Re: DBA Comments Regarding Impact of BRT Dedicated Lanes in Downtown Berkeley

Transcription

1 January 28, 2010 City of Berkeley Planning Commission Jordan Harrison, Secretary Land Use Planning Division 2120 Milvia Street, 2nd Floor Berkeley, CA Dear Planning Commission: Re: DBA Comments Regarding Impact of BRT Dedicated Lanes in Downtown Berkeley The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) supports the growth of public transit to increase the access to downtown Berkeley and decrease traffic congestion and greenhouse gasses. However, the DBA is concerned about the potential revision of the Locally Preferred Alternative to include dedicated lanes for the last four blocks of the BRT route on Shattuck Avenue between Addison and Bancroft. (And hence the DBA also encourages the City to consider Rapid Bus Plus which has many of the benefits of BRT without the negative impacts of dedicated lanes.) Our concerns with dedicated lanes are as follows, and are consistent with our prior concerns expressed in our letters of June 26, 2007 and July 2, 2007 (copies attached). 1. Dedicated lanes would result in the loss of 50 street parking spaces on Shattuck Avenue between Addison and Durant, with parallel parking replacing the current angled buffered parking. While AC Transit states they would mitigate this impact by adding up to 20 spaces elsewhere in downtown Berkeley, the loss of these convenient parking spaces would have a significant detrimental impact on downtown merchants and other businesses on Shattuck Avenue and adjoining areas, that rely on easy convenient short-term on-street parking for their customers to do their shopping or other business. Many of these customers will not bother parking in a garage a block or two away and often up several floors and will take their purchasing dollars elsewhere. Moreover it is not clear when or where the additional 20 spaces would be built. One option includes adding 20 additional spaces with the rebuilding of the Center Street Garage date unknown. 2. Dedicated lanes would also result in the loss of two left turns, southbound from Shattuck onto Allston Way and northbound from Shattuck onto Center Street, and thus would limit accessibility of certain areas of downtown and increase traffic congestion which is already a significant problem during commute hours or special events. Moreover, easy access to the Center Street Garage is particularly important for the arts district during evening hours. 3. A comprehensive urban design has been lacking in the BRT design process. How will the dedicated lanes and associated changes (e.g., median, sidewalks, street crossings, stations) impact the citizen experience in Downtown Berkeley? What will be the visual and pedestrian impact of the large elevated BRT stations? How will dedicated lanes and loss of the current median impact the quality and feel of Shattuck Avenue? How will increase in sidewalk width (up to nine feet on each side) be programmed to produce a welcoming downtown? Where are busses going to layover after their last stop? (Large idling busses would adversely impact the visual, noise, and air quality of downtown.)

2 4. Dedicated lanes on these last four blocks of the BRT route would result in minimal speed and transit time benefit for BRT riders, while incurring tremendous construction and disruption costs, as well as the detrimental impacts as described above. It appears not to be a very compelling cost-benefit situation. 5. The use of the term Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for study of the dedicated lane option is confusing and misleading. We are told by staff that LPA is a term of art, regarding study of the build versus no-build option, and that use of the term does not mean that the city and/or Berkeley community actually prefers this build option for dedicated lanes. This is a highly nuanced technical explanation, that will be lost on most citizens. When they hear Locally Preferred Alternative they will assume it means what is says. In sum, it appears that dedicated BRT lanes on Shattuck Avenue will have significant detrimental impact to downtown merchants, businesses, shoppers, and pedestrians; with negligible positive impact for transit riders. We hope the Planning Commission will carefully considers these concerns prior to making a recommendation to City Council to include dedicated lanes on Shattuck Avenue as part of the BRT Locally Preferred Alternative. Moreover, we request that the City include the DBA in any future deliberations regarding BRT and other relevant planning and transportation issues. The DBA is the only organization that speaks for downtown merchants and businesses and needs to have voice in the future of Downtown Berkeley. Sincerely, John Caner Executive Director Cc: Dan Marks, Matt Taecker, Transportation Commission, Mayor and City Council, City Clerk, City Manager Attachments: July 2, 2007 letter re: DBA Comments on AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit DEIS/DEIR June 26, 2007 letter re: DBA Design Committee Comments on AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit DEIS/DEIR

