Title
Provide Comments on the Draft Strategies for the Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plan
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Jennifer Ott, Base Reuse and Transportation Planning Director
Gail Payne, Transportation Coordinator
Date: December 12, 2016
Re: Provide Comments on the Draft Strategies for the Citywide Transit and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plan
BACKGROUND
The purpose of the Citywide Transit and TDM Plan is to help ensure that the City sustains its high quality of life during a time of anticipated population and employment growth throughout the Bay Area region. Although the City’s population, housing levels and actual volume of vehicles leaving Alameda during the morning commute have not changed significantly over the past several years, the increased traffic on the freeways and the increase in employment rates have increased commute times and the community’s interest in improving the City’s transportation system. In response, the following actions have occurred:
• On January 21, 2015, the City Council directed staff to begin efforts to conduct a holistic approach to transportation citywide.
• On February 25, 2015, a joint Transportation Commission and Planning Board meeting refined the proposed citywide transportation planning effort.
• On April 1, 2015 and September 15, 2015, the City Council directed staff to move forward with a refined approach and an RFP for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plan.
• On January 19, 2016, the City Council approved the CDM Smith consulting team, which began this 18-month planning effort with data collection/review, existing conditions and goals/objectives.
• In mid-2016, the consulting/staff team conducted the first round of outreach on the existing conditions and goals/objectives work as follows:
o Organizational Advisory Group meeting #1: April 20
o Community Workshop #1: May 5
o Transportation Commission: May 25
o Commission on Disability Issues: June 8
o Planning Board: June 27
o Web Survey: June through August
o City Council: September 9
o Public Opinion Survey: September
• In mid/late 2016, the consulting team prepared draft strategies, projects and actions, and began the second round of outreach, which is the purpose of this meeting.
The focus of the Transit and TDM Plan is as follows:
• Transit Plan: Implement transit-related services and infrastructure by directing City funding and by coordinating transit providers such as AC Transit, the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and BART in their near- and long-term route planning and expansion activities.
• TDM Plan: Create a more efficient transportation system by improving transit services, carpooling, carsharing, walking, bicycling and parking availability to benefit all Alameda residents and workers. Recommend how to best manage transportation funds and place requirements on new developments to most effectively support transportation options that reduce drive alone trips throughout the City. TDM refers to strategies that provide improved transportation options with the overall goal of decreasing congestion, oil dependence, carbon footprint and air pollution.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this Planning Board meeting is to provide input on the draft strategies, projects and actions that are shown in Exhibit 1 (memo), Exhibit 2 (draft remaining projects that staff did not recommend and actions list) and Exhibit 3 (PowerPoint).
Goals and Objectives
The Draft Strategies Memorandum draws from the goals and objectives that were created earlier this year for the Transit and TDM Plan as follows:
Goals
• Estuary Crossings: No increase in drive alone trips at island crossings, especially in the peak period.
• Alameda Trips: Decrease drive alone trips within Alameda.
Objectives
The objectives were developed to define specific outcomes that help meet the goals.
• Access: Improve access to transportation facilities including BART stations, ferry terminals and bus stops.
• Climate Change: Provide programs and strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Drive Alone Trips: Provide programs and strategies to reduce drive alone trips, including those related to transit, bicycling, walking, carsharing and ridesharing, and new transportation technologies.
• Equity: Ensure transportation improvements are applied equitably for all users including senior, low-income, and minority populations, and are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and guidelines.
• Land Use: Integrate land use changes and transportation improvements.
• Parking: Use parking management strategies to reduce incentives to driving.
• Partnerships: Maintain positive partnerships with transit operators, adjacent jurisdictions, the private sector and other key stakeholders to leverage monies and expertise.
• Prioritize: Elevate the priority of transit, bicycling, walking, carsharing and ridesharing, especially for youth and for first-mile/last-mile transportation choices.
• Public Awareness: Increase public, employee/employer and residential association awareness of transportation options.
• Safety: Emphasize safety in the planning, design and implementation of all transportation improvements.
• Transit Frequency/Reliability: Improve transit frequency, reliability and times, especially in the peak period.
