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Recommendation to Award a Contract in the Amount of $395,000, Including Contingency, to CDM Smith to Prepare the Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plans and to Amend the Measure B and Base Reuse Department Budgets for Fiscal Year 2015-16 by Appropriating $100,000 from Each of These Funds to Pay for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans Contract. (City Manager 2110)
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To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Elizabeth D. Warmerdam, Interim City Manager
Re: Recommendation to Award a Contract in the Amount of $395,000, Including Contingency, to CDM Smith to Prepare the Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plans and to Amend the Measure B and Base Reuse Department Budgets for Fiscal Year 2015-16 by Appropriating $100,000 from Each of These Funds to Pay for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans Contract
BACKGROUND
On January 21, 2015, the City Council directed staff to prepare an approach to a comprehensive citywide transportation planning and implementation effort in response to a City Council referral from Councilmember Tony Daysog. On February 25, 2015, City staff presented its initial thoughts on an approach to a citywide transportation effort at a joint Transportation Commission and Planning Board meeting. Staff then incorporated feedback and presented a refined approach including draft goals and a proposed scope of work, to the City Council on April 1, 2015. At this meeting, the City Council directed staff to move forward with a Request for Proposals (RFP), including a draft work scope for Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plans. On September 15, 2015, the City Council authorized the Interim City Manager to issue an RFP for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans.
The purpose of the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans is to help ensure that the City sustains its high quality of life during a time of population growth throughout the Bay Area region from 7 million to an expected 9 million population in 2040. To help place the Transit and TDM Plans into context, the major reasons to proceed with this planning effort are described below.
• Traffic Congestion: Improving the City of Alameda transportation system and physical network is of paramount importance to the residents of Alameda, who have been experiencing increased traffic congestion as the result of regional and local growth.
• Housing Requirements: Due to State of California mandates, legal requirements, and local housing needs, the City must continue to accommodate its regional housing needs, which will result in increased demands on the transportation network.
• Climate Change: Reducing automobile use and the associated emissions is the primary means by which the residents of Alameda can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change, which is required under California’s 2008 Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg).
• Transportation Funding: Federal, State and regional transportation funding is increasingly being directed to transportation projects that improve transit services and alternative modes of transportation.
• Transit Provider Coordination: The City needs to coordinate local development funds and efforts with the regional transit providers - AC Transit, Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) - to create convenient citywide transportation services for all existing and future Alameda residents.
• Changing Demographics: Younger residents are more likely to take transit than their older neighbors. Forty (40) percent of Millennials use public transportation compared to 28 percent for Generation-X, 19 percent for Baby Boomers, and 8 percent for the Silent Generation, according to a Portland State University Study.
The overarching goals of the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans are to take a holistic and integrative Citywide approach: (1) to minimize the total net of new single-occupant vehicle trips at the island crossings and; (2) to enhance multimodal intra-city mobility. Special attention will be paid to the peak travel periods - morning northbound, which is leaving Alameda, and afternoon southbound, which is returning to Alameda.
The Citywide Transit Plan will focus on implementing transit-related services and infrastructure by directing City funding and by coordinating transit providers such as AC Transit, WETA and BART in their near- and long-term route planning and expansion activities. The Transit Plan also will evaluate the financial feasibility of establishing a free intra-city Alameda shuttle similar to the City of Emeryville’s Emery Go-Round service.
The TDM Plan will recommend how to best manage transportation funds and place requirements on new development in the City to most effectively support transit and TDM programs, and to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips consistent with the City’s Transportation Element. TDM refers to strategies that reduce travel demand and increase transportation system efficiency with the overall goal of decreasing congestion, oil dependence, carbon footprint and air pollution. The TDM Plan will build on existing efforts to determine the best organizational structure for implementing TDM programs for the City, as a whole, and for individual development projects.
This coordinated planning effort will include a comprehensive community engagement process consisting of community workshops, ongoing stakeholder outreach, a public opinion survey, a Citywide Transit and TDM Plans webpage (<http://alamedaca.gov/citywide-transit-tdm-plans>) maintained by City staff, an ongoing web-based comment page, and Transportation Commission, Planning Board and City Council meetings.
DISCUSSION
The City issued an RFP on September 16, 2015 to solicit proposals from a qualified team of consultants and firms with expertise in transportation planning, transit operations and infrastructure, TDM coordination and implementation, familiarity with the City of Alameda, community outreach and consensus building. The RFP was posted on the City of Alameda’s website, and was emailed to relevant consulting firms using lists from the Alameda County Transportation Commission, the Community Development Department and the Public Works Department builders exchange networks.
