Title
Draft Meeting Minutes - January 23, 2019
Body
DRAFT MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
CITY OF ALAMEDA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION
MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2019
Chair Miley convened the meeting at 7:14pm.
1. ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Miley, Commissioners Hans, Johnson, Soules.
Absent: Commissioners Nachtigall and Palmer.
2. AGENDA CHANGES
*None*
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
Jim Strehlow said he is finding many Lime bikes being left in inappropriate locations such as blocking sidewalks. He said the September minutes were not approved at the December meeting and are not on the current agenda.
Chair Miley announced that the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan workshop would be held at Alameda High School on the upcoming Saturday morning at 9am.
Staff Member Payne read the announcements listed in the Agenda.
3-D Upcoming Grant-Funded Bicycle Safety Education Classes
Jim Strehlow said he is seeing an influx of foreigners in Alameda and he wonders if there is an education gap regarding rules of the road for bicyclists. He said the more diversity there is the more difficult it will be to educate the public about basic traffic laws because of language barriers.
Commissioner Soules congratulated the City for the rollout of their new website. (*Note- Due to a wiring issue, Commissioner Soules microphone was not working.)
4. CONSENT CALENDAR
4-A 2019-6461
Draft Meeting Minutes - July 25, 2018
4-B 2019-6462
Draft Meeting Minutes - December 3, 2018
Commissioner Hans made a motion to accept the Consent Calendar. Commissioner Soules seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-0.
5. NEW BUSINESS
5-A 2019-6463
Approve the Central Avenue Webster Street Options for Further Analysis and the Two-way Bikeway Extension between Paden School and McKay Avenue
Staff Member Payne introduced the item. The staff report and attachments can be found at: <https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3836629&GUID=E9A72FB7-ADF9-4D58-8CFF-3637BA660926&FullText=1>
Thaddeus Wozniak, CDM Smith, gave a presentation.
Chair Miley asked how the transition from the two way bikeway to bike lanes at 8th st. would work.
Mr. Wozniak said that the transition would have a two stage turning movement for the westbound bikes and eastbound riders would continue straight. He said they would coordinate the signal timing to make that turning movement consecutively.
Staff Member Payne summarized the outreach to this point and outlined the next steps (detailed in the staff report.)
Commissioner Johnson asked whether the two right hand turn lanes from Central to Webster in the Continuous Bike Lane option would have the bike lane going straight through the turning vehicles.
Mr. Wozniak explained how the peak hour turn lane would work. He said the intent would be to have turns coming from one lane or the other depending on time of day, but not both.
Chair Miley opened the public hearing.
Brian McGuire introduced a video of what the current City Council members had to say about the plan and what to do at the Webster and Central intersection.
Hazel McGuire said kids should be safe and that the bike lane should be closer to the sidewalk and the parked cars should be closer to the moving cars. She said she loves biking and walking to school and parks.
Linda Asbury, Executive Director of WABA, said the plan that was approved in 2016 was not the compromise that they agreed to before the meeting. She said meetings need to be had at the intersection in question to understand the problem. She said the businesses cannot afford to lose street parking. She said we need traffic calming. She said we need to be fair to the businesses that put their investments and jobs on the line daily.
J. Lucey said he supports the four lane with traffic calming proposals. He said staff appears to have a clear bias against the business owners. He said the elimination of parking would be hard on the businesses. He said recent construction by PG&E illustrated the traffic that may occur with lane reduction.
Jim Strehlow said this area is not comparable to Shoreline or Fernside. He said Castro Valley completed its main street design two years ago and favored business needs over the wants of bicyclists. He said trucks serving Neptune Plaza must use Central Ave and any road diet proposal would prohibit this. He said bicycle safety should mean avoiding truck routes like Central Ave.
Jon Spangler said bicyclists on Castro Valley Blvd are taking their lives in their own hands. He said backing up traffic is an acceptable price to pay to keep pedestrians from getting hit. He said the continuous bike lane and two way protected bike lanes are the only options that provide any safety to cyclists. He said the Page crosswalk needs to be taken care of. He said safety is the primary responsibility.
Marie RiccoBene, representing the Park Webster Condominium HOA, said safety is very important. She said evacuation is a large concern for residents. She said they support better pedestrian crossings and calming measures. She said they support the four lane option with traffic calming.
Bonnie Wehmann, Easy Street Cycling, said she fully supports the protected bike lanes. She said sharrows are confusing and do not always help. She said people are often double parking in traditional bike lanes which forces kids on bikes into traffic. She said the data shows that when you bring bikes into an area you bring more business.
Chair Miley closed the public hearing.
Commissioner Johnson pointed out that they are not selecting any one design tonight and only choosing the four options to study further.
Chair Miley said the Webster and Central intersection was a major issue when this was before the commission previously. He said all the speakers tonight gave good feedback about issues to review when studying the four options. He said sharrows are not an ideal bicycle facility and do not seem like a good solution for a segmented corridor.
Commissioner Soules said it would be nice to have a real compromise solution between the business district and cyclists’ preferences. She said she would like to see the intersection during peak travel times. She said she is concerned about vehicles diverting to other streets. She said she would like to see what the answer is for getting people off the island in an emergency. She asked what the process would be in regards to coming back to this body before it goes to City Council for a decision.
Staff Member Payne said they would come back to the Transportation Commission with a preferred option later in the year before proceeding to Council.
Commissioner Soules asked if the parking was going to remain in all options.
Staff Member Payne said parking will remain on both sides of the street. She said the more detailed design may remove some spaces in the corridor for daylighting purposes. She said there is also the option of using the parking near Croll’s for a peak hour turn lane.
