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To: Navarre Oaks, City of Emeryville
From: Jeff Knowles, Alta Planning + Design
Date: June 13, 2023
Re: Emeryville ATP | Public Draft Comment Responses
Background
The public comment period for the Draft Emeryville Active Transportation Plan opened on October 31, 2022, and ended on January 20, 2023. The City received 63 comments from the public on the Draft Active Transportation Plan.
Alta and City staff presented the Public Draft Plan to City Council as part of a study session on January 17, 2023.
Council directed City staff to prepare a response to public comments by theme. In response to public comments, Councilmember Priforce asked how Emeryville’s Bicycle Boulevards compare to Berkeley and Oakland. This memo includes responses to recurring public comments by theme and provides additional detail to answer Councilmember Priforce’s question.
General Comments
The public comments focused mainly on the following topics:
Safety
Eight public commenters expressed safety concerns.
• Two concerns were raised about crosswalk locations that are to be addressed in the Emeryville Loop project (page 128) and Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) I-80/Powell Street Interchange Transit Access Improvement project (page 138).
• Six general concerns focused on the safety of children bicycling and the effectiveness of separated bikeways were raised. These comments were evaluated for additional policy and project recommendations and are addressed through the implementation of the All Ages and Abilities network in the Active Transportation Plan (page 73).
Community Support
Five public commenters shared their support for specific recommendations or the Draft Active Transportation Plan as a whole.
• Comments were noted, and no action was taken in the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan San Pablo Avenue
Four public commenters provided feedback on San Pablo Avenue.
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• The City is currently coordinating with Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) on roadway designs for San Pablo Avenue and sharing public input to help inform the design process. • The Final Draft Active Transportation Plan now includes the following clarification for each applicable intersection on San Pablo Avenue: “Intersection included in the Alameda CTC San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project, currently in the design process at time of publication. This area is under Caltrans jurisdiction and Caltrans may or may not approve proposed projects” (pages 94-95).
New Ideas
Three public commenters presented the City with new ideas for examination. • After evaluating each suggestion, the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan now includes the following recommendations:
o E-32. Shared-Use Path (Class I) from 53rd Street to 47th Street on the western property line of the ECCL. This recommendation is a long-term vision and requires redevelopment and easement from the property owner (pages 105 and 110).
o E-33. Shared-Use Path (Class I) from Spur Alley to 47th Street. This recommendation is a long-term vision and requires redevelopment and easement from the property owner (pages 105 and 110). o E-36. Shared-Use Path (Class I) from 47th Street to 45th Street through the AC Transit property. This recommendation is a long-term vision and requires redevelopment and easement from the property owner (pages 105 and 110).
Marina Park Path
Three public commenters provided feedback on the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan recommendation to study expanding the width of the Marina Park Path (F-8).
• The Final Draft Plan says, “A study is proposed to better understand the feasibility of widening the trail to accommodate users of biking, walking, and rolling modes.” The comments expressed concern for user conflicts if bicycling was permitted. The study will investigate opportunities to address those concerns (pages 114 and 141).
Emeryville Loop
Three public commenters provided feedback on the conceptual designs of the Emeryville Loop project. • The Final Draft Active Transportation Plan did not include revisions to the conceptual design as additional funding is necessary for the City to conduct detailed engineering analysis and coordinate more focused public and stakeholder engagement on this project.
• The Final Draft Active Transportation Plan now includes the following information: “This concept design is for preliminary planning purposes only. Any future transit route modifications or bus stop improvements or relocation will require coordination with AC Transit and Emery Go-Round” (pages 128-135).
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Bike Boulevards
Two public commenters encouraged the City to re-evaluate the bicycle boulevard recommendations in the Draft Active Transportation Plan. Comments focused on having the City set vehicle speed and volume metrics for bicycle boulevard designated streets and commit to conducting data collection for bicycle boulevards biannually consistent with the City’s current Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan. • The Final Draft Active Transportation Plan has removed the need for City staff to study vehicle speeds and volumes to justify increased levels of traffic calming treatments before moving to implement them.