Selection Process
The City received four proposals, which were reviewed by a selection committee starting on October 22, 2015, and included the following Consultant Teams:
• CDM Smith (San Francisco) - $328,546 (Exhibit 1)
• Fehr and Peers (Oakland/San Francisco/Walnut Creek) - $361,226 (Exhibit 2)
• Steer Davies Gleave (Los Angeles) - $345,145 (Exhibit 3)
• City and Rural Transit Consultants (Solvang) - $342,783 (Exhibit 4)
The selection committee included staff from the Base Reuse and Community Development Departments, AC Transit, WETA, as well as a Planning Board member, a Transportation Commissioner and a Catellus Development Corporation representative. The selection committee interviewed the first three firms shown above on November 10, 2015, and based the selection on criteria that considered the proposer’s past experience, the quality and experience of the project manager, the team’s understanding and proposed approach to the project, and the ability to deliver the proposed scope of work in a cost effective and timely manner.
The selection committee selected the CDM Smith team, a highly qualified team that exceled at both the proposal and interview and also focused on implementation and strategic planning. CDM Smith is a full service engineering and construction firm that has direct traffic engineering, multimodal and TDM experience in the Bay Area and specifically in the East Bay as well as Silicon Valley, which is on the cutting edge of implementing innovative transportation solutions. CDM Smith staff are based out of their San Francisco office, and are supported by 5,000 staff in 125 offices around the world. Relevant experience of the key staff include the Emeryville-Berkeley-Oakland Transit Study, the City of Mountain View’s Shoreline Transportation Study, the Mission Bay Development Transportation Studies and the Tri Delta Transit Bus Route Evaluation and Re-Design. The Emeryville-Berkeley-Oakland study included last-mile service to regional transit and connections among the three areas similar to some of the issues faced by Alameda. The final product specified the modes, routes, regional transit connections and capital and operating cost of the new or improved transit facilities. The Shoreline Study, which considered transportation solutions for a high tech Silicon Valley area one mile from the Downtown Mountain View Caltrain Station, emphasized transit improvements, parking management, car and bicycle sharing systems and intelligent transportation systems comparable to what will be evaluated and proposed for Alameda. The Mission Bay Studies, which considered transportation solutions for the largest remaining development site in San Francisco (similar to Alameda Point for the rest of Alameda), included elements such as ride-sharing, trip reduction, transit incentives, pedestrian and bicycle incentives and parking management.
The CDM Smith team includes Moore Iacofano and Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) to lead the outreach effort, Corey, Canapary & Galanis (CC&G) Research to lead the public opinion survey and an independent consultant - Wendy Silvani - who also is working on the Alameda Point TDM implementation effort. Ms. Silvani’s involvement in both the citywide and Alameda Point TDM efforts will help ensure comprehensive coordination. MIG is headquartered in Berkeley, and specializes in outreach, planning and communications. MIG’s relevant experience includes the Alameda Countywide Transportation Plan Update and Transportation Expenditure, Caltrans’ On-Call Public Engagement Contract and BART’s Title VI Community Workshops and Public Participation Plan. CC&G is a full-service marketing research firm based in San Francisco with relevant experience including the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency On-Board Demographic Study and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Plan Bay Area surveys.
Scope of Work
The CDM Smith team will perform the tasks summarized below and detailed in the revised work scope (Exhibit 5). A summary of the proposed scope of work is as follows:
• Task 1 - Project Management and Quality Review: The Consultant Team and City staff will work together to effectively manage this planning effort to ensure that it is high quality and adheres to the budget and schedule.
• Task 2 - Initiate Project: The Consultant Team will work with the City of Alameda to initiate the planning effort and to gain a thorough understanding of the key issues and to ensure a mutual understanding of the project direction.
• Task 3 - Analyze Existing Conditions: Based on the Task 2 analysis, the Consultant Team will prepare a written description and graphic-focused presentation of the existing conditions, opportunities and obstacles in the City of Alameda, which will provide city representatives with “data driven” talking points about the existing transportation trends and network. To help better understand existing conditions, a sub-task includes StreetLight Insight data, which uses anonymous information from GPS-enabled devices.