Chair Miley said the analysis should look at where it may be appropriate to add loading zones.
Commissioner Johnson asked what the rules were for delivery trucks blocking the bike lane.
Alameda PD Sgt. Foster said at no point are you legally allowed to block a bike lane. He said that it is not something that frequently enforced unless there is an immediate safety issue or ongoing complaints.
Commissioner Hans said he was okay approving the study of the four options and will look to see how much parking is lost under each option.
Chair Miley relayed a message from Commissioner Nachtigall that she supports moving forward with studying the four options.
Commissioner Hans made a motion to approve the staff recommendation to study the four proposed alternatives. Commissioner Johnson seconded the motion.
Chair Miley asked that staff include all the comments as items to consider when studying the options.
Staff Member Payne reminded the commission that there are two actions required, adding the recommendation to extend the protected bikeway from Paden School to McKay Ave.
Commissioner Hans added the staff recommendation to extend the two way protected bikeway from Paden to McKay to his motion. Commissioner Johnson confirmed his second of the motion. The motion passed 4-0.
5-B 2019-6464
Recommendation to Adopt the Street Sections associated with the City’s Adaptive Reuse Infrastructure Project within Alameda Point
Staff Member Wikstrom gave a presentation. The staff report and attachments can be found at: <https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3836630&GUID=AD849568-98D3-4162-B696-A05E6F647303&FullText=1>
Chair Miley opened the public hearing.
Brian McGuire said we have an opportunity to design a street network from scratch. He said that the design on Tower should match the design on Pan Am where the bike lanes are next to the sidewalk to match up with the bike lanes east of Pan Am.
Commissioner Johnson asked if there was a reason why the new design for Tower did not use one way protected bike lanes.
Staff Member Wikstrom said they just went with the simplest idea which is to mirror the already approved design for Tower east of Pan Am. He said that conceptually they may be able to achieve the suggested one way protected lanes, depending upon the need to place utilities within the already defined right of way. He said they can pursue the idea but cannot guarantee the execution.
Chair Miley asked if the final plan would come back to this body and Council before completion.
Staff Member Wikstrom said their intention was to approve the street sections and they would go to 100% design and the construction without coming back to the commission. He said he could come back with this section in a few months with an update or the commission could just give direction to pursue the idea if possible. He said there is no reason on the surface why they would not pursue a one way cycle track unless there was a physical constraint with the utilities that prevented it from being possible.
Jon Spangler said he agreed with the suggestion to pursue one way protected bike lanes. He said that if that is not possible, consistent one way buffered bike lanes would be preferable to switching from a two way cycle track to one way bike lanes.
Chair Miley closed the public hearing.
Commissioner Soules said she was glad that these refinements are being addressed early on. She said she is happy to examine the possibility of making a good faith effort to implement the one way protected lanes on W. Tower Ave, pending any serious fiscal impact or delay in the project.
Commissioner Soules made a motion to approve the item. Commissioner Hans seconded the motion.
Chair Miley relayed Commissioner Nachtigall’s support for the staff recommendation.
The motion passed 4-0.
5-C 2019-6465
Approve the City of Alameda Transportation Program Plan for Seniors and People with Disabilities for Fiscal Year 2019/2020
Staff Member Payne gave a presentation. The staff report can be found at: <https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3836631&GUID=A4C4061C-02EA-4E64-BF8E-477856E96851&FullText=1>
Commissioner Hans made a motion to accept the staff recommendation. Commissioner Johnson seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-0.
6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
6-A 2019-6466
Oakland-Alameda Access Project - Request Transportation Commission Member on Advisory Group
Staff Member Payne said they are hoping to find a member of the Transportation Commission to be a member of the OAAP Advisory Group.
Chair Miley asked what they time commitment would be.
Staff Member Wheeler said the group has had two meetings to date. She said there will be 2-4 more meetings.
Chair Miley said he could work with staff to identify a commissioner, noting that some members were not present.
Commissioner Johnson asked if this project is examining the other bridges across the estuary and not just the tubes.
Staff Member Wheeler said the project is focused on the tubes and their connections to 880.
Commissioner Johnson asked if anyone is working on the other connections like the Fruitvale Bridge.
Staff Member Wheeler said they are working with Alameda County on a grant application to replace or retrofit the Fruitvale Bridge to become a multimodal lifeline structure.
6-B Potential Future Meeting Agenda Items
1. Transportation Choices Plan and Housing Element Update and Next Steps
2. Transportation Management Association Annual Reports
3. Alameda County Transportation Commission Capital Improvement Program Grant Submittals
4. West End Ferry Terminal Service and Access
Commissioner Johnson asked if the issue of the bike paths on Harbor Bay can be evaluated by and hopefully improved.
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
Jim Strehlow asked if there was any follow up regarding Commissioner Miley’s previous request to pursue improvements to vehicular circulation in Oakland near High St., Alameda Ave, and 880. He said there were originally plans to connect Alameda Ave to 42nd Ave which would alleviate the current congestion. He apologized for his interruption during item 5-A. He said allowing someone more than three minutes without announcing the decision publicly gives the appearance of bias.
Chair Miley asked staff to pursue an update to the High Street issue. He said he should have announced that the video shown in item 5-A would be longer than three minutes.
Jon Spangler announced that Changing Gears Bike Shop would be closing in about a month due to development at Alameda Point. He said the owner would stay open if he could find an appropriate space on the West End.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Chair Miley adjourned the meeting at 9:03pm.