City of San Bruno Recorded Meetings Feb. 2012, 14 Feb 2012

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From YouTube: San Bruno City Council Meeting February 14, 2012 10a.

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San Bruno City Council Meeting February 14, 2012
10a. Community Based Transportation Plan Report

A

Alright move right to item number 10 conduct of business first item is a receive a report on the community-based transportation plan and provide feedback to the San Mateo City County Association of Governments see CAG.

B

Good evening.

B

C

You're good, thank you um good evening on over mayor and members of the City Council. As you know, I'm Laura Russell I'm a planner in the community development department. It is my pleasure tonight to introduce Korean Goodwrench she's with SamTrans she'll, be introducing you to the background and the process for the community-based transportation plan. Thank.

B

You it's the powerpoint day, come up fabulous, hey thanks! I'm korean goodrich I'm. I work with samtrans as the manager of strategic development. Samtrans has been essentially the consultant to see CAG to conduct community-based transportation plans I in San, Mateo, County I.

B

The plans are a requirement of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission beginning in 2001. They looked at a lifeline transportation network in the Bay Area. What they decided was that the most important thing was to focus on communities with low-income populations and or high concentrations of minorities, and so in San, Mateo County. This is the the fourth and last plan that will be done.

B

Plans have been completed in East, Palo Alto, the north central city of San, Mateo neighborhood, the bay shore area of daly city, and now this is san bruno and south san francisco, and the the goal of these is really to consult with the community to understand what mobility needs are and also what people see as the best solutions that would help them in terms of transportation and mobility in their communities.

B

The requirement for these is tonight, as Laura said, that that you accept this report, but for SamTrans the requirement is that the transit agency consider these recommendations as we develop. Our short range transportation plans on behalf of sea CAG, see CAG, has certain funding sources, primarily lifeline transportation funding, and these projects give the basis to get funding from that source.

B

This is a picture of the study area. Interestingly MTC included the Oyster Point area, but it is about 27,000 people and five square miles. We at the request of city staff. We extended the study area to include more of San Bruno, as I said that the basis of this is community outreach as an we've done four of these plans, and what we found is that we need to kind of figure out all the ways we possibly can to reach community members. We mailed a survey to all households both in Spanish and in English.

B

We provided an incentive to for people to complete the survey. We got 393 surveys back, which may not seem like a lot, but it's actually for these type surveys, a pretty good sample, and what we found was that relative to the survey findings, people, really. We asked people about difficult trips that they make and we found that this is a really good way to get right to the core of what people eat and for this population it was work.

B

Trips to san francisco, medical trips to san francisco and medical trips to san mateo were the most difficult needs. We also held to transportation workshops and we I think a great part about this. Was that see. Kag also got an environmental justice grant from Caltrans and that allowed funding to make these extensive, complete workshops. We provided people with stipends to attend. They lasted between two and three hours and the idea was to talk to people about the transportation that was available, what they saw their needs and then talk with them about solutions.

B

I, don't I'm trying to think if any of the City Council people here attended, but they were very well received and we got a lot of great information. I. Think most of the people that attended the workshop said that they came because they wanted to learn about transportation and most of them said in our the survey that we gave them that they would be pleased to attend future workshops.

B

This is a kind of a highlight of the needs and Laura's going to talk to you about the strategies that were developed based on these needs and I have to say that across the plans that we have done, this is no big surprise. These are predominantly the themes that we hear from low-income people in San, Mateo County. First of all that they really want a more bicycle: walkable, friendly, safe environment.

B

You really see that people are piecing together, their their transportation. So you know they're walking, they're taking the bus they're using their bike when they can there, they are carpooling when they can, but that this was really something that came up throughout the county and particular in this area. The cost of transit.

B

Predominantly people find that bart and caltrain fares are too high for them to consider for work trips, and hence you see the need about work trips to downtown San Francisco.

B

The good news on this is that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission is looking at a region-wide, low-income pass to put it in perspective. If you look at SamTrans passengers, our passengers are predominantly low-income. We have eighteen percent fare box recovery ratio, which means we are subsidizing, every trip, eighty-two percent. So if we did a low-income pass on SamTrans, we would be in a worse financial situation than we are now.

B

People want to see improvements in transit service and Laura's, going to talk about the particular routes and service that they would like to see. But it's not just bus service I think it extends to other types of options that people feel that they would like to see. We heard, and frankly, I was surprised that people found that safety and access at transit stations at the BART stations was an issue for people.

B

And finally, this is something we see again and again is that people don't understand how to access information to use transit, how to use the transit systems- and you know that comes up again and again.

B

The transportation strategies, when you think about this planning effort, it is it's the the genesis of ideas that hopefully will become projects that get funded and we've seen this in other plans that have been completed. But what we did for for each strategy. Is we look at what kind of needs are we trying to address?

