City of Alameda – AC Transit ILC
October 12, 2022 Meeting Notes
1. Roll Call/Welcome and Introductions
a. Attendees - Elsa Ortiz, John Knox White
2. Announcements/Public Comments
a. John Knox White: Encourage people to take a look at the City’s website for recent updates on the Clement/Tilden project and Draft Active Transportation Plan
3. Notes from the Previous ILC Meeting (July 13, 2022)
a. No comments
4. Draft Street Classifications
a. Andrew Thomas: The City has made an amendment to the Mobility Element of the General Plan, including updated street classifications/transit routes. This establishes a classification of streets and provides guidance on how to treat those streets (in terms of speeds, widths, etc.). One of the overlays is the transit route overlay that illustrates how the City can have an effective transit network. Transit routes are critical and essential to achieve the goals in the City’s General Plan.
Effective transit is critical to the rest of the system working effectively. b. Elsa Ortiz: On Slide 6 – last paragraph of page 6: what does this mean and how often will you do this?
c. Andrew Thomas: Transit isn’t necessarily fixed, so the beauty of it is it can be adjusted. We wanted to make it clear that to be effective you need to be flexible.
No fixed schedule on how often transit routes should be evaluated, just wanted to say that the evaluation is happening constantly.
d. Elsa Ortiz: You also enumerated different time frames for different steps of this map. When during the timeframe will AC Transit participate in what the City is proposing?
e. Gail Payne: We’ve been coordinating regularly with AC Transit staff. f. Robert Del Rosario: We’re about to start on our systemwide network redesign, so this kind of road map is very helpful.
g. Elsa Ortiz: For those streets that have been identified for transit – will developer fees play a role in the design of the transit routes?
h. Andrew Thomas: Yes. We also see the Alameda TMA playing a more important role moving forward.
5. Alameda Transportation Management Association Update a. Andrew Thomas: Introducing Lucy Gigli as the new executive director for the Alameda TMA. The TMA works on improving funding for non-auto travel in Alameda. The TMA will be thinking about improving transportation throughout the City as a whole, rather than thinking about transit improvements for each development. Every new project in Alameda provides money on an annual basis for transportation. It’s provided to the Alameda TMA, and the City sets the rates.
No need to do a TDM plan. All the money will just go to the TMA, who will then work with AC Transit and WETA to make transit better for everyone in Alameda.
6. Update on Creating the Alameda Ferry Terminal Paid Parking Pricing Policy a. Lisa Foster: The goal is to stop encouraging driving and providing free parking.
We are looking at a baseline Monday-Friday fee for parking at the ferry terminals.
We also want to manage parking demand, and will be looking at shifting prices systematically based on demand. The General Plan Mobility Element also includes a parking goal. The City will also need to work on parking enforcement.
Last May, we launched a public enforcement program to help expand the program further. We have also been working on updating the enforcement technology. Pricing at the ferry terminals will be something like $3 for a baseline fee, with a demand responsive increase. We are only looking at hourly rates or daily rates; not looking at monthly parking to avoid incentivizing daily auto travel.
The City is working with WETA on the parking plan.
b. Public Comment: I’m an occasional rider of the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry, and I like taking the Like 78 bus there. Many do not realize the bus is free if you’re connecting from the ferry and tap on with a Clipper Card. Recommend beefing up the publicity on Line 78.
c. Elsa Ortiz: Good comment on upping the marketing.
7. AC Transit Ridership and Complaints with Actual Missed Runs a. Crystal Wang: Overall ridership is up compared to the same time period in 2021, and it’s been trending upward on both local lines and Transbay, but it’s still not back to pre-pandemic levels. In terms of customer feedback, most of the complaints we’ve received were regarding no shows and pass-ups. We continue to have challenges with operator availability, but we’ve been doing what we can to hire more bus operators to address the issues.
6. Line 78 Update
a. Crystal Wang: Line 78 service will continue to operate through June 2023.
Ridership on the line currently isn’t particularly high, but hopefully we will see some ridership growth when paid parking is implemented. Thank you again to City staff on the partnership with facilitating this service. More marketing will be done in the Fall.
b. John Knox White: Make sure the marketing is targeted to ferry passengers. c. Gail Payne: Thank you to WETA for making the marketing happen. Thank you to CASA for their efforts in promoting AC Transit.
8. AC Transit Service Recovery Update
a. Robert Del Rosario: We’re looking at service recovery and network redesign.
The biggest focus for us right now is on hiring bus operators. We want to make sure we’re able to provide reliable service. We’re focused on meeting our service reliability target before we continue on service restoration and getting back to pre-pandemic levels. Service restoration is based on communities of concern and line productivity. For the future, we have a new network plan that we’re going to start on soon, and we’re currently in the process of selecting consultants. We should be able to start talking about the approach to the service plan during the next ILC meeting. We continue to have concerns about funding and ongoing recruitment challenges. Again, in the short term, our focus is on service reliability over service restoration. During our next service change, we’re going to make sure OWL service is operating at the levels we need it to be.
9. Free Bus Pass Program for Seniors and Peoples with Disabilities Update a. Katherine Kaldis: There have been average boardings of 96 passengers per day. The passengers really appreciate the operators and the service that is provided.
10. New Developments Update
a. Andrew Thomas: In the next 3-5 months (early 2023) we have a few projects that are going to be opening, two on the north waterfront (Alameda Marina and Del Monte Warehouse). Both are part of the Alameda TMA and will get EasyPasses, so we should see increased ridership on Line 19. Alameda Point development continues, as well as promotion of EasyPass as more developments come into the City. Longer term, we’re working on the Housing Element. The northern waterfront and Alameda Point are where most development is going to occur over the next 10 years. In the near future there will also be growth at Harbor Bay shopping center and South Shore shopping center. b. Lucy Gigli: The Alameda TMA just got tons of data from AC Transit on the EasyPass program – would be happy to present on it at a later date.
10. Street Project Update: Encinal, Grand, Mecartney/Island, Lincoln/Marshall/Pacific, Central, Clement/Tilden, and Otis/Doolittle/SR 61 and Commercial Street Program a. Gail Payne: There are lots of virtual workshops and in-person workshops coming up. We are also continuing to coordinate with AC Transit on all of these projects.
11. Next Meetings and Discuss Potential for Hybrid Meetings a. John Knox White: It’s been effective to have hybrid meetings since it lowers barriers for participation. Would encourage continuing with hybrid meetings moving forward.
12. Announcements/Public Comments
a. John Knox White: There is still something strange happening with the Transit app with the Transbay lines.
13. Adjournment
a. Meeting adjourned at 10:18am