3 July 2, 2007 Jim Cunradi Senior Transportation Planner and AC Transit East Bay BRT Project Manager Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District 1600 Franklin Street Oakland, CA Re: DBA Comments on AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit DEIS/DEIR Dear Jim, The Board of the DBA met on Thursday, June 28, 2007, to prepare a DBA position on BRT. The Board had tracked the development of BRT planning over the last two years. The opportunity to respond to the BRT DEIR, however, allowed the Board to crystallize its thinking at this point in time, which is as follows: 1. The DBA strongly supports the development of smart public transit of all sorts in Downtown Berkeley, in specific, and in the East Bay, as a whole. 2. As part of that smart public transit network, the DBA supports Rapid Bus (also unfortunately christened the No Build Option ) on the route proposed for BRT (from San Leandro to Berkeley). 3. The DBA opposes BRT as presented in the DEIR because we feel that: a. The infrastructure (dedicated lanes, long platforms, canopies, reduced lanes for regular through traffic, reduced parking) would overwhelm the downtown for both retail merchants, retail customers, and for pedestrian and bicyclists. b. The DEIR does not make a compelling case that BRT will provide service (speed or quality of product) to riders that will significantly exceed service provided by Rapid Bus. c. The DEIR does not indicate that AC Transit has carefully evaluated impact of BRT on the life of the pedestrian, on the life of the merchant, on the life of the retail customer, on the plight of the car driver who needs to make a left turn on Shattuck, or on the ability of the merchants along the route to survive the construction phase and/or the operational phase of the project. 4. Had the BRT DEIR given serious consideration to a side-running BRT model which did not impact the two northerly and two southerly lanes for regular traffic on Shattuck, DBA might have been willing to give that model serious consideration. Since AC Transit

4 chose not to develop this side-running model with four lanes of regular traffic, however, DBA does not have the option of considering it. 5. The DBA Design Subcommittee, with in-depth participation by Subcommittee Chair Bruce Wicinas, landscape architect John Roberts, and Jamie Rusin, a partner in ELS Architecture, has prepared an extensive (1500 word) analysis of BRT and the DEIR built around it. This Summary was strongly influenced by that DBA Design Subcommittee analysis, a copy of which can be accessed on the DBA website for anyone who wishes to examine the underpinnings of the DBA position in greater depth. 6. In spite of the fact that the Board voted unanimously in favor of the position represented in this memo, the DBA Board wishes to commend BRT Project Manager Jim Cunradi for the urbane, informative, and respectful conversations that he has sponsored in dozens of venues in the East Bay over the past two years. Jim is indeed the model to which we should all aspire when we convene and enter into public discourse about controversial matters of public policy. Sincerely, Mark McLeod, President Downtown Berkeley Association Cc: Matt Taecker, Planner, Downtown Area Planning Advisory Commission (DAPAC) Will Travis, Chair, DAPAC Mayor Tom Bates & Berkeley City Council Phil Kamlarz, City Manager, Berkeley Berkeley Transportation Commission Berkeley Planning Commission Berkeley Business District Network Attachment: Downtown Berkeley Association Design Committee Comments on the AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit DEIS/DEIR

5 June 26, 2007 Board of Directors Downtown Berkeley Association 2230 Shattuck Avenue, Suite C Berkeley, CA Re: DBA Design Committee Comments on AC Transit East Bay Bus Rapid Transit DEIS/DEIR Dear Downtown Berkeley Association Board of Directors, The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) Design Committee is pleased to be able to offer the following comments on the draft environmental documents for the proposed East Bay Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project. First, a summary of our conclusions followed by some specific comments on various components of the draft DEIS/DEIR. 1. DBA strongly supports AC Transit s desire to expand and improve bus transit service and patronage to Downtown Berkeley, a key regional transit hub. 2. DBA strongly supports physical changes to Downtown Berkeley that emphasize improvements to the pedestrian, retail, and cultural environment, and that emphasize traffic-calming measures. 3. DBA believes that the impacts of the new BRT infrastructure on the merchants, the pedestrian environment, and the urban design of Downtown Berkeley have not been fully assessed and mitigated in the current draft DEIS/DEIR. 4. DBA believes that a Side Running alternative for the proposed transitway in Downtown Berkeley could have considerable merit while mitigating many of the negative impacts of the central median transitway and stations. We recommend that AC Transit develop a Side Running BRT transitway and station alternative for Downtown Berkeley and assess its impacts. 5. Given the range of options offered in the current draft DEIS/DEIR, DBA believes that the No Build option offers the advantages of improved transit service via a Rapid Bus system to serve Downtown without the large infrastructure costs and disruptive impacts of the BRT system. Absent a Side Running alternative to consider, the No Build option warrants serious consideration as the preferred option for Downtown Berkeley. The following are specific comments on Downtown components of the proposed BRT options. 6. Purpose and Need: BRT must not be simply a transit enhancement. The primary purposes of the BRT system are, rightfully, related to the improvement of transit. However, the new transit infrastructure is significant and needs to be integrated with, rather than imposed upon, the urban context in order to realize the potential for the system. Integration with and enhancement of the urban context is not explicitly stated as a need of the BRT system in the draft DEIS/DEIR, and the omission has skewed the range of urban design alternatives under consideration. We believe that the required BRT infrastructure alternatives, as proposed in the draft DEIS/DEIR, are an imposition of transit engineering systems on Downtown Berkeley s densely built environment, rather than a careful integration into and enhancement of that environment, with significant negative impacts that are not adequately mitigated. The alternatives and mitigations offered do not adequately demonstrate how the new infrastructure will improve the overall urban design or the pedestrian, retail, and cultural environment. Additional transit patrons, separate transit lanes, crosswalk mitigations, and new stations do not necessarily lead to overall improvements in the urban environment. Adherence to local design guidelines alone will not be adequate for framing the integration of the new transit infrastructure with the existing urban environment. 7. Separate BRT vs. Combined BRT and Local Transit:

