community to: develop and come to agreement on a project design; develop the necessary construction documents, which often require extensive review by funding agencies; hire and manage the construction contractors; and address community inquiries during the construction process. Each of these steps is time intensive, especially for larger projects. This Plan does not recommend that the City hire new full time staff, but rather that, with the cooperation and support of the Alameda community, the projects in the Plan can be completed with existing staff resources.
Appendices. The Plan has seven appendices which provide further background information, detailed and in-depth analyses, and the methodology and resulting maps for the various data-driven evaluations that were performed.
Final Draft Plan Revisions
The availability of the Draft Plan for public review and comment was widely publicized using 15 City and partner organization mailing lists to deliver over 70,000 emails. Six newspaper articles were published about the Draft Plan, and the Plan was the top “call to action” item on the City’s web page for over two weeks. The City received hundreds of comments on the Draft Plan via an online survey with over 325 responses, 14 public events and meetings, seven (7) presentations or tabling events for local organizations, and additional emails, letters and phone comments. The Draft Plan was also shared with other relevant public agency staff, including transit agencies, who provided feedback. (All the public comments are compiled in Exhibit 9; and Exhibit 10 includes the comments submitted to the Transportation Commission on the Final Draft Plan.) The November draft was improved in response to the public comments. The major improvements include:
• A new section describing Equity Priority Areas (Chapter 3).
• Pedestrian design strategy text clarified and improved to include more emphasis on importance of sidewalk maintenance, and edits were made throughout the Plan to elevate the pedestrian content and proposals (Chapter 4).
• Neighborhood Greenways description (Chapter 5) expanded to include a new auto volume target (50 or fewer vehicles in the peak direction at the peak hour) recommended by NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials).
• Bikeway Networks (Figures 6 and 7) modified as follows:
o Upgraded to separated bicycle lanes:
§ Challenger Dr. (Marina Village Parkway to Atlantic Ave.): Upgraded from proposed buffered bike lanes to connect the upcoming north-south trail connector into Jean Sweeney Open Space Park and the Cross Alameda Trail with destinations at the Marina Village shopping and research centers.
§ Marina Village Parkway (Mariner Square Drive to Constitution Way): Upgraded from proposed buffered bike lanes for same reasons as listed above for Challenger Dr.
§ Aughinbaugh Way (Mecartney Rd. to Seaview Parkway): Upgraded from existing buffered bike lanes to expand connectivity of low-stress network and improve access to schools and ferry terminal.
§ Robert Davey Jr. Dr. (Aughinbaugh Way to Island Dr.): Upgraded from existing and proposed buffered bike lanes to expand connectivity of low-stress network and improve access to schools.
§ Mecartney Rd. (Aughinbaugh Way to Adelphian Way): Upgraded from existing standard bike lanes to expand connectivity of low-stress network and improve access to ferry terminal, from the existing shared-use trail to the east.
o Upgraded to low-stress bikeway (type TBD):
§ McKay Ave: Upgrade from existing bike route to connect the planned Central Avenue separated bike lanes to the planned expansion of Crown Memorial State Beach and the Bay Trail.
o Neighborhood Greenway removed:
§ Adelphian Way and Harbor Bay Parkway between Mecartney and Bay Edge Rd: There is parallel shared-use trail along the waterfront and this will avoid routing bicyclists through the Ferry Terminal parking lot and along a transit route.
§ Hibbard St. (Clement Ave. to Eagle Ave.) and Eagle Ave. (Hibbard St. to Grand St.): The new Clement Avenue extension will be built by the private developer within the next few years, so this interim improvement is not needed.
• Low Stress Bikeway Vision Network map (Figure 7) added and description of map improved.
• Bay Trail route map (Figure 9) and map description improved per the recommendation of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).
• Text was added throughout the Plan to emphasize the need for better trail maintenance, particularly on Bay Farm Island.
• Programs Table (Chapter 7) was reorganized and updated.
• Projects List (Chapter 8) project descriptions were expanded and clarified, and more specific target years for completion were added. Estuary water shuttle program added.
• Funding and Resources section (Chapter 8) updated to clarify that funding will need to be evaluated each year during the annual budgeting processes.
• Performance Measures (Chapter 8) significantly revised and expanded, and now include baseline and target numbers, plus information on the available frequency of the data sources.
Additional Changes Recommended by the Transportation Commission and Staff
The following additional changes are recommended by the Transportation Commission and staff.
• Update the Pedestrian Street Types map (Figure 5) Business Main Street segments to align with the proposed Main Street segments in the draft General Plan Appendix Street Classifications.
• Modify the key and icons in the Pedestrian Design Matrix (Table 5) to make it more clear what treatments are permitted and allowed, and expand on the explanatory text in the chapter to make this even clearer.
