body,date,page,text,path
TransportationCommission,2019-11-20,1,"Transportation Commission 1-22-20
Item 4-A
APPROVED MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE
CITY OF ALAMEDA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2019
Chair Soules convened the meeting at 7:00 p.m.
1. ROLL CALL
Present: Chair Soules, Commissioners Nachtigall, Kohlstrand, Hans, Johnson, Weitze.
Absent: Yuen.
2. AGENDA CHANGES
A portion of Staff Communications was moved to the front of the agenda in order to allow
the City Engineer to introduce new staff members and provide an update related to Vision
Zero actions.
*STAFF COMMUNICATIONS'
Scott Wikstrom, City Engineer, introduced two new engineering hires for the Public Works
Department. Donya Amiri, Traffic Engineer, and Robert Vance who will be supervising
many of the capital improvement projects that come before the Transportation
Commission.
Staff Member Amiri introduced herself to the Commission.
Robert Vance, Senior Engineer, introduced himself to the Commission.
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator, provided an update on the
Transportation Choices Plan outreach process. She said the recent open house was well
attended and a big success. She said the project webpage is now up at
ActiveAlameda.org. She noted the City Council unanimously adopted the Vision Zero
Policy at its November 5th meeting.
Staff Member Amiri reported on short term actions being taken in response to recent youth
involved collisions, including refreshed crosswalks, daylighting intersections, adding
advanced stop bars, replacing signage, and changes to signal operations to improve
pedestrian safety. She said there would be a citywide speed survey completed soon which
can provide opportunities to reduce speed limits and analyze flow characteristics.
3. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
3-A Transportation Commission Meeting: Wed, Jan 22 at 7 p.m.
3-B Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) 2020 Trainings: register on Fire
Department web page
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Item 4-A
3-C Alameda Active Transportation Plan web page: www.ActiveAlameda.org
3-D Emergency Alerts for Alameda - Subscribe at AC Alert web page:
tps://www.acgov.org/emergencysite/
3-E Regional Emergency Transportation Alerts - Subscribe:
https://511.org/alerts/emergencies/511Alert
3-F Clipper Card (adults) - order on line or at Walgreens or set up Autoload to add value
automatically: https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/getTranslink.do
3-G Clipper Card Discounts for youth, seniors and people with disabilities
-
https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/discounts/index.do
3-H Clipper Card senior sign-up event at Mastick Senior Center - Tues, Dec 17 at 1 p.m.
- Conference Room D
3-I FasTrak or new toll tag for upcoming I-880 Express Lanes scheduled to open late
summer 2020: on line or at Walgreens (except not Park Street location) and then register
on line: ittps://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/signup/signUp.shtm
Laura Katz said her 15 year old daughter was struck in a crosswalk at Fernside and High
St. by a hit and run driver on October 3rd. She said it has been a traumatic event for her
family. She requested crossing guards and improvements along the entire corridor of
Fernside from Versailles to High.
Andy Stoddard said he would like to see a light on Fernside at Harvard. He said people
go too fast. He said they have been trying to address that area for at least 12 years. He
suggested having the commissioners do a visit to the site.
Commissioner Kohlstrand said she walks that corridor regularly and that it is a very
dangerous corridor.
Chair Soules noted that many of the recent collisions have been happening around the
time change.
Commissioner Johnson said he lives near Fernside and understands the concerns there
very well.
Maria Gallo requested the commissioners to come walk the corridor with the residents.
She asked for stop signs and other measures to help slow cars down.
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Item 4-A
4. CONSENT CALENDAR
4-A 2019-7469
Draft Meeting Minutes - September 25, 2019
Commissioner Kohlstrand moved approval of the minutes. Commissioner Nachtigall
seconded the motion. The motion passed 6-0.
5. NEW BUSINESS
5-A 2019-7470
Discuss the AC Transit Line 19 Promotional Pilot Program
Gail Payne, Senior Transportation Coordinator, gave a report. The staff report and
attachments
can
be
found
at:
https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4228445&GUID=E655A108-
CE47-448B-B312-E6AC7D057282&FullText=1.
Kristy Cannon said it was a good experience interacting one on one with residents and
they learned a lot about barriers people have that prevent transit usage.
Chair Soules said she loved the model of this program.
Commissioner Nachtigall thanked the team for their efforts, noting that the team knocked
on her door as well.
Commissioner Weitze said the Line 19 has a branding problem. He said the ""BART
Shuttle"" branding is powerful and should be incorporated into the signage on the bus
displays.
No action was taken.
5-B 2019-7471
Review and Comment on Draft Goals for AC Transit's Comprehensive Operations
Analysis
Staff Member Payne gave a presentation. The staff report and attachments can be found
at: https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4228572&GUID=10E395B0-
4726-44A0-9E74-EB10D2E078B7&FullText=
Commissioner Kohlstrand said that successful transit is dependent upon three factors in
an area: income levels, automobile ownership, and density. She said we need to make
our transit investments in concert with our land use decisions, focusing on our densest
corridors. She said we are setting ourselves up to have to subsidize the services outlined
in these goals that might not be the most efficient allocation of resources.
