DATE: September 3, 2024
TO: Council Transportation Committee
FROM: Brandon Whyte, Active Transportation Planner
Ria Hutabarat Lo, Transportation Manager
Edward Arango, Assistant Public Works Director
VIA: Dawn S. Cameron, Public Works Director
SUBJECT: Active Transportation Plan, Project 21-36
RECOMMENDATION
Review and recommend the City Council approve the vision statement and a revised approach with added project scope for the Active Transportation Plan (ATP).
BACKGROUND
On May 24, 2022 , the City Council authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with NN Engineering for development of the ATP in an amount not to exceed $484,000. The contract was executed and project kick -off occurred in fall 2022. Figure 1 illustrates the key steps in sequence planned for the project along with the status of these steps.
Figure 1: Current ATP Approach/Sequence
1 Existing
Conditions
Complete
2 Vision
Statement
Draft
3 Guiding
Principles &
Scoring
Criteria
Presented
to Council
4 Policy
Development
Underway
5 Holistic
Network &
Prioritized
Project List
Not Started
6 Draft and
Final Plan
Not Started
Community and Committee Engagement
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
Community and Committee Engagement
The project approach includes an extensive internal and external stakeholder process to help develop and provide feedback to the ATP. Two advisory committees have been assembled to review and provide recommendations to draft elements of the ATP:
• An interdepartmental Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprised of 13 staff members from the Public Works, Community Services, Fire, and Community Development Departments and City Manager’s Office. The TAC meets at each stage of the project to review draft deliverables and ensure the ATP is consistent with other ongoing initiatives, such as the Biodiversity Strategy.
• An Active Transportation Plan Advisory Committee (ATPAC) to review draft deliverables and to provide a perspective from key stakeholders. The ATPAC is comprised of representatives from the following 12 member organizations or bodies:
— Mountain View Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC); — Mountain View Youth Advisory Committee (YAC);
— Santa Clara County Public Health Department;
— Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA);
— The Day Worker Center of Mountain View;
— Green Streets for Sustainable Communities;
— Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition;
— Mountain View Streets for All;
— Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance;
— Mountain View Community Services Agency;
— Mountain View Chamber of Commerce; and
— Canopy.
In addition to these two committees, staff also involved, presented to, and obtained input on the ATP elements to date from the BPAC.
During spring and summer 2023, a Citywide community survey was released to obtain input from the community about the strengths and weaknesses of the City’s active transportation network.
Outreach in relation to the survey was conducted via email blasts, social media posts, lawn signs, posters in laundromats, and in -person outreach at community events for typically underrepresented communities as well as two bike tours and three walking tours. The City received 655 public responses with feedback that generally promoted active transportation and included comments about challenging locations and opportunities for improvement in relation to walking and biking.
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
Existing Conditions Analysis
The first step in the ATP process was to do a background review and develop an existing conditions report. In October 2023, the TAC, ATPAC and BPAC received a draft of the existing conditions analysis and feedback from the Citywide community survey. Based on their review, the ATPAC provided the following feedback for development of the ATP:
• Provide more emphasis on schools;
• Identify delivery drivers parking in the bike lanes as a problem;
• Improve conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists within mobile home parks and condominium complexes; and
• Support for review of City policies and standards from the perspective of creating a more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly City and more tree plantings.
The BPAC recommended reviewing practices in other cities where walking and biking are part of the culture. Additionally, the BPAC emphasized the importance of:
• Ongoing bicycle and pedestrian count data collection;
• Navigating the City with a wheelchair, including neighborhoods with narrow sidewalks, and sidewalks with poles and obstructions;
• Effects of signal operations on people walking, specifically, including no right turn on red provisions, pedestrian-recall phasing, and signal phasing at freeway on-/off-ramps; and
• Issues associated with new technologies, such as personal delivery devices, or emerging trends, such as the blocking of bike lanes by delivery drivers.
Current Status
On May 28, 2024
, Council received an update on the ATP including the work done with the advisory committees and community, background review, existing conditions, vision and goal setting, and scoring criteria. Included in the update was a summary of Council actions taken since 2014 to prioritize active transportation planning efforts. At this meeting, Council indicated support for the guiding principles for the ATP, with a referral to the Council Transportation Committee (CTC) to discuss a holistic understanding of the network, specific criteria, a revised staff recommendation of weights and scoring metrics, and a cost-benefit analysis or exploration of criterion around project feasibility.
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
ANALYSIS
Vision Statement
The second step in the ATP process was to engage the ATPAC and BPAC in developing a vision statement. In February 2023, the ATPAC and BPAC were presented with the following draft vision statement for input:
“The City of Mountain View will lead regionally by creating an active transportation system that strengthens the community’s access to housing, employment, schools, and other destinations.
The Active Transportation Plan will enable the City to intentionally plan with policies that support walkable and bikeable places; programs that create a culture of walking and biking; and projects that produce a connected, low- stress, and inviting active transportation network that doubles as corridors of shade, habitat, and/or public open space. This network of streets and trails will encourage biking and walking, enhance biodiversity, and reduce climate-change impacts.”
