Title
Adoption of Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Apply for and Accept up to $88,000 in Bay Area Air Quality Management District Vehicle Trip Reduction Grant Funds, and Allocate up to $57,000 in Local Matching Funds to Purchase and Install Electronic Bicycle Lockers at Locations including the Sea Plan Lagoon Ferry Terminal, Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal and City Hall. (Transportation 4226287)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In September, the City Council adopted a Citywide Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP), following the declaration of a climate emergency, designed to reduce Citywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As described in the CARP, transportation emissions account for over 70% of the City of Alameda’s (City) GHG emissions, and encouraging and facilitating the community’s ability to shift to climate friendly transportation modes, including bicycling, is critical to the City’s ability to achieve its GHG emission reduction goals.
To provide greater theft protection and secure storage for people who want to ride a bicycle or scooter as part of their work commute, staff seeks authority to apply to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) for up to $88,000 in Vehicle Trip Reduction Grant funds to purchase and install 36 new electronic bicycle lockers at the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal (24 spaces), Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal (8 spaces), and Alameda City Hall (4 spaces), to support bicycling as an alternative to driving to these major transit stops and destinations. The total cost for this locker purchase and installation project is $145,000. If approved, staff will apply for $88,000 in grant funding, with a local matching allocation of $57,000. Funds for the match have been identified in the City’s local discretionary transportation sales tax funds (Measures B and BB bicycle and pedestrian funds).
BACKGROUND
Electronic bicycle lockers (elockers) provide greater theft-protection than bicycle racks, making it easier for people to use a bicycle for transportation. Elockers can also be used to store scooters, helmets, lights, and bags. And locker roofs provide some protection from rain. Secure storage is especially important for people who want to ride a bicycle or scooter as part of their work commute, because they have to leave their bicycles or scooters parked for many hours. Placing elockers at commuter hubs, like ferry terminals, enables people to use a bicycle or scooter for the “last mile” of their commute.
Elockers have been in use in Alameda since 2009 and data shows that many of them are used regularly. There are currently elockers at the following locations, with the indicated parking space capacity:
• 16 at the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal (City owned and maintained);
• 16 in the Civic Center Parking Structure (City owned and maintained);
• 12 at Webster and Atlantic, near the College of Alameda (City owned and maintained);
• 20 at the Main Street Ferry Terminal (Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) owned and maintained); and
• 26 at Alameda Landing Shopping Center (privately owned and maintained).
DISCUSSION
Supporting bicycle and scooter commuting will help the City meet its goals to reduce GHG emissions by supporting mode shift away from automobiles. The City’s recently-adopted CARP found that transportation will soon account for 70% of the City’s GHG emissions, and that moving people out of automobiles is paramount to reducing transportation-related emissions. Enabling more people to lock their bikes and scooters securely at the ferry terminals may also reduce and help manage automobile parking.
Staff is seeking grant funds to purchase and install 36 new elockers, including 24 at the soon to be completed Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal to meet the future commuter needs, 8 at the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal, and four at City Hall. The City has received requests for more elockers at the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal, with existing elockers reaching capacity in summer 2019. (The Main Street Ferry Terminal elockers, which are owned by WETA, were installed several years ago and are not reaching capacity.) Staff also recommends placing four elocker spaces at the Oak Street entrance of City Hall for use by the public and City Hall employees, on a first-come, first-served basis. City Hall does not currently have a bike room or bike cage, making it difficult for employees to store their bikes or scooters securely while they work.
The Air District’s Vehicle Trip Reduction Grant Program requires that elockers be installed and available for public use within one year of the implementation start date. The likely operation period requirement would be seven years, depending on an Air District assessment.
The Air District is a regional air pollution control agency tasked with regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The Vehicle Trip Reduction Program is funded by the Air District’s Transportation Fund for Clean Air, a $4 surcharge on motor vehicles registered within the Bay Area. Air District funding would enable the City to leverage Measure B (Bike/Ped) and Measure BB (Bike/Ped) Funds, stretching those monies further than otherwise possible.
ALTERNATIVES
• Authorize staff to apply for Air District funds for 36 new elocker parking spaces at three locations.
• Not support the described Vehicle Trip Reduction grant application for elockers. Funding for the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal elockers would need to come from the Seaplane Lagoon project funds, which are currently stretched thin to apply to other aspects of the project, including biking and walking enhancements. Without Air District funds, the City would likely wait to install elockers at Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal and City Hall, until more of its local sales tax funding is available.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Purchasing and installing bike lockers with 36 spaces will cost $145,000. City staff is seeking $88,000 in grant funding from the Air District. Although the Air District requires the City to provide at least 10% in matching funds, based on the Air District’s cost-effectiveness requirements, the City is proposing a $57,000 local match. The matching funds for this project will be funded with monies allocated from Measures B (Bike/Ped) and Measure BB (Bike/Ped). The budget is included in the Public Works Department Bicycle-Pedestrian Project (No. 9161102).
The $88,000 of sought grant funding has not been appropriated in the current budget. Staff will return to City Council to amend the Fiscal Year 2019-20 Budget after the Air District awards the grant to the City.
Funds for the ongoing maintenance costs for elockers are already included in the Planning, Building and Transportation Department’s 2019-21 adopted budget, and are sufficient to cover the additional proposed elockers.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action is consistent with the CARP, adopted September 2019, which set a GHG emissions reduction goal of 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, the 2018 Transportation Choices Plan, which calls for improving multimodal access to the Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal, including bicycle improvements, the 2016 Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal Plan, which requires bike parking, and the 2010 Transportation Element of the General Plan, which envisions a multimodal city that supports bicycles, along with other modes.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The installation of new bicycle parking facilities such as elockers is categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under CEQA Guidelines section 15301 (existing facilities).
CLIMATE IMPACTS
Installing new elockers will reduce GHG emissions by allowing people to ride bicycles or scooters for transportation rather than drive their cars. The Air District’s Vehicle Trip Reduction Program’s central goal is to decrease GHG emissions and air pollutants by reducing single-occupancy vehicle trips. Program guidelines specifically state that the Air District provides funding for elockers to support cycling as an alternative to driving.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends adoption of a resolution authorizing the City Manager to apply for and accept up to $88,000 in Vehicle Trip Reduction Grant Funds and allocate up to $57,000 in local matching funds to purchase and install electronic bicycle lockers.
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
The City Manager recommends approval of adoption of a resolution.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Director, Planning, Building, and Transportation Department
By,
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Lisa Foster, Transportation Planner
Financial Impact section reviewed,
Elena Adair, Finance Director
cc: Eric Levitt, City Manager