DATE: January 29, 2025
TO: Council Infrastructure and Airport Committee
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: Implementation of Vision Zero and Complete Streets in Hayward – Review and Comment
RECOMMENDATION
That the Council Infrastructure and Airport Committee provide feedback on the implementation of Vision Zero and Complete Streets policies in Hayward, including ensuring appropriate outreach around these initiatives.
SUMMARY
Over the last two years, the City has restaffed the Transportation Division of Public Works, enabling the City to work on implementing Council-established transportation priorities. Specifically, Council has adopted Vision Zero and Complete Streets policies that guide staff’s work on transportation. The City has significantly increased the number of projects being implemented, addressing both long term and newly established Council priorities. This work session provides an opportunity to review City policies and recent projects and discuss strategic transportation priorities and engagement approaches.
BACKGROUND
Over the years, Council has adopted several policies and documents that guide transportation investments, including:
Complete streets policy (Resolution No. 13-027) adopted in 2013.
Hayward 2040 General Plan, including Goal Mobility-3 to provide Complete Streets, designed to balance diverse needs of users in the public right-of-way.
Complete Streets Action Plan, adopted in 2017, designed to prioritize safety, provide complete streets, and ensure funding to support these efforts.
Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (BPMP), which establishes a vision and priorities for investment in the bicycle and pedestrian networks and programs in the City, adopted in 2020.
Vision Zero policy (Resolution No. 23-196), adopted in 2023, which sets a goal to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries by 2050 and identifies safety as the factor that staff should use to guide investments in City streets.
Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP), which identifies the strategies and approaches to advancing towards the Vision Zero goal, also adopted in 2023.
These policies and plans reflect a number of efforts to address two related concepts that currently guide transportation investment:
Safety should be the overriding goal for investment in the transportation system, working strategically towards Vision Zero.
The City’s transportation network should support travel by all users, including people who walk, bike, take transit, and drive (complete streets).
In addition to City policies, the City must comply with regional (Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) and Metropolitan Transportation Commission) and State policies related to Complete Streets, safety, and other areas. The City receives substantial funding from regional and State sources through the Measure BB one cent sales tax (administered by Alameda CTC), the Senate Bill 1 (Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017), and many regional, State, and Federal grants that all requires implementation of Complete Streets, safety, and other policies similar to those adopted by the City.
Staffing at the Transportation Division of Public Works has fluctuated significantly since the adoption of many of these policies, reaching a low point in 2021. The Division is moving closer to full staffing, creating opportunities to advance many of the City’s strategic transportation priorities, including Vision Zero and Complete Streets.
DISCUSSION
Over the last two years, staff has been conducting a number of activities to implement adopted Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies:
Pursuing grants. The City has pursued and had several recent successes in attracting funding for major initiatives. Funding from the Federal Safe Streets for All (SS4A) program, for example, is supporting implementation of Vision Zero initiatives and funding from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is supporting safe routes to schools investments around schools and Implementing complete streets through repaving projects. A key aspect of complete streets is to integrate complete streets into other projects. One of the primary work streams for the City is the regular repaving program. This helps maintain the critical asset of our streets, while also presenting an opportunity to develop a more complete, multimodal transportation system. Attachment II identifies recent improvements to the City bike network that have been or are planned to be implemented through the repaving program.
Traffic calming program. Traffic speeds are a long-acknowledged safety challenge for Hayward and other cities and Council has directed resources to both an overall program and specific traffic calming projects. Staff are working to implement both the general program and specific projects, creating opportunities to build pedestrian, bicycle, and transit improvements.
Strategic safety corridor studies. A key implementing action from the LRSP was to pursue grant funding to address the High Injury Network (HIN), the 14% of City streets with 74% of all serious injuries and fatalities. The City successfully received grant funding from the Federal Safe Streets for All (SS4A) program and is the process of launching the first four studies for the Loop, A St, B St, and Tennyson Rd. Future studies will start next year on Mission Blvd, Hesperian Blvd, and Jackson St.
Systematically addressing speeds. The City is working to reduce vehicle speeds, the most significant factor contributing to serious injuries and fatalities, through both many of the above programs and a just launched Speed Management Plan (also funded by the SS4A grant). The Speed Management Plan will set out a framework for target speeds and identify infrastructure, traffic signal, education, enforcement and other strategies to achieve a vision of safer speeds in the City.
This provides a high level summary of City initiatives, but note that staff also continue to work on specific projects identified by Council through the budget process.
Engagement Approach
As with all projects, staff uses a variety of methods to engage with the public. Methods are selected based on the extent of the changes to the streets. Generally speaking, staff use the following approaches:
Street redesigns with no changes to capacity or parking receive notifications about the project as part of the changes being made.
Street designs with significant changes to capacity or parking receive direct public engagement through a combination of notifications, public meetings, and surveys. The specific methods selected depend on the context of the street and the Most major projects have individual websites to communicate information on an ongoing basis.
Staff use various City newsletters and social media channels to communicate information about specific projects and initiatives.
In reviewing several recent projects implemented through repaving or other similar means, staff has identified potential opportunities to enhance engagement.
Update the City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan webpage to include a section on current and upcoming implementation plans. This would be a one-stop shop for projects being implemented.
Develop recordings of walk throughs of project design decisions. This would provide a means to communicate complex decisions that residents can check in on when they have questions.
Developing social media walk throughs of completed projects to help explain the approach and rationale behind various street designs.
Ongoing coordination with community groups to provide educational materials about the City’s transportation policies and projects. The City has multiple active projects that can support these efforts, including the Speed Management Plan and a recently started Community Based Transportation Plan.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Enhancing the safety of City streets for all users will reduce the direct cost of traffic collisions on residents, visitors, and the City. Safer streets enable residents to travel by foot, bike, and transit, reducing the cost of vehicle ownership and operation.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact for this item.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priority of Confront Climate Crisis & Champion Environmental Justice and Invest in Infrastructure. Specifically, this project relates to the implementation of the following projects:
Invest in Multimodal Transportation
Project N1: Continue to implement major corridor traffic calming initiatives Project N6: Continue to add approximate 10 miles of bike lanes annually, with a focus on protected bike lanes and intersections that have high traffic/incident
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
Enhancing the safety of City streets for all users will encourage and incentivize walking and biking for the residents thereby reducing automobile dependency and greenhouse gas emissions over time.
PUBLIC CONTACT
No specific outreach has been conducted for this item, but significant community outreach has and will be conducted for each of the projects and initiatives described in this staff report.
NEXT STEPS
Staff will use the feedback from the Committee to inform future approaches to Complete Streets and Vision Zero, as well as the engagement activities around these initiatives.
Prepared by: Hugh Louch, Deputy Director of Public Works - Transportation Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Public Works
Approved by:
_____________________________________
Dr. Ana M. Alvarez, City Manager
https://hayward.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2968161&GUID=553BDEB4-30D0-4CF6-88A2-09D4D3FC97C5 https://www.hayward-ca.gov/your-government/documents/general-plan/mobility-element https://hayward.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3084750&GUID=9F1F7633-072E-4D44-A161-E953CAD3542E&Options=&Search= https://www.hayward-ca.gov/your-government/departments/transportation-division/bike-and-pedestrian-master-plan-update https://www.hayward-ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ET-Vision-Zero-Commitment-Resolution-Local-Road-Safety-Plan-CCM-230627.pdf https://www.hayward-ca.gov/your-government/departments/transportation-division/local-road-safety-plan