Title
Long-Term Planning All - 30 min
a. Alameda Point
b. Local/Crosstown Service
c. Transbay
Body
Long-range Transit Service Vision for Alameda
AC Transit Staff
April 10, 2019
The city of Alameda generates high ridership for AC Transit through its mix of Trunk, Local, Transbay, and Supplementary lines. In total, Alamedans take roughly 8,000 daily trips on AC Transit on a comprehensive network of routes that includes:
• Trunk Lines - Line 51A
• Local/Crosstown Lines - Lines 19, 20, 21, and 96
• Transbay Lines - Lines O, OX and W
• Supplementary Lines - Lines 631, 663, 687
• Specialized Shuttle Lines - Lines 314, 356
• All-Nighter Lines - Line 851
Though the City receives more than a fair share of AC Transit service relative to revenues it generates for transit, ridership demand at times outweighs available capacity. This is particularly true on Transbay lines and Line 51A, which serves as the transit spine for the City. In addition, with the imminent development of Alameda Point and other Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects either recently completed, underway or planned, the City has strategically positioned itself to leverage AC Transit as the primary form of transportation for new residents and businesses.
As a result of this focused growth, the City and AC Transit must work together to improve transit access, availability, speed and reliability in line with the City’s Transportation Choices Plan. With unconstrained finances, network improvement would fall into three categories:
• Alameda Point - With thousands of new residents and jobs to be created from development at Site A, transit service on the west end of the island will need significant increases. AC Transit currently operates Line 96, which serves Alameda Landing, the College of Alameda, the Alameda Point Collaborative, City Hall West, and Spirits Alley. While there is capacity on the existing Line 96 service, it operates infrequently and does not connect with the ferry or the East End. To better serve existing and future Alameda Point residents and commuters, AC Transit should increase service along existing route segments and investigate additional corridors like Atlantic and Stargell to better connect the Point to the rest of Alameda.
As a condition of Site A development, Alameda Point Partners is required to provide 15-minute peak-hour service between Alameda Point and Downtown Oakland. To meet this requirement, a new frequent transit line between Seaplane Lagoon and downtown Oakland via Atlantic Ave and Webster St. was outlined in the Transportation Choices Plan. However, this new line proposal to downtown Oakland would make Line 96 largely duplicative. Overall, changes to the transit network on the West End will have to balance different service needs: service to Seaplane Lagoon, downtown Oakland, along Pacific Ave, and along West Midway Ave to Spirits Alley. Two or more transit lines rather than one would likely be necessary to ensure direct, fast, and frequent service, and they should be integrated fully with the rest of the network rather than being introduced haphazardly on top of the existing transit network. The needs of Alameda Point overlap with the need for additional local/crosstown service, depicted below.
• Local/Crosstown Service - With the exception of existing Line 51A service along Santa Clara, east/west crosstown service in Alameda is lacking, both in terms of network coverage and frequency. Alameda’s secondary east-west corridors do not meet the definition of frequent transit service of every 15 minutes. Along Buena Vista, Line 19 serves Northern Waterfront developments with 20-minute peak and 30-minute off-peak service, thanks in part to contributions from the Alameda Transportation Management Agency (TMA). Along Otis and Shoreline, Line 20 operates at a 30-minute frequency. As part of AC Transit’s 2016 Service Expansion Plan, District staff proposed additional local/crosstown service recommendations, but due to funding constraints, only Line 19 was implemented at a 20-minute peak frequency. As part of the City’s Transportation Choices Plan, the City listed several projects that address this crosstown gap - Regional Transit Hub Connector Bus Service (project #28), the Crosstown Express Bus Service (project #22) and the pilot for the Alameda Shuttle Exploration is a crosstown route (project #1).
Frequency increases and additional crosstown service are crucially important to make the mode shift goals identified in the Transportation Choices Plan a reality. One possible service enhancement could include new service along the Encinal, Central, and/or Lincoln corridors with connections to Alameda Point and/or Bay Farm Island.
