Exhibit A
WCCTAC San Pablo Avenue Multimodal Corridor Study:
City of San Pablo (City) Recommendations
Overall:
• City should participate in design review of any improvements that are pursued on San Pablo Avenue.
• City does not commit financial or staff resources for project management, design or construction at this time.
Pedestrian Improvements:
• WCCTAC should proceed with the design of pedestrian safety improvements. City should be part of design review.
Bicycle Improvements:
• WCCTAC should proceed with the design of bicycle safety improvements. City should be part of design review.
• Bus improvements should be designed to be compatible with existing and planned bicycle lanes in San Pablo, as identified in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Corridor Study (Resolution 2022-030) Bus Spot Improvements:
• WCCTAC/AC Transit should proceed with design of transit “spot” improvements (e.g., transit signal priority, queue jumps, level boarding, etc.).
• WCCTAC/AC Transit or other regional entity should identify who can maintain new facilities. The City has a small maintenance crew and cannot commit to maintaining new facilities or infrastructure.
• While improving frequency, reliability and travel time are important for creating a desirable transit system with increased ridership, the City would want to see other transit amenity improvements before implementation of this larger infrastructure project (e.g., wifi on all buses, not just Transbay) to support increased ridership.
Bus-Only Lane:
• If the cities of Richmond and El Cerrito want to continue to study the possibility of a dedicated bus-only lane on San Pablo Avenue, then the City will participate in these efforts. • Much more outreach needs to be conducted in San Pablo (especially in-person outreach, not just online). Past outreach efforts received very little engagement from San Pablo. Since we are a hard-to-reach community, a lot more effort needs to go into engaging with our residents, businesses, etc. All outreach conducted in San Pablo should be bilingual (English/Spanish). The City has heard some strong opposition to a bus-only lane from San Pablo residents. At this point, City staff do not know how widespread that feeling is across San Pablo, or how perceptions of a bus-only lane could change with additional outreach and education. City staff would help craft an outreach plan, but cannot commit to staff assistance with outreach at this time. • WCCTAC/AC Transit or other regional entity should identify who can maintain new facilities. The City has a small maintenance crew and cannot commit to maintaining new facilities or infrastructure.
• Future design work should consider:
o Loading zones: A lot of business loading/unloading currently takes place on San Pablo Ave in San Pablo. Future design work needs to address where business loading zones would be located and how they would function, especially since many of the side-streets in San Pablo are narrow and may not easily accommodate the larger trucks that are used for deliveries.
o Truck Route: San Pablo Ave is a designated truck route. Will there be any specific accommodations for oversized transport with respect to the bus lane? There could be operational concerns if the remaining vehicle lane needs to have a width reduction to under 11’.
o Parking: Specifics around parking loss should be identified and communicated to the business community.
o Utility conflicts: Identifying where improvements (e.g., concrete bus boarding islands, concrete bus pads) conflict with utilities (e.g., EBMUD) will be important during design.
While improvements may not directly conflict with utilities, past experience has found that utilities do not like having concrete infrastructure on top of their lines. o Caltrans I-80 Integrated Corridor Mobility (ICM): Based on Kimley-Horn’s analysis, a bus-only lane would increase diversion to I-80. Given this diversion, what would be the impacts of a bus-only lane on the I-80 ICM (and vice versa)? How would Caltrans need to be involved?
Center vs. Side-Running Bus-Only Lane:
• San Pablo does not have a grid street system along San Pablo Avenue. Any future consideration of a center-running bus only-lane needs to conduct an extensive analysis of the impacts of closing the non-signalized left turns in San Pablo (e.g., how many vehicles would be impacted, is existing usage for residents or for cut through traffic, how far out of their way would residential vehicles have to travel, etc.).