6 Combined BRT and Local systems will cluster rather than disperse the transit infrastructure and pedestrian/patrons in Downtown, thereby containing the impacts compared with separate systems. We prefer the combination in Downtown Berkeley. If the combined BRT and Local bus service stations are located in the center-median BRT Transitway, as currently proposed, all the pedestrian/patrons will be removed from the sidewalks into the center of the street with significant negative impacts. The center of the street is an unhealthy, unpleasant, and potentially unsafe environment relative to the sidewalks, and it offers a generally negative impact on the quality of the pedestrian experience in downtown. A combined service located at the sidewalks could enhance instead of diminish the pedestrian experience. Pedestrians/patrons clustered in the center street-median will not add to the vitality of the sidewalks as compared with a location integrated with the sidewalks. Removing the local transit patrons/pedestrians from the sidewalk will diminish sidewalk vitality. 8. Transitway Alignment: Two-way transit on Shattuck alternate is our preferred alignment since it retains the downtown core area as a transit hub with direct BART connections and without the secondary intersection impacts of the one-way loop alternate on Oxford Street. An alternative alignment that includes Side Running transitways along Shattuck Avenue is not included in the current document. Such an alternative is necessary in order to properly assess potential mitigations of impacts on the pedestrian environment, parking, and left turn lanes as well as the overall urban design. Such an alternate would use the existing (or expanded) sidewalks/plazas for the station locations. Left turn lanes along Shattuck Avenue could possibly be retained in this alternative, as could buffered parallel or head-in parking. The potential for two-way traffic flow on both sides of Shattuck Square will effect all the BRT alternatives and must be assessed for each of the alternative alignments. The proposed BRT Layover location, with its related infrastructure needs (e.g. Size, Restrooms, etc.), needs to be part of the environmental review of the BRT system. The future extension of BRT beyond downtown must be accommodated in each of the alternatives and evaluated. 9. Stations: Stations will be new urban features placed into the downtown that will significantly affect the visual environment, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, access to and visibility of stores, and the quality of the pedestrian experience. Appropriate station siting is critical for downtown, since each location will have different impacts. Stations located in the median at the center of the street tend to favor traffic, asphalt, and transit infrastructure over the quality of the pedestrian environment, access to and visibility of merchants, and the creation of a cohesive urban place. The current plans propose a station located north of Center Street at Shattuck Square, and the impacts of this choice are noted as minimal or positive. We believe that the impacts to the merchants, to the visual and pedestrian environment, parking, and traffic flow will be significant and negative for such a station location. The double-length center-of-street raised platform required for a station in this location, with canopies and guardrails, detached from the sidewalk will block views of stores and artificially separate a narrow street right of way while placing pedestrians in an undesirable and potentially unsafe situation. Station options on Shattuck Ave. south of Center Street (between Center Street and Allston Way) are not offered as alternatives. A curbside station option in this location is needed, in concert with the Side Running alignment option, in order to fully compare the station impacts in the heart of downtown. Such an option will likely have less negative impact to the pedestrian and retail environment, while helping to enliven the sidewalks. Sidewalk stations at the Bancroft/Shattuck location are similarly not offered in the current document, but would offer significant benefits with the Side Running transitway alignment. Simple expansions of the existing plazas on the east (Peet s) and west (Library) sides of Shattuck between Bancroft and Kittredge could accommodate the stations. The Bancroft or Bancroft/Durant station option located off of Shattuck Avenue would not serve Downtown as well as the station located on Shattuck Avenue. 10. Parking: Mitigations for the parking spaces lost to the BRT system in Downtown Berkeley include replacement of 0-20 spaces. There is no criteria offered for determining the

7 conditions under which spaces are to be replaced. Under no circumstances can we support the replacement of 0 spaces. Criteria must be clarified. 11. Left Turns on Shattuck: There is no option offered in which left turns on Shattuck are allowed to continue. Without this capability, the traffic-calming characteristic of the street is diminished, making Shattuck Avenue essentially a through way, reducing its role for serving local traffic. It appears that left turns would be possible with a Side Running alignment option and sidewalk stations in the Downtown. The impacts on traffic flow and possible loss of curbside parking should be quantified as part of this option. In general, we feel that the draft DEIS/DEIR information as presented is insufficient to evaluate the full range of alignments, station configurations, and impact mitigations available for a successful BRT system in Downtown Berkeley. Important negative impacts of the some of the options that are presented are missing from the evaluation. A potentially valuable Side Running alignment and station alternative is neither presented nor evaluated. Our conclusion is that the BRT plans as presented result in a combination of impacts from the center-ofstreet stations and transitways, elimination of left turns on Shattuck Ave., and elimination of parking with minimal mitigation that, will have a significant detrimental effect on the downtown pedestrian and retail environment. Without additional options to consider for Downtown Berkeley that are more complementary to the existing environment, the draft DEIS/DEIR makes a compelling case for the No Build option. Sincerely, The Downtown Berkeley Association Design Committee