Chair Soules said there is a disconnect between the statements that we are well served
by transit and the public's impression that they cannot get where they need to go in a given
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TransportationCommission,2019-11-20,4,"Mirabelle Reyes, appellant, said she started keeping track of the crashes at the
intersection since 2016. She said drivers are speeding to try and make the light at the next
intersection. She said there are many kids, elderly and people pushing strollers at this
dangerous intersection. She said the intersection needs a four way stop.
Commissioner Nachtigall asked Ms. Reyes what she meant by a systems issue.
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Ms. Reyes said that Oak Street is a high injury corridor with lots of speeding and the traffic
flow is not being contained correctly.
Commissioner Kohlstrand asked if Ms. Reyes had evidence that there have been five or
more collisions in the past 12 months.
Ms. Reyes said she shared some images with Public Works staff.
Chair Soules asked Staff Member Wikstrom to explain the warrant process and data
discrepancies.
Staff Member Wikstrom said they use the police logs, which only include incidents that
generate a police report. He said that Oak Street is a common bypass for Park Street. He
added that collision numbers have been mostly stable in Alameda over the past ten years.
Commissioner Johnson said he biked through the intersection in order to evaluate the
safety. He said the visibility at the intersection was now pretty good. He said he did not
believe there were crosswalks marked across Oak Street, which he thinks may help in
that area.
Staff Member Wikstrom said that creating an uncontrolled crosswalks imply a degree of
safety when the vehicles on Oak do not need to stop. He said they are mindful to limit the
number of those, but might want to install rectangular rapid flashing beacons at those
types of crossings.
Commissioner Kohlstrand said this intersection would be a good candidate to return to in
six months or a year to see if the visibility improvements have reduced collisions.
Chair Soules asked that staff give more information at a future meeting about what Vision
Zero is and what the effort is about to provide context for the community.
Commissioner Hans said we need to improve how we collect data on minor traffic
incidents.
Staff Member Wheeler explained some of the ways they will be collecting data for the
Active Transportation Plan.
Chair Soules summarized the Commission's feedback: staff will look for ways to improve
the ability to report and how that impacts the warrant process; report back on how the
daylighting improvements are working at Pacific and Oak.
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Commissioner Johnson made a motion to uphold staff's decision not to install a
four way stop at Pacific and Oak. Commissioner Weitze seconded the motion. The
motion passed 6-0.
5-D 2019-7473
Discuss Electric Vehicle Adoption
Staff Member Payne gave a presentation. The report and attachments can be found at:
https://alameda.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4228580&GUID=2C474DDF-
F4DD-4A03-B091-CC1E8E09A727&FullText=1
Sonia Manrique, Alameda Municipal Power, continued the presentation.
Commissioner Weitze asked about the fleet replacement policy and whether replacing
existing vehicles with new electric vehicles was a net benefit.
Staff Member Payne said they are replacing vehicles that are beyond their useful life. She
added that charging capacity is the main limiting factor to the number of EVs they can
purchase at this time.
Commissioner Weitze asked what would happen to the green energy surcharge once the
shift to 100 percent clean energy occurs.
Rebecca Irwin, Alameda Municipal Power, said they will be repositioning the Alameda
Green program to allow people to green up the regional grid instead of just their individual
home.
Commissioner Weitze asked if the rebate would apply towards the infrastructure or just
the charger.
Staff Member Irwin said that the rebates can be applied towards infrastructure, but that
multifamily units present unique challenges that can dramatically increase the cost of
adding individual chargers. She added that AMP staff will come out and talk through the
issues for any particular site.
Commissioner Nachtigall asked if the rebate would apply to leased EVs.
Staff Member Irwin said that AMP is focusing on rebating used vehicles, saying that the
market is already taking care of encouraging new vehicles.
No action was taken.
6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS
6-A Potential Future Meeting Agenda Items
1. Annual Report for the Transportation Choices Plan and the Climate Action and
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Item 4-A
Resiliency Plan
2. Annual Report for the Alameda Transportation Management Association (TMA) and
the Alameda Landing TMA
6-B Future Meeting Dates for 2020 - Meetings start at 7 p.m.
1. Wednesday, January 22
2. Wednesday, March 25
3. Wednesday, May 27
4. Wednesday, July 22
5. Wednesday, September 23
6. Wednesday, November 18
7. ANNOUNCEMENTS/PUBLIC COMMENT
Jim Strehlow said that not everyone in the Fernside area would be agreeable to changes
to Fernside that would favor neighbors on the north side of Fernside. He said the center
turn lane solves a lot of needs for people that live on Fernside. He asked that all neighbors
be included in a meeting on the issue.
Chair Soules asked that the Fernside HOA be included when staff arranges a site visit for
commissioners and neighbors of Fernside and Harvard.
8. ADJOURNMENT
Chair Soules adjourned the meeting at 8:58 p.m.
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