• Add most current cost estimates for the 17 City-led projects in the 2030 Infrastructure Plan (Table 10), and for the 2030 Low Stress Backbone Network.
• Performance Measures: Staff will research, develop and add numbers for the five numbers listed as “[coming]” in Figure 11.
• Figure 1: Existing Pedestrian and Trail Facilities: Map colors will be edited to distinguish between “private or public streets” only and those streets with sidewalks. Both are now grey lines. Also, text will be added to map to clarify that not all signals and RRFBs are on the map, since it was last revised in 2019.
• Figure 3: Pedestrian High Injury Corridors: Colors of the three tiers will be changed to be more distinguishable.
• Figures 3 and 4: Pedestrian and Bicycle High Injury Corridors: Explanation of tier levels will be added to the maps, to clarify what tiers mean.
• Figure 9: Bay Trail route map: Make improvements to the legend, indicating the pedestrian facilities (sidewalks and paths) are part of the Bay Trail route. Also, add text below the map title explaining purpose of map.
• Appendix G: Active Transportation Project Prioritization: Colors on Prioritization Results maps will be adjusted so that the High scoring segments stand out more than the Low scoring ones.
Future of Slow Streets
In early 2020, Alameda along with many cities around the nation, implemented “Slow Streets,” a new type of facility that facilitated physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a 1.5-year period, 4.7 miles of Alameda streets became Slow Streets. After an extensive evaluation in 2021, the City Council decided to continue the Slow Streets program until the Active Transportation Plan provided direction on the future of the program AND these actions were implemented.
Slow Streets and their future are described in Chapter 8 of the Active Transportation Plan. Neighborhood Greenways are proposed on low speed, low volume streets. Neighborhood Greenways are not the same as Slow Streets, but they have some common goals - namely to create spaces where traffic is calmed, walking is comfortable, and people feel safe biking without being physically separated from cars. Neighborhood Greenways do not utilize the temporary barricades found on Slow Streets, but instead include a variety of traffic-calming interventions like speed humps and neighborhood traffic circles, along with crossing improvements at busy streets.
As part of creating the connected, low-stress network, the Plan includes Neighborhood Greenways on three streets that are currently Slow Streets:
• Pacific Avenue
• San Jose Avenue
• Versailles Avenue
These streets were chosen for many of the same reasons they have been long-standing bicycle routes, and became Slow Streets - because they offer continuous connections across Alameda, and are lower-speed and lower-volume streets. The infrastructure implementation plan (in Chapter 8) prioritizes the near term transition of these three Slow Streets to Neighborhood Greenways, using lower-cost infrastructure that can be built quickly and will replace the Slow Streets barricades. Per City Council direction, these three streets will remain as Slow Streets until this transition is made. Staff are already developing this transition plan with plans to remove barricades at the busiest intersections by mid-2023. These will be replaced with other traffic calming devices to slow and reduce traffic and staff will develop the guidance documents, standard plans and next steps by the end of 2023.
Two Slow Streets were not recommended to be Neighborhood Greenways:
• Santa Clara Avenue (which will continue to be a bicycle route marked with “sharrow” stencils)
• Orion Street (which is proposed to have separated bicycle lanes in the future)
Per City Council direction, these Slow Streets would be removed shortly after the Plan is adopted. Santa Clara is not recommended because the Slow Streets section closely parallels Central Avenue, which will have separated bike lanes and other safety interventions, making it a low stress facility, and because it is not a low stress facility east of Webster Street. Orion Street is not recommended as a Neighborhood Greenway because it is only one block long and in the future will be part of a much longer corridor of separated bike lanes, as new development occurs. However, in the near term, speed humps will be added to this section, as has been previously planned.
ALTERNATIVES
The City Council may:
• Adopt the Active Transportation Plan, as recommended by staff and the Transportation Commission;
• Adopt the Active Transportation Plan with additional changes; or
• Delay adoption of the Active Transportation Plan to a later date.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact in the current fiscal year for adoption of the Active Transportation Plan. The current adopted Capital Budget (FY 2021-2023) includes sufficient unencumbered funds to implement the Plan. However, the Active Transportation Plan will require financial contributions from the City in the future, which will be subject to future City Council approval, via the regular City budgeting processes.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The Active Transportation Plan will replace the City’s existing Pedestrian Plan (2009) and Bicycle Master Plan (2010), and is recommended as a necessary plan in the General Plan Mobility Element. The Active Transportation Plan also helps implement the City’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan and Vision Zero Action Plan.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Implementing the Active Transportation Plan will have a positive effect on the environment and climate change.