The ATPAC and BPAC generally supported the concepts in the vision statement. ATPAC emphasized the importance of prioritizing schools, safety, regional connectivity, accessibility, and community engagement. The BPAC additionally emphasized a focus on safety, mode shift, and accessibility, supported by data and metrics.
Staff requests CTC review of the draft Vision Statement and a recommendation to City Council for approval.
Revised ATP Approach
As noted above, Council referred to CTC to discuss a holistic understanding of the network .
Councilmembers commented that they would be in a better position to provide comments and approve scoring criteria for setting project priorities after the holistic network is developed.
Based on this feedback , staff recommends revising the ATP sequence shown in Figure 1 to develop a holistic network vision with modal priorities before finalizing the scoring criteria. This revised approached is shown in Figure 2.
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
Figure 2: Revised ATP Approach/Sequence
The holistic network would balance all modes of transportation within the City transportation system and available right -of-way. To contain costs and provide reasonable planning -level analysis, staff recommends using a preliminary street typology approach for this analysis. Street typologies aid in classifying the roadway by defining the active transportation elements that might be possible given the right -of-way available. This approach allows the classification of bicycle and pedestrian networks in order to guide facility choices and understand what is possible in a holistic network that balances all modes.
Another step in the network generation process is utilizing previous plans, existing conditions, and public input to guide modal network priorities . To do this , existing plans such as the 2014 Pedestrian Master Plan, 2015 Bicycle Transportation Plan, and Vision Zero Action Plan/Local Road Safety Plan (VZAP/LRSP) will be considered as inputs to the network along with projects that have been completed, are in progress, are no longer necessary, or should be added to the network to ensure a robust and well-connected network for all travel modes.
Expanded Project Scope
Additional Community Engagement and Presentations
Under the original ATP approach and sequence of work as shown in Figure 1, the scope of work included a combined round of community and committee engagement for the holistic network and prioritized project list to be included in the draft plan. However, with moving forward to develop the holistic network before completing the scoring criteria and prioritizing the projects, staff recommends an additional round of inclusive community and committee engagement be added to the scope and timeline. One round will be for the holistic network vision and the other for the prioritized list for the draft plan.
1 Existing
Conditions
2 Vision
Statement
3 Policy
Dev.
4 Holistic
Network
with
Modal
Priorities
5 Guiding
Principles
& Scoring
Criteria
6 Prioritized
Project
List
7 Draft
and Final
Plan
Community and Committee Engagement
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
Feasibility Analysis
At the May 28, 2024 Council meeting, Council directed staff to incorporate a cost-benefit analysis or exploration of criterion around project feasibility into the network analysis. For example , Council discussed a desire to better understand the possible costs and benefits of projects as part of the prioritization process.
Project feasibility for a planning level study like the ATP typically consists of a high level, qualitative evaluation of key factors. A detailed, quantitative cost -benefit analysis of potential projects is not feasible at this stage of project planning. It would require developing project - specific details in a conceptual engineering phase for more than a hundred potential projects at considerable expense and time . Likewise, quantification of specific benefits would also require substantial effort to determine how to quantify the mode share, public health, air quality , economic impacts, and safety benefits of individual active transportation improvements.
Consistent with the typical approach for evaluating feasibility in planning -level studies, staff recommends a two-step qualitative approach as described below:
1. Network-level Feasibility. As part of the holistic network vision step, the project team will evaluate whether there is sufficient space to support each corridor’s proposed network facilities (such as wide sidewalks, Class IV protected bikeway, and so on). This analysis will be undertaken using a street typology approach for different modal priorities to establish the right-of-way needed which can be compared to the right-of-way generally available along the corridor’s street segments.
2. Project-level Feasibility. Once the overall network is defined, project feasibility will be based on constructability using clearly defined, high -level qualitative metrics (high, medium, low).
Possible items to be considered include the rough order-of-magnitude project costs based on recent construction cost experience for similar projects, potential environmental issues, need for interagency coordination and approvals (e.g., involving Caltrans right -of-way), and need for right-of-way acquisition.
ATP Schedule and Costs
Staff and the consultants began the technical work to develop a proposed holistic network immediately after the May 2024 Council meeting in order to minimize project schedule impacts.
However, the additional round of community engagement, revisiting the s coring criteria, and more extensive feasibility analysis as part of the project prioritization process will add several months to the schedule. Figure 3 shows the revised schedule and milestones for completing the ATP.
Active Transportation Plan – Approach and Scope Revisions September 3, 2024
NEXT STEPS
As stated above, the project team has begun work to develop the holistic network for community review and input with the goal to conduct a round of community engagement and return to CTC in early 2025 for review and approval of the network.
If CTC supports the revised approach shown in Figure 2 and as described in this report, staff will return to Council in October 2024 to seek authorization to add funding for the expanded scope to the professional services agreement with NN Engineering.
cc: PWD, APWD–Arango, TM, TP—Whyte
Holistic
Network
•Q3/Q4 2024 -
Development
•Q1 2025 -
Community,
CTC, Council
Scoring Criteria
•Q1 2025 -
Community,
CTC, Council
Prioritized
Project List &
Policies
•Q2 2025 -
Analysis
•Q3 2025 -
Community,
CTC, Council
Draft and Final
Plan
•Q1 2026 -
Council