Subsequently, the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan does not include specific bicycle boulevard metrics or a requirement for the City to conduct biannual monitoring related to bicycle boulevards. • To assist staff in implementing traffic calming, the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan now includes a new Traffic Calming section that clarifies that the City may use treatments such as curb extensions, speed humps, raised crosswalks, lane narrowing, and partial or complete street closures to slow vehicle speeds and reduce traffic volumes. These tools can be used to implement bicycle boulevards or on streets recommended for other bikeway treatments (page 103).
• To measure and communicate progress in implementing the Active Transportation Plan, the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan includes Policy Recommendation A-5: Plan Evaluation and Program Recommendation B13: Traffic Counts that describes how the City can measure and communicate multimodal use data and share progress being made as the Active Transportation Plan is implemented. o Policy Recommendation A-5: Plan Evaluation (page 59)
A-5.1: When the Active Transportation Plan is updated, the City will assess citywide bicycle and pedestrian data and conduct additional counts as needed. A-5.2: When feasible, conduct bicycle and pedestrian counts before and after new projects are constructed.
A-5.3: The City will establish a centralized database to track the implementation status of the bicycle and pedestrian network proposed in the Active Transportation Plan. The database, and its mapping component, will allow for the rapid creation of reports and maps to be deployed to officials and the public.
o Programmatic Recommendation B-13: Traffic Counts (page 69) Pedestrian and bicycle counts are methods to evaluate not only the effectiveness of specific pedestrian and bicycle improvement projects but can also function as a way to measure progress towards reaching City goals.
Recommendations:
• When collecting vehicle counts for roadway projects, the City should take a multimodal approach that includes counting pedestrians, bicycles, and other transportation modes as applicable.
• Continue and expand the use of automatic counters to collect data on key pedestrian and bicycle corridors, such as the Emeryville Greenway. Automatic count technologies can be useful for bicycle and pedestrian count efforts. In-
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pavement loop detectors accurately count bicycle activity on-street and infrared counters can count pedestrian and bicycle activities on paths.
Bike Boulevards Metrics in Neighboring Jurisdictions
Oakland
For reference, the City of Oakland’s 2019 Bike Plan recommended 75 miles of neighborhood bike routes (NBRs), also known as “bicycle boulevards.” The Oakland Bicycle Plan does not include specific design or implementation metrics.
The City of Oakland Neighborhood Bike Route Implementation Guide (2021) provided more information on how the City of Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) should design those facilities. OakDOT sets target traffic speeds and volumes for NBRs based on NACTO’s Contextual Guidance for Selecting All Ages and Abilities Bikeways, March 2014,
1 as follows:
• Speeds less than or equal to 20 mph (95th percentile), less than or equal to 2,000 average vehicles per day, and less than 50 vehicles per hour per direction at peak hour; or • Speeds less than or equal to 25 mph (95th percentile), less than or equal to 1,500 average vehicles per day, and less than 50 vehicles per hour per direction at peak hour.
The implementation guide states that average daily traffic counts, speeds, and five-year crash data should be consulted to evaluate the level of traffic calming required. The City of Oakland Projects implementing NBRs on streets with traffic speeds and volumes above these thresholds should strive to reduce speeds and volumes below these targets. Existing bikeways exceeding these targets will be classified as bike routes, not NBRs. Some proposed NBRs may need ongoing monitoring if the existing traffic calming is insufficient to achieve the targets or if traffic patterns change. Additional traffic calming should be considered if the route is not meeting those targets. This new monitoring system can be incorporated into Oakland’s annual counts program.
