body,date,page,text,path
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,1,"DRAFT MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
CITY OF ALAMEDA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
Vice-Chair Miley called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
1. ROLL CALL
Present: Vice-Chair Miley, Commissioners Vargas, Bertken, Soules, Hans, Palmer.
Absent: Chair Bellows.
2. AGENDA CHANGES
*None*
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
Commissioner Vargas announced the scoping meeting for the Oakland-Alameda Access
Project would take place the next day in Oakland.
3A
Alameda Transportation Management Association - Introduction of Chair
Michael O'Hara of Tim Lewis Communities
Jennifer Ott introduced Mike O'Hara.
Michael O'Hara introduced himself to the commission. He gave some history on the
forming and composition of the TMA.
Commissioner Vargas asked how large the TMA is, how often and where they meet, and
how the Transportation Commission can work with them.
Mr. O'Hara said they have been meeting monthly. He said the sub area committees also
have been meeting to discuss specific items. He explained the funding they get from
new units and employers. He said they met recently to approve their
website: www.alamedaTMA.org
3B Station-Less Bike Share to Launch in October
Staff Member Payne said that there would be a ribbon cutting on October 5th at 4pm at
Faction Brewery.
3C Walk and Roll to School Day: Wednesday, October 4, 2017
3D Climate Action Plan Update Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, October 5, 2017 at
6:30pm (Main Library)
3E California Share Your Ride Week: October 2-6, 2017
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TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,2,"3F Alameda Bike for the Parks: Saturday, October 7, 2017 at 9:00am (Washington
Park)
3G Climate Action Plan at Public Utilities Board: Monday, October 16, 2017 at
7:00pm (City Hall, Council Chambers)
Staff Member Payne said this item has been postponed to November 13th.
3H Transportation Commission Meeting: Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at
7:00pm
4. CONSENT CALENDAR
4A 2017-4752
Approve Meeting Minutes - July 26, 2017 (Action)
Commissioner Vargas asked if we could insert the dollar range of parking ticket
violations on page 4 of 6 for future reference.
Commissioner Soules made a motion to approve the minutes. Commissioner
Vargas seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-0-2 (Vice-Chair Miley and
Commissioner Hans abstained due to their absence from the 7/26/17 meeting.)
5. NEW BUSINESS
5A 2017-4753
Elect Chair and Vice Chair (Action)
Vice-Chair Miley said Commissioners Bellows and Vargas have a lot of experience and
he feels they would make an excellent chair and vice-chair. He said he spoke with Chair
Bellows and confirmed that she would like to stay on as chair. He said he would like to
make that motion when the time comes, after discussion.
Commissioner Vargas said he tried to convince a young man to be chair, but he
declined.
Vice-Chair Miley said he appreciated the offer, but was not in a position to commit the
time necessary to be chair.
Vice-Chair Miley made a motion to appoint Commissioner Bellows as chair, and
Commissioner Vargas as vice-chair for the next year. Commissioner Soules
seconded the motion. The motion passed 6-0.
5B 2017-4754
Approve Draft Transportation Choices Plan (Action)
Staff Member Jennifer Ott gave the staff presentation. The staff report and attachments
can be found at:
2",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,3," https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3158563&GUID=FA3FBDE5
B456-4391-8D95-1AC8D71F82AA&FullText=1
Commissioner Soules asked what the timeline is to meet the stated goals.
Staff Member Ott said the goals were based on a 15 year timeline.
Commissioner Palmer asked what dollar amounts the actual developers are required to
contribute to the plan and not just their residents.
Staff Member Ott gave examples of contributions that developers have been required to
contribute, such as $10,000,000 for a new ferry terminal at Alameda Pt.
Commissioner Palmer asked why 2030 was chosen as the benchmark for measuring the
plan's success.
Bill Hurrell, CDM Smith, said they wanted to pick a horizon that was long enough to
allow the plan to have an impact, but not so long that they would not have confidence in
predicting what would happen in the future.
Vice-Chair Miley opened the public hearing.
Christina Hanson, employee of Harbor Bay Isle and Central Avenue resident, said the
community is concerned about the proposal to add bus lanes on Island Drive. She said
they do not believe this is the right solution for the problem. She said the median and
trees are very important to the community. She said there are also safety concerns
around the elementary school with adding bus lanes there.