On November 30, 2021, the City Council approved the 2021 General Plan Update, and the City Council approved Resolution No. 15841 certifying a Final Environmental Impact Report for the Alameda 2040 General Plan Update (State Clearinghouse No. 2021030563) in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and adopted written findings, a Statement of Overriding Considerations, and a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.
The General Plan Update approved by the City Council included, and the General Plan EIR evaluated, the environmental impacts of the Mobility Element update and implementing actions such as the adoption of the Active Transportation Plan. The EIR analysis evaluated the environmental impacts of Policy ME-14 Active Transportation, which reads as follows:
Active Transportation. Reduce traffic, improve public health, increase transportation equity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and air and noise pollution, increase access to transit, enhance quality of life, and improve the efficiency of the transportation system by making Alameda a city where people of all ages and abilities can safely, conveniently, and comfortably walk, bike, and roll to their destinations.
Actions:
a. Connectivity and Comfort. Develop a well-connected, low-stress, and uncluttered network of pedestrian and bicycle facilities that are comfortable and well-designed for people of all ages and abilities. Seamlessly link the network with Alameda’s key destinations such as schools, designated commercial corridors, grocery stores, parks and transit stops.
b. Maintenance. Regularly maintain the active transportation network for safety and comfort, and to ensure current design standards are being met.
c. Community Awareness and Education. Foster a strong culture of walking and bicycling through public outreach efforts such as community-wide campaigns, community-implemented street art and place-making (such as painted bulb-outs and intersections), and ongoing education in collaboration with community organizations and neighborhood groups.
d. Equity. Ensure that comfortable bicycle and pedestrian facilities and programs are implemented equitably throughout the city.
e. Safety. Increase the safety of all people bicycling and walking by improving the design of streets and active transportation facilities, educating the public, and enforcing traffic laws.
f. Design for Context. Develop a pedestrian-specific street typology to apply to all city streets, based on street function and characteristics, and match recommended design treatments to each typology.
g. Supportive, Barrier-Free-Infrastructure. Ensure that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is barrier-free, well-signed and well-supplied with short and long-term bicycle parking.
h. Low-stress Bikeways. Prioritize low-stress biking infrastructure such as separated bicycle lanes, bicycle boulevards (Slow Streets) and bike trails, which is comfortable for the majority of the community. Build these facilities with enough width to comfortably and safely support all people and devices into the future, including cargo bikes, electric bikes, and scooters, all operating at different speeds. Provide separated bicycle lanes instead of unprotected, standard bicycle lanes, unless not feasible, and optimize the experience of bicyclists on bike boulevards by minimizing stop signs along these routes by opting for mini-roundabouts or similar treatments that allow bicyclists to travel unimpeded while slowing vehicle speeds.
i. Separate Pathways. Where there is adequate space and existing or anticipated future demand, build separate facilities for people walking and bicycling, given their different speeds.
j. Safer Intersections. Use hardscape treatments and traffic signals to separate people walking and bicycling from motorists at busy and larger intersections.
Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15162 and 15163, none of the circumstances necessitating further CEQA review or preparation of a new EIR are present with respect to the General Plan EIR and the Active Transportation Plan adoption. Adoption of the Active Transportation Plan does not require major revisions to the General Plan EIR due to new significant impacts or due to a substantial increase in the severity of the significant environmental effects. There have been no substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the project would be undertaken that would require major revisions of the General Plan EIR due to new or substantially increased significant environmental effects. Further, there has been no discovery of new information of substantial importance that would trigger or require major revisions to the General Plan EIR due to new or substantially increased significant environmental effects. No further environmental review is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
Implementing the Active Transportation Plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Alameda. Currently vehicle trips in Alameda generate approximately 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the City. This is a reflection of the fact that 70% of all trips in Alameda are taken by automobile, despite the fact that over 60% of all trips are only 3 miles or less in length. Currently walking and bicycling comprise only 25% of all trips. One of the goals of the Active Transportation Plan is to increase the percentage of bicycle and pedestrian trips and reduce the percentage of automobile trips.
RECOMMENDATION
Adopt the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
By,
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Margaret O’Brien, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. Final Draft Active Transportation Plan
2. Appendix A. Plans and Policies Review
3. Appendix B. Summaries of Community Survey and Public Engagement
4. Appendix C. Existing Conditions Report
5. Appendix D. Level of Traffic Stress and Trip Potential Analysis
6. Appendix E. Detailed Crash Analysis Report
7. Appendix F. Pedestrian and Bicycle Facility Types
8. Appendix G. Active Transportation Project Prioritization
9. Public comment received on Public Draft Active Transportation Plan (Oct)
10. Public comments submitted on Final Draft Active Transportation Plan (Nov)
cc: Erin Smith, City Manager