Measure A strategic plan

Meeting with Todd McIntyre of the Transportation Authority and Lenny Roberts of Committee for Green Foothills.

Anticipated revenue over 25 years is $1.5B
Estimated funding match $2.2B

There was almost nothing for bikes and peds in the last cycle except for the bike map. This was because the funding pot was .5% Marginally better for transit because Caltrain got the bullet and shuttle service and Burlingame got a station upgrade from a 30% funding pot.

Still a problem- Highways, local roads make up 50%. Only an additional 1% goes to management.

Comments due- by the end of September. Series of meetings are going to be scheduled around the county. We need to get more pedestrian and bicycle comments in. Todd McIntyre of the TA who gave the presentation was in Public Relations, been on the job only two months, and really knew his material well.

Purpose- the usual: What's worked well, how do we get a better Return on Investment, leverage more value with the matching funds. (We can point out here that building access into projects returns value.)
Goals- Safety, Capacity. (We point out that wider roads are more dangerous that bikes and peds make up 20% of fatalities and historically less than .5% of funding, and that capacity is greatly improved if more butts are on bike seats or walking.)

New Allocation- 3% bikes and peds, 15% grade separation, 30% transit, 27.5% highways, 22.5 % local streets and transportation, 1% management.
Electrification is in the transit dollars. I asked for solararizing ten platforms at 40MW per day or 40,000 panels to meet the 400 MW demand of the system at full electrification. http://cogsmac.blogspot.com/2008/08/electrifiy-caltrain-on-solar-pv.html
The 27.5% highway fund should be 50% discretionary for management programs by cities and county to reduce the need for expansion. This would be in addition to the available flexibility. Prevent Ralston/101 bicycle access deterioration by requiring that all projects need to incorporated and fund multimodality out of the roads budget and not the bike ped account.
The local shuttle program should include a bike sharing program and bike stations. Add downtown area shuttles like SCOOT.
Under accessible services include car sharing and ride matching.
Provide money for an electric bus line on El Camino that would continue the SF line from Daly City.

Highway and Roads program: Sierra Club is opposed to two of the four programs- widening and adding auxiliary lanes which is seen as widening. The Highway parallel Arterial Streets needs to removed or changed to 20 mph streets for alternate vehicles like golf carts. Need to add in hearings for the Environmental Impact statements and include wetlands and water mitigation. The interchange reconstruction component needs to take into account that interchanges have become barriers to accessibility for bikes and peds. (need a Ralston 101 study versus the bike bridge on how the matching funds line up.)

Bike ped program: saw very little of the Comprehensive Bicycle Plan built in the last iteration of Measure A and not building in bike access on the Ralston/101 interchange has ended up requiring funding for a ten million dollar plus bike bridge which is already four years late since the interchange opened. Add multimodaltiy criteria to come out of the interchange and highway budget. Midcoast Coastal Conservancy (?) MCC needs sketches for possible alignment, more bite sized trail chunks funded and built, and an assessment. Need an Urban comprehensive trail and highway plan. Bike lane improvements along highways like skyline. A connected off road trails where the gaps are identified and connected. An Urban Trail System where bike boulevards combine traffic calming to deliver a connected alternate mobility system utilizing trails, POCs, and traffic calmed streets. Trails consume $2M per mile. The pedestrian requirement are immense. So the $60M budget over the next 25 years will only meet about 2% of the bikes, ped, and trails needs. This means serious gaps in the system and a continued emphasis on driving resulting in more safety and capacity problems.

Alternate Congestion Relief program needs Next Bus Locator and a Fast Pass style ticketing system. Add Grand Boulevard, electric buses on El Camino and a bus/bike only lane for improved service under AB32.

Program categories: need parallel tracking for freight to rail. HSR will pay for its own ROW. Don't know what the FEDs will require in GreenTEA (begins negotiations in Congress next year and has serious budget shortfalls from the gas tax because of reduced driving.)

Evaluation Criteria- add access to effectiveness distinct from mobility. In other criteria add design review for multimodality.