Berkeley
In Berkeley, the City’s 2017 Bicycle Plan stated that Berkeley’s Bicycle Boulevards form the core of the city’s low-stress bikeway network and should offer a safe, comfortable, and convenient experience for people who bicycle. Bicycle Boulevards accomplish this through:
• Traffic control or warning devices to help people on bicycles cross major streets; • Low traffic volumes and speeds, which in some cases are achieved through traffic calming devices that discourage or limit non-local vehicle through traffic;
• Prioritized travel for bikes by assigning the right-of-way to the Bicycle Boulevard at intersections wherever possible; and
• Traffic control to help bicycles cross major streets.
The goal is for all Bicycle Boulevards to achieve a Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) score of LTS 1 or LTS 2, with LTS 2 being the level of traffic stress that most adults are willing to tolerate. The Bicycle Plan included a Bicycle Facility Design 1 https://nacto.org/publication/urban-bikeway-design-guide/designing-ages-abilities-new/choosing-ages-abilities-bicyclefacility/
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Toolbox and guidance to identify the preferred bikeway facility type or crossing treatment, depending on roadway volumes and a target bikeway LTS 1 or 2. For Berkeley’s Bicycle Boulevard network, additional consideration is given to the LTS of street crossings, particularly high-volume or multi-lane crossings.
Additional Changes
In addition to the changes noted above, the following changes were made to the Final Draft Active Transportation Plan based on City staff and stakeholder input:
• Front Material
o Cover Page. The document version and date were updated to “Final Draft – June 2023.” o Acknowledgments (page 2). The acknowledgments were updated to reflect new City Council members and Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) members. o List of Maps (page 4). A list of maps with page numbers was added after the Table of Contents to help readers locate maps by title.
o Glossary of Terms (pages 4-6). Images were added to align with the terms, the language was changed to make terms easier to understand, reference notes were hyperlinked, and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was added as a term.
• Chapter 1: Executive Summary
o Maps 1, 2, 3, and 4 have been updated to reflect changes to project and study recommendations (pages 12-15).
• Chapter 2: Plan Vision and Goals
o The Emeryville Public Arts Master Plan, North Alameda County Core Connections Plan (NACCP), and Alameda CTC Countywide Bike Network plans were added to show how the Active Transportation Plan supports the implementation of these other planning efforts (page 24). • Chapter 3: Biking, Walking, and Rolling in Emeryville Today o The title for Map 7 was changed from “Home Locations of Low-Income Workers in Emeryville” to “Home Locations of Low-Income Workers in Emeryville” to help explain that the map shows where low-income workers live in the region who commute to jobs in Emeryville (page 33). o Table 2: Commute Mode Trends was added to show how people have changed their work commutes between 2011 and 2020 (page 36).
o The Biking, Walking, and Rolling Safety section was updated to include the most recent five years that collision data was available 2017 to 2021 (pages 47-52). • Chapter 4: Policies, Programs, and Projects
o The chapter was re-organized with a key at the top of the chapter to orient the reader to how each recommendation corresponds to the following sections:
Policy and Program Recommendations
Pedestrian Network & Spot Improvement Projects
Bikeway Projects
Multimodal Projects
Studies
o Each recommendation now includes a prefix number for ease of tracking. This number is included in all maps and tables.
o Map 24: Major Projects and Studies was added to show all the multimodal projects and studies on one map (page 114).
o A new major project was added. A description, map, table of recommendations, and conceptual designs for the 40th Street Multimodal Phase II: Bay Trail Gap Closure project was included (pages 122-127). o The following two studies were added:
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F-2 Hollis Street Transit Corridor Study (page 137)
F-10 Mandela Parkway Extensions/East Bay Bridge Shopping Center Class IV Study (page 143) o A discussion of “Quick-Build” projects was included (page 148). • Chapter 5: Implementation and Funding
o The cost estimates section was modified to better reflect the variability in estimating planning-level costs (page 151).
o The “Project Delivery Process” graphic that illustrates how a project gets built was expanded to identify how the Emeryville community is engaged in each phase (page 152). • Appendices
o Appendix C: Project Recommendation Tables was added to summarize all pedestrian network, spot improvement, bikeway, and study recommendations (A-102).