• Task 4 - Prepare Goals, Objectives and Evaluation Criteria: Based on the analyses in Tasks 2 and 3 and on the RFP goals, the Consultant Team will prepare goals, objectives and evaluation criteria for the planning effort, which will help the City evaluate potential transit or TDM improvements and programs. This task also will include a public input survey to better understand what would motivate residents to use transit, carpools, bicycles, or walking instead of driving alone.
• Task 5 - Develop and Analyze Strategies: The Consultant Team will develop and analyze potential TDM and transit strategies and options that arise in Tasks 2 and 3 including near-term strategies that could be implemented in the short term. Based on the evaluation criteria in Task 4, the Consultant Team will use a data-driven approach to prioritize projects and programs. Strategies already identified to be included are coordinating shuttles, an Alameda circulator or city-run bus system, and how a risk assessment of the Webster/Posey tubes may impact transit access. This task also will include a citywide bike share feasibility study and an intersection traffic analysis.
• Task 6 - Prepare Draft Plans: Based on previous task memos and community input to date, the Consultant Team will prepare Draft Plans. Special attention will be paid to the financing and phasing of the plans, and will include recommendations for staffing and the organizational structures needed to ensure the most successful implementation.
• Task 7 - Prepare Final Plans: The Consultant Team will address and incorporate comments from the public review of the Draft Plans in its preparation of Final Plans.
Next Steps
At this time, staff is requesting that the City Council award the contract to CDM Smith so that City staff may initiate the contract. The Consultant Team is expected to start in February 2016 and to complete the plans by July 2017 (Exhibit 6). In early 2016, City staff/Consulting Team will focus on gathering existing conditions and near-term strategies such as analyzing the feasibility of a citywide bike share program all of which will be presented to key stakeholders, at a community workshop, the Planning Board, the Transportation Commission and the City Council later in the year. It is the intent that the near-term strategies will have the potential of being implemented before completion of the planning effort.
While the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans are in process, City staff and the local transit operators will continue to work together to improve the City’s transportation system. While these other transportation efforts will not be delayed by the proposed Transit/TDM planning effort, they will be coordinated with the consultant effort. For example, City staff is working with WETA to improve ferry terminal access to/from both the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal and the Main Street Ferry Terminal. City staff is negotiating with AC Transit to consolidate shuttles into future AC Transit lines or route expansions as part of its Service Expansion Plan (SEP) (http://www.actransit.org/sep), with potential implementation in the summer of 2016. For Alameda Point, the City received a grant last year from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to implement the TDM Plan for Alameda Point, which staff and a consultant will continue to work on and are expected to complete by mid-2017.
BUDGET CONSIDERATION/FINANCIAL IMPACT
The total estimated cost for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans is $395,000, which includes a 7 percent contingency totaling $26,096 and minor modifications based on the selection committee input and consultant team negotiations (Exhibit 7). The funding would come from a variety of sources, including the General Fund for $195,000, Measure B for $100,000 and the Base Reuse Department for $100,000. The City Council approved the General Fund budget allocation for the Transit and TDM Plans of up to $200,000 on September 15, 2015 and October 20, 2015. Staff is recommending City Council amend the Measure B and Base Reuse Funds budgets to fund the remaining cost of the Transit and TDM Plans contract. The CDM Smith team is not guaranteed any of the contingency amount and its use will be at the sole discretion of City staff for work not originally anticipated.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Undertaking Citywide Transit and TDM Plans is consistent with the Transportation Element of the City's General Plan, which states that the City shall update transit and TDM planning documents as shown below:
• Policy 4.3.1.a: Update and implement the recommendations of the Alameda Long Range Transit Plan.
• Policy 4.1.6.e: Support and maintain an up-to-date Transportation System Management (TSM) and TDM plan consistent with state law to provide adequate traffic flow to maintain established level of service.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation to award a contract in the amount of $395,000, including contingency, to CDM Smith to prepare the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans and to amend the Measure B and Base Reuse Department budgets for Fiscal Year 2015-16 by appropriating $100,000 from each of these funds to pay for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plans contract.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Ott, Chief Operating Officer - Alameda Point
By
Gail Payne, Transportation Coordinator
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director
Exhibits:
1. CDM Smith Consultant Team Proposal Received on October 22, 2015
2. Fehr & Peers Consultant Team Proposal Received on October 22, 2015
3. City and Rural Transit Consultant Team Proposal Received on October 22, 2015
4. Steer Davies Gleave Consultant Team Proposal Received on October 22, 2015
5. CDM Smith Revised Work Scope
6. CDM Smith Revised Schedule
7. CDM Smith Revised Budget
8. Contract