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Plrutning Conm2ission Special Meeting Minutes Marcit 25, 2010 Agenda No. 10-03 Page 10 of 20 Tom Combs, 61 Georgia Way, was a member of the joint resident-business North Area Task Force that developed the recommendation for the current striping on the north part of East 14`x' Street. The task force specifically adopted the two-way left-turn center lane because residents and businesses alike needed it. The businesses use it heavily, because none of them have loading docks or curbside loading areas, and residents need it to be able to cross from one side of East 14`x' Street to the other, particularly since few of the cross streets cross East 14`h in straight lines; most of them zigzag. Instead of either Option A or Option B, Mr. Combs recommended the Planning Commission and the City Council reaffirm the 2007 decision to recommend routes that do not have dedicated bus lanes. He said it makes more sense to transition from dedicated lanes to mixed lanes at a destination (such as Durant Square, just north of the monument), which would also avoid the congestion of trying to run dedicated lanes past that point, because there is not much right-of-way on either side of that monument. Michael Wharton, 3661 Fairmount Avenue, Oakland, represents Congregations Organized for Renewal (COR), spoke in favor of Alternative B. The Fruitvale District has the IR running right through the center of it, and it is the most viable commercial area of Oakland. There is no reason why that can't happen in the southern part of San Leandro, but it won't happen if BRT ends at the downtown BART station. He noted that people who use the AC Transit system now are primarily low-income families. They can use it for destination shopping at Bayfair; it is not at the downtown TOD. There is also the theatre at Bayfair, which is a place for people to congregate. He also says that the BRT access for people with disabilities is critical, and diverting it to the downtown BART would cut out that option for them. At this time, he said, they have to transfer if they want to go to Bayfair, and that creates more in-town bus traffic rather than alleviating it, which makes it more difficult to achieve emission-reduction goals. Vu-Banh Nguyen, a program coordinator at Urban Habitat, said that the idea behind BRT service is to get people out of their cars, lower greenhouse gas emissions, get past the oil crisis -looking towat°d the future with atransit-friendly environment. San Leandro already plays a role in that with adoption of the TOD strategy. To say that BRT is "just a bus" undermines it. It is much more. The dedicated lanes are very important. Once you have a robust, reliable, convenient and fast bus system that people would want to take, people will use it. As a resident of Alameda, he takes Line 51 daily. Like Mr. Wharton, he noted that the corridor that would benefit from BRT service is 68percent minorities, so working on this study serves a major component of the population. Mike Rawlis, 964 Hutchings Drive, is a life-long San Leandro resident who says he doesn't like the way AC Transit has taken away bus service from Davis Street, and how it is when they change bus numbers. He also complains that buses accommodate only two bicycles, that bus service stops before 7 p.m., and that there is so little cross-town service available. Flint Evans, 1615 Graff Court, lives in Bay-o-Vista on the east end of town and has a business on the west end, so he has to cross the East 14th Street corridor and therefore would not be happy with Option B's hindrance of east-west traffic flow. While Option A doesn't bother him personally, he understands the problems Ms. Combs described. He also is disturbed that BRT has been on the table for more than a decade. We turn it away and it keeps coming back. Hendy Huang, 463 Estudillo Avenue, shops on East 14th Street. BRT would not be good for businesses there. Shoppers cannot accumulate a lot of purchases going from store to store and then expect to get their shopping bags on the bus. He said he has more than 20 bags to carry. He is also concerned about getting around accidents in the area if one lane is dedicated to buses only. He concluded by saying, "Don't take our driving space, please."