Community Input Summary
The Draft Strategies Memorandum draws from community input that was received to date for the Transit and TDM Plan. This coordinated planning effort includes a comprehensive community engagement process consisting of community workshops, organizational advisory group meetings, a public opinion survey, a Citywide Transit and TDM Plan webpage (<http://alamedaca.gov/citywide-transit-tdm-plans>), several web-based surveys, and Transportation Commission, Planning Board, Commission on Disability Issues, Mayor’s Economic Development Advisory Panel, and City Council meetings. Exhibit 4 shows the comments received to date on the draft strategies. Exhibit 5 provides a memo on the results of the public opinion survey.
A summary of the key findings from the public opinion survey is as follows with the full report shown in Exhibit 5:
• Free Bus Service: Two-thirds of respondents (69%) would use locally-sponsored free buses (supplementing existing AC transit) serving BART, ferry terminals and Alameda shopping. Only a third (33%) would support higher sales or property taxes to pay for locally sponsored free buses.
• BART to Alameda: Two-thirds of respondents (65%) would strongly support (47%) or support somewhat (18%) a BART station in Alameda.
• Island Crossings: 61% of respondents stated that traffic congestion at island crossings at rush hour is either a major issue (42%) or an issue (19%).
• School Access: 64% of respondents strongly agreed (46%) or agreed (18%) that Alameda should make it easier to walk, bicycle or take transit to and from schools.
• Multimodal Destinations: 58% of respondents strongly agreed (37%) or agreed (21%) that Alameda should make it easier to walk, bicycle or take transit to destinations rather than relying on a car. Only 29% of respondents would support higher sales or property taxes to improve transit, bicycling and walking conditions in Alameda.
• Bike Share: 58% of respondents strongly disagreed (48%) or disagreed (10%) that they would use a bike share system in Alameda.
• Parking: 54% of respondents strongly disagreed (39%) or disagreed (15%) that more of Alameda’s parking spaces should be dedicated to bicycle, transit and walking uses.
• Driving/Parking Easier: 50% of respondents strongly agreed (33%) or agreed (17%) that Alameda should make it easier to drive and park in our city.
The main themes that arose at the Organizational Advisory Meeting on October 13 and at the Community Workshop on October 19 are as follows:
• Transit and multimodal solutions should serve the entire island, including areas where future development is planned;
• Transit service should be expanded in terms of service frequency, affordability, and available routes as well as on existing routes, including for riders coming to Alameda as a destination;
• The pace of implementation should be speeded up, whenever possible; and
• The highest ranked projects that participants would use included:
o Estuary Water Shuttle to/from Oakland
o Enhanced West End Estuary Crossing
o BART to Alameda
o Bus Stop Improvements
o Free Bus Service
The main themes that arose from the Mayor’s Economic Development Advisory Panel on November 2, 2016 and the Transportation Commission meeting on November 16, 2016 are as follows:
• Assess equity and use the assessment to inform the planning process.
• A request by Bike Walk Alameda to continue the Estuary Crossing Shuttle as it accommodates more bikes, odd-sized bikes and trailers.
• Consider adjusting school or City hours.
• Include transit incentives such as free rides as part of transportation awareness campaigns.
• Add a separate autonomous vehicle/smart city project.
Strategies Summary
The Draft Strategies Memorandum - as shown in Exhibit 1 - recommends four strategies, each with corresponding projects and actions that will expand the transportation options in Alameda based on the issues identified during the existing conditions phase of the planning effort. Each of the four strategies identifies a specific transportation issue and includes:
1) Improving multimodal access to/from Oakland and BART: Downtown Oakland is the destination for a high percentage of drive-alone trips from Alameda. More than 3,000 Alamedans travel to downtown Oakland for work, of which approximately 70 percent drive alone. Additionally, there are currently more than 20,000 people who commute to Alameda for work or school, of which 76 percent drive alone. Because Oakland and Alameda are close, the travel time to/from Oakland by transit, walking and bicycling can be short enough to encourage people to shift modes.
