3A Public Hearing 2010 0517 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Livermore, Kathleen From: Diana Dorinson [dianadorinson@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 4:42 PM To: Livermore, Kathleen Subject: Yes! Let's Study BRT! At tonight's meeting, you will be asked to decide on what you would like AC Transit to study in their Final Environmental Impact Report for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). I urge you to collaborate with Oakland in keeping all of your options open by studying dedicated lanes and platform stations in Berkeley and San Leandro along the proposed BRT route. I myself am not sure whether I fully understand the benefits and impacts of the BRT system, but I am most certainly in favor of proceeding with the detailed studies necessary to properly analyze the multiple proposals that have been suggested for this corridor. I would like to see both full-build BRT and some alternative proposals studied in the EIR,-including the recent ULTRA proposal for side running BRT. I've heard that there has been opposition to the project, especially by a few relatively small but extremely vocal groups. From my perspective, their opposition to the BRT project has been transmuted into opposition to the EIR process, which is actually counter to their best own best interests. The EIR process is designed to analyze issues like traffic and parking, and can be used to identify whether or not reasonable mitigation can be designed to minimize any negative impacts. By voting on the study of a full-build BRT system, we will have a clearer idea of what the project really will mean to the communities along the route. I am sure you understand that your vote in favor of a study of a full-build BRT system is not a vote in favor of the project. It will simply be a vote to study the impacts and to begin to identify mitigation to concerns that have come up with respect to the impacts of the proposed dedicated lanes and stations on parking and traffic. I am confident that AC Transit will do it's best over the next several months to address the concerns being raised. I hope you will give them a chance, for the sake of the 20,000 current and future transit riders, and in your search for alternatives to the status quo in light of our growing awareness of climate change. Again, please vote in favor of keeping our options open by studying a robust BRT system with as much dedicated lane as possible. Sincerely, Diana Dorinson 3205 College Ave. #6 Berkeley, CA 94705 1