• Transbay Service - Without its own BART station, Alameda’s residents heavily depend on AC Transit’s Transbay service to commute to San Francisco. In fact, Alameda has three of the most popular Transbay lines in the O, OX and W. With the continued development of office space in San Francisco, job growth is expected to continue. Alameda is responding to the local housing crisis by building new high-density housing; AC Transit must respond commensurately with Transbay bus service.
AC Transit recently completed implementation of Phase 1 of Transbay Tomorrow, which resulted in minimal Transbay service increases for Alameda. With the passage of Regional Measure 3, the District will start the planning process for Phase 2 in the fall of 2019, which will increase all Transbay service by a third. In Alameda, staff anticipate increasing frequency on existing Transbay routes and/or development of new Transbay routes or other service models such as Park & Rides, if feasible. The District will also consider adding double-decker buses in Alameda, which could double the capacity of Transbay service without additional operating resources.
Separate from the service network improvements, other opportunities for improved public transportation consistent with the City’s and AC Transit’s goals are:
• Fare Structure - With a city-wide TMA, it is conceivable to have public transit in Alameda be free to the end-user by expanding AC Transit’s EasyPass program. Cashless boardings improve dwell times and increase speed and reliability. Transit that is free to the end-user would also allow seamless transfers, allowing AC Transit to roll out an efficient and more frequent transit network for the entire island more quickly. The City’s Transportation Choices Plan has a high-priority project titled “EasyPass Expansion”, and the City is actively expanding its EasyPass members with potential future expansion to the employees along Park Street and Webster Street depending on future parking meter revenues.
• Transit Infrastructure - In conjunction with an improved transit network, the City and AC Transit should continually work on improving roadway infrastructure for transit priority. Improvements could include but are not be limited to: dedicated transit lanes, queue-jump lanes, bus stop boarding islands, transit stop amenities, transit signal priority, bus stop optimization and traffic signal coordination/actuation.
AC Transit successfully coordinated with the City to deliver the Line 51 project, which introduced many of these elements to the Line 51 corridor in Alameda. In addition, the City is committed to constructing transit improvements along Ralph Appezzatto Memorial Parkway to facilitate the travel of buses between Alameda Point and Downtown Oakland. Other applicable projects in the City’s Transportation Choices Plan include “Bus Stop Improvements” (project #2), “Transit Signal Priority” (project #10), “Westline Drive Bus Lane” (project #17) and “Alameda Point Bus Rapid Transit Service” (project #19), which includes dedicated bus lanes or bus queue jump lanes along Appezzato Parkway. A long-term project in the Plan is a potential “New Transit/Bike/Pedestrian Lifeline Tube (project #37).
• Zero-emission Buses - AC Transit is committed to reducing its carbon footprint. The District currently has the world’s largest hydrogen fuel cell bus program and regularly operates those vehicles on routes that travel through Alameda. The mandate by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to require a 100% zero-emission fleet for all public transit agencies in the state by 2040 will accelerate AC Transit’s rollout of zero-emission buses. New battery-electric buses are already slated to join the District’s hydrogen fuel cell fleet in the near-term.
The ideas and concepts outlined in this memorandum are a vision for AC Transit’s service in Alameda that builds upon existing guiding documents like the City’s Transportation Choices Plan and three major AC Transit initiatives:
• Major Corridors Study - Short and long-term vision for upgrading infrastructure and service on AC Transit’s Major Corridors including Line 51A
• Clean Corridors Plan - Plan that prioritizes the implementation of zero-emission buses
• Strategic Plan - AC Transit’s agency-wide comprehensive guiding document
While these concepts may be subject to change based on financial constraints, feasibility, and public and stakeholder input, they will serve as the initial basis for improving transit mobility in and around the island. Through a larger-scale planning process like the District’s Transbay Tomorrow initiative, staff expect to further refine these ideas and concepts. Developing these ideas and concepts into reality will require significant planning, funding, outreach and shared commitment between the two entities.