3A Public Hearing 2010 0517 - Laserfiche WebLink

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LPA for AC Transit BRT 6 May 17, 2010 DISCUSSION Proiect Issues AC Transit indicated its preferred alternative features dedicated bus only lanes through San Leandro except in the downtown area with a termination of the line at Bayfair. Since this past fall, AC Transit staff worked to develop Alternatives 1 and 3 in San Leandro by addressing the concerns identified in our Mayor's letter dated July 3, 2007. A review of these issues and some comparisons from the original to the current proposal follows. Traffic/Circulation Impacts With the original design, the City expressed concern that the DEIS/EIR was underestimating the potential traffic and circulation impacts within San Leandro. The new modifications require reassessing these impacts. City staff have not received these revised plans and their associated traffic analysis formally for our own detailed review, but based on AC Transit's presentation we can make these initial observations on the comparative differences from the original plan. Impacts to Side Streets. With the original design, impacts to East 14th Street side streets were potentially significant. Only qualitative discussions of the impacts, such as cross street through- movement restrictions and delays on cross streets were provided in the DEIS/EIR. AC Transit revised its preferred plan, which moderately mitigates this issue. In the north area, this was accomplished by limiting the dedicated bus lanes from the north City border to approximately Georgia Way. In the south area, improvements from the original plan included increasing the number of breaks in the median to match what is being proposed by the E. 14th Street median plans. Impacts to Intersections. The original DEIS/EIR stated on Page 3-39 under "City of San Leandro" that no intersections analyzed operate worse than LOS D (i.e., LOS E and F is unacceptable), however Staff believed that traffic congestion at the East 14th Street/Dutton Avenue intersection under the original plan was underestimated. We know that especially long vehicular queues on northbound East 14`h Street, south of Dutton Avenue, and on westbound Dutton Avenue east of 14th Street, constantly occur during the afternoon peak hours. If either of the original Alternatives 1 or 3, which feature dedicated bus lanes on the East 14th Street North Area, are implemented, the traffic queues and congestion on the mixed-flow single northbound lane would be exacerbated. AC Transit's limiting of the dedicated bus lane from the north City border to Georgia Way in the north area has the potential to reduce this impact as compared to the original proposal. Staff will need to evaluate the revised traffic analysis in the Final Environmental Impact Study/Report (FEIS/R) to confirm the validity of this proposed solution. In the south area, AC Transit's original analysis indicated that all intersections would perform better than LOS E. Staff replied that although this may be true, the general reduction in the performance of so many intersections makes for a poorer quality of life; an impact that is not readily measurable. AC Transit has not proposed any modifications to the original plan to ameliorate this issue in the south area.