2) Improving multimodal access to/from San Francisco: The high level of transit service to/from San Francisco is an amenity that draws many people to live, work and play in Alameda. For example, almost 80 percent of Alamedans commuting to/from San Francisco use transit. Nevertheless, ferry and BART parking facilities and Transbay buses are at capacity so investing in improved access to ferry terminals and BART stations, increased carpooling options and improved speed and reliability for AC Transit Transbay service will result in transit ridership growth and will capture new residents and employees as riders.
3) Improving multimodal access within Alameda: Promoting alternative modes for intra-island trips contributes to a higher quality of life for people who live and work in Alameda, and improves mobility for those who do not have a car or may not have the ability to drive such as youth and seniors. It also can encourage trips to business districts, which can be congested or have limited available parking.
4) Effectively managing and monitoring transportation efforts: Effectively managing and monitoring transportation programs is a complex task that needs ongoing resources to address transportation issues and evaluate performance, which will in turn ensure that the City will be able to meet its goals of reducing drive alone trips and of improving multimodal mobility.
The projects and actions in each strategy are categorized by: in progress - implementing, near term (one to three years), mid term (three to eight years) and long term (over eight years). The memo also shows the projects and actions by mode: transit, bicycling/walking and multimodal, their effectiveness at meeting the goals and objectives, ease of implementation and cost as well as a map that highlights the projects geographically.
Bike Share Feasibility Study
As part of this citywide Transit and TDM Plan, the consulting team prepared the Bike Share Feasibility Study (Exhibit 6) in response to a City Council referral on November 17, 2015 requested by Councilmember Jim Oddie, interest from the business community and a Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) regional grant program that covers bike share capital costs. Bike share is a rapidly expanding new transit option used around the U.S. and world that provides a network of bicycles that can be checked out for a fee. Bicycles are typically used for short trips to connect to and from transit and major commercial, employment and tourist destinations. Beginning in Spring 2017, the regional “Bay Area Bike Share” program will expand from 700 to 7,000 bicycles with networks for the first time in three East Bay cities (Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville).
The development of the Feasibility Study and a Letter of Interest for the MTC grant program guided staff in considering and rejecting the idea of pursuing implementation of a full-scale bike share system in Alameda at this time. Such a system would require significant capital and annual operating expenses, and staff time to establish. While Alameda could become a part of the Bay Area Bike Share system, the costs of this system are set in a contract between MTC and the private owner/operator (Motivate) and are higher than other more flexible systems. Although the MTC grant would cover most of the capital costs, the minimum size of the grant was larger than the City would likely need to initiate a program here.
Instead, the City plans to pursue a phased approach starting with the Alameda Point bicycle loaner program that is required as part of the Site A development, and to continue to monitor the evolving technology and the development of other bike share systems in the Bay Area, some of which may be better suited to Alameda’s size and needs. MTC is expected to issue a second call for projects for their bike share capital program in the next few years, at which time the City may be ready to apply for funding. Because other topics ranked higher than bike share as a priority for community members in the Transit and TDM Plan public opinion survey - such as making it easier for students to walk, bike or take transit to/from schools - staff has proposed this lower cost and more incremental approach to bike share.
Next Steps
The next steps for the strategies include presenting the information to the Commission on Disability Issues on Wednesday, December 14, 2016 and to the City Council on Tuesday, January 19, 2017. The study team will incorporate input received into a Draft Transit and TDM Plan, which is expected to come to the Planning Board in spring 2017. The study team is expected to request City Council approval by July 2017.
To assist with this stage of the planning effort, the study team is requesting the Planning Board to provide input on the Draft Strategies Memorandum. Specific questions to answer include:
• What do Board Members think about the draft projects/actions?
• Are there other projects/actions that should be included?
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3).
RECOMMENDATION
Provide comments on the Draft Strategies for the Citywide Transit and TDM Plan.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Ott, Base Reuse and Transportation Planning Director
By,
Gail Payne, Transportation Coordinator
Exhibits:
1. Draft Strategies Memorandum
2. Draft Remaining Projects and Actions List
3. Draft Strategies PowerPoint
4. Community Member Comments
5. Public Opinion Survey Results
6. Bike Share Feasibility Study