Jim Strehlow said we have added 5,000 new homes and asked where the 5,000 new
jobs were to go with them. He said the city should be prioritizing job creation but is in fact
doing the opposite. He said stopping growth is part of the real solution. He said
Alamedans want another bridge or tunnel. He said the public meetings are too rigid for
genuine discussion, or speakers are hand picked. He asked that more discussion time
be allowed for future meetings on these issues. He said when he drives kids for a non-
profit he is a single driver off the island. He said he is mad because this plan is not a
solution to the transportation problem.
Pat Potter, CASA, said she is concerned about the Transportation Awareness
Campaign. She said we need to drill down deep and understand what prevents
individuals from changing their behavior.
Andrea Wuttke, transportation planner and infrastructure economist, said a bus system
is a supplemental mass transit vehicle. She said her plan would be to take 20,000 rides
a day out of the system to connect the island to Oakland via an aerial tramway.
3",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,4,"Randy Woolwine, aerial tram builder, said a tramway would be equal to a fully loaded
bus leaving a terminal every minute. He said they did a study for Alameda in the past for
a homebuilder.
Maria Gallo asked why there is no evening estuary crossing goal. She said there could
be placeholders in the plan for mid-course corrections. She said there are more
opportunities for public awareness. She asked why Alameda is so reliant on AC Transit
for our services. She said we should do more pilot projects.
Jean Nader, member of Alameda Progressives, said the proposal has some noteworthy
items in it that reflects Alameda's history. She said innovation and equity should be
considered in the plan. She said many bike riders use the walking path to get to and
from the ferry because they are trying to get away from the cars on Main Street. She
said residents west of Webster have lost most of their bus service.
Jeff Gould said that there is not enough attention paid in the plan to the goal of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. He said it does not take responsibility for the electrification
of our fossil fuel vehicles. He said people would be more likely to walk and bike if they
were not forced to breathe cars' toxic emissions.
Christine Bauer said she has seen a huge increase in ferry ridership in recent years. She
said ferry riders would like to see the terminal access plans moved from medium to high
priority. She said that drivers who cannot find parking often decide to drive to BART.
Christine Lok said she is a ferry rider with concerns about coordinating access to the
ferries. She said the changes at Harbor Bay have had an impact on people's lives. She
said there are real people behind the graphs and numbers.
Alan Pryor said we should have more options for charging electric cars in public spaces.
He said it would also help get rid of greenhouse gases.
Vice-Chair Miley closed the public hearing.
Commissioner Soules said there is no silver bullet and is glad the plan is diverse. She
said the public awareness and engagement is important. She wanted to understand how
this would be a living document to make adjustments as time passes.
Commissioner Palmer said she liked the items in the plan. She wanted to know why we
are pushing the big ideas off into the future.
Vice-Chair Miley said he would like to see another access point on the west end, but that
they are extremely large projects that the city cannot carry on their own. He said we
need to seriously consider congestion pricing to help fund the big ideas. He said the
4",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,5,"ferry parking issues have been on the TC agendas for 18 months but the conversations
were dominated by the HOAs. He agrees with moving the ferry terminal access plans to
the near term.
Staff Member Ott said they are fine with moving the ferry terminal items to the near term
and are already working on it.
Commissioner Vargas suggested adding ferry parking as an issue to items three and
four. He said we need to address that issue sooner. He said we should reiterate findings
that previous estuary crossing analyses have done on some of the ""crazy, creative""
ideas so we do not spend a lot of money redoing the same studies.
Commissioner Soules said she was glad that the Harbor Bay ferry area permit parking
issue would be returning for review soon. She said she is worried that neighborhood
parking permits would spread before we are offering viable transit options for people
accessing the Harbor Bay Ferry. She said we should be doing some risk based delivery
on these projects.
Commissioner Bertken said the public will judge the success of the plan based on their
own personal experience today versus the future.
Mr. Hurrell said the data they based the plan off of was from 2015. He said the new,
higher goal would dial things back to about 2010 traffic levels. He said success will mean
the duration of the peak will decrease. He said the goal is quite aggressive.
Vice-Chair Miley asked for an explanation of the methodology of the jobs and housing
numbers in the plan.
Mr. Hurrell said that they used ABAG's regional forecasts to project jobs and housing
numbers, as well as all the project specific numbers for the island were factored in.
Commissioner Vargas asked if Goal 2 would result in a reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions.
Mr. Hurrell said that the mode shift would result in a reduction in greenhouse gases. He
said that does not take into account changing the mix of cars to more electrics, which
was not the focus of the plan.
Commissioner Vargas asked if the plan could highlight electricity discounts offered to
electric vehicle owners.
Mr. Hurrell said they could add some language being more supportive of electric
vehicles to change the tone of the plan somewhat.
5",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,6,"Staff Member Ott said that they are entering into a Climate Action Plan update, which
could take this plan and switch to the focus of greenhouse gas reductions.
Vice-Chair Miley summarized what he thought the commission's feedback was. He said
they would like to review progress in 1-2 years rather than 3 years. He said they want
items 31 & 32 to be moved up to near term completion. He said this is a good first step
at addressing our congestion issues. He asked if each project in the plan would go
through a public outreach process before implementation, i.e. Island Dr. bus lanes.
Staff Member Ott said that they would have public processes. She said their intention
would not be to take out mature trees. She says they think they could achieve a bus only
lane by taking only about two feet of the median. She said they think it is a good project,
but that if the community does not like it, they will move on to other projects.
Commissioner Soules asked for and received confirmation that there is always a project
website for any major projects to help with outreach. She said she would like to hear
more about engaging genuine ride sharing (no cost) technologies.
Staff Member Ott said they are working on those kinds of ride sharing issues and can
add more. She said it is important for everyone to remember that they need to engage in
the budget process as well if they want to see their projects and plan implemented.
Commissioner Vargas made a motion to recommend the plan with amendments
suggested by the commissioners during discussion. Commissioner Hans
seconded the motion.
Commissioner Palmer said she was not clear on what they are actually voting to do. She
asked if we are voting to get started and things in the plan can change over time or are
we saying this is how we want things to go.
Vice-Chair Miley said his understanding is that we are recommending approval of the
plan as it is, with the comments heard tonight, moving items 31 and 32 up, and having a
quicker reporting back on the plan.
Commissioner Palmer said she does not have enough information on some of the bigger
project ideas and would have to vote nay.
Staff Member Ott said they can always bring new ideas forward.
The motion passed 5-1 (Palmer.)
6",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,7,"5-C 2017--4755
Review Station-less Bike Share Program (Information)
Staff Member Ott gave the staff presentation. The staff report and attachment can be
found at:
https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3158564&GUID=903E0D37-
5AD5-49DB-B4D7-2413D78711C8&FullText=1
Commissioner Soules said they have it in Seattle and she liked it. She asked if there
was a way to help people acquire helmets.
Staff Member Ott said they will work with the bike shops and report back. She said it will
work well with things like the ferry for those last mile issues.
Dermot Hikisch said he supports the bike share pilot. He said their goal at Gig car share
is to enable trip sharing and reduce car ownership.
STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
6-A 2017-4757
Review Quarterly Report on Activities Related to Transportation Policies and
Plans (Information)
Staff Member Payne gave an update. The staff report can be found at:
ttps://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3158565&GUID=55E22B57-
94AF-4020-8F8A-7BC8CA395278&FullText=1
6-B Potential Future Meeting Agenda Items
1. Climate Action Plan Update Work Scope
2. Harbor Bay Ferry Terminal Parking Restriction Analysis
3. Traffic Calming Draft Policy and Prioritized List
4. 2014 Parking Occupancy Goal Update
5. Alameda Transportation Management Association Annual Report
6. Paratransit Program Annual Report
Staff Member Payne listed the above items coming to future meetings.
6. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
Jim Strehlow said he wishes he had learned more about the details of the bike share
program. He said traffic is so bad in Alameda it is reducing the quality of life and
enjoyment of visitors coming to Alameda. He said the Transportation Plan is missing the
mark.
Commissioner Vargas said he attended a car show at Alameda Point that was a fun
event that provided a great backdrop for the event.
7",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf
TransportationCommission,2017-09-27,8,"Commissioner Hans said that October 4th is Walk and Roll to School Day and folks will
see more kids biking to school that day. He said they normally have about 300 riders per
day, so might see 400-500 that day.
7. ADJOURNMENT
Vice-Chair Miley adjourned the meeting at 9:06pm.
8",TransportationCommission/2017-09-27.pdf