B

What is the project in general, conceptually that we're looking at and then so that they can be brought forward to look at the constraints to look at the implementation requirements to look at potential funding and, finally, to designate agencies that should typically be the lead agencies and I have to say that our experience in this is that if they were easy problems, they probably would have been solved and that many of these require partnerships between different agencies in order to have a project that would address the need.

B

We developed evaluation criteria and they are the same across all the plans and they were approved by our stakeholder committee as well as the attack for the project, but the idea was that we look at each of these transportation strategies because it was you know, people brought it up, even though, as transportation planners, we might say not going to happen right.

B

Everything was considered, and so this was kind of our test of whether or not they were likely to happen based on financial feasibility based on implementation requirements based on what the benefits are. Do they benefit a few people?

B

Do they benefit more people in the community and finally, the overall community benefits so you'll see in your plan that you have this high medium and low ranking, it is qualitative, but it's it's the best information from your city staff from different people that were involved in the planning process, I'm going to turn it over to Lara to talk about the strategies. Thank you thank.

C

You Curran with that background. I would like to talk about the nine strategies that are in the plan and also point out that, as drafted, the plan identifies the city as a potential lead agency on strategies. Three and five. The city could also take a leadership role on other strategies depending on the City Council's priorities, so strategy, one seeks to improve transit, stop amenities and security.

C

Examples may include things like more bus, shelters, benches or semi seats, which are those small kind of seeds that are attached a lot of times to the poles at the bus stops that can be very affordable and useful. It could also include more schedule information at stops. The community identified the corner of san bruno avenue and el camino real as a location for improvements, as well as identifying the entire stretch of el camino real for potential improvements.

C

Strategy number two would like to improve: affordability for public transit for low-income users, and the objective of this is really what Kareem was mentioning. There's a core group of low-income folks that really have trouble affording transit the Human Services Agency currently has a program that could be expanded, especially to SamTrans service and, as Korean mentioned in the big picture, there is also some reason to be optimistic about a region-wide reduced fare program.

C

Strategy number three would improve bicycle amenities and, as noted the city of San Bruno is currently listed as a potential lead agency for the strategy. It includes several parts. The first would be to expand the bicycle network. That would be more bike lanes or bike routes. This would be consistent with the general plan and also consistent with the san mateo county, wide bicycle and pedestrian plan. The second thing would be increasing bicycle parking near transit, so that could be bicycle racks or storage. Lockers we've already heard that there could be good news on this front.

C

Number three would be development of the San Bruno pedestrian and bicycle whole master plan. So this is something that's been under consideration in the past and is mentioned in this planning effort, and the last thing is really under SamTrans authority, but is worth mentioning, and that is to increase storage for bikes on buses. So, as you know, the buses have the rack on the front that holds two bikes, and we understand that it is possible to have a rack that would hold three bikes dramatically. Increasing the capacity.

C

Strategy number four is to provide free or low-cost bicycles, and this is not something that was immediately apparent to staff as a need because we perceive bicycles, is being relatively affordable, but we did hear from the community that they could still use assistance in this area. The lead agency for this would probably be a community-based organization and there's a model that basically works, that bicycles are donated to a community-based group repaired and then redistributed to low-income communities.

C

Our bicycle and pedestrian Advisory Committee has indicated that they would be interested in working as a partner on this program. It may also include an educational component, such as bike safety workshops.

C

Strategy 5 would improve pedestrian safety and access again. The city is a potential lead agency for the strategy. Improvements could include pedestrian countdown signals, improvements at crossings, sidewalk repair things like that. The specific projects would still have to be fully analyzed and any traffic calming projects would have to go through the city's process, as outlined in the traffic calming toolkit. But it is worthwhile to note that during the community outreach process, pedestrian improvements ranked high on the priority list.

C

Strategy, 6 would increase public access to information about transportation, so the idea is to create or expand educational programs that can include things like how to write transit use 511 either online or on the phone for those people that aren't as good with their internet access. Those resources should be in English and Spanish and likely in Chinese as well. There are two recent programs in our area that I've done this successfully. Those could be used as models.

C

This could also include working with other community groups to distribute information at the places that people are more likely to already go to.

C

Strategy number seven talks about SamTrans bus service, so I won't go into too much detail, but I would like to point out that the the community gave very specific feedback about what routes could be improved. The types of things they needed more, what buses were busy on peak service, so those details are included in the plan and as mentioned those things are going to be included in the SamTrans service planning process as well.

C

Strategy number eight is similar to number seven but really speaks to connectivity, so the community pointed out to us some specific locations where they were missing their connections. So, like number seven, the information is being sent on from the plan to the samtrans planning process.

C

Strategy number nine is related to the South San Francisco caltrain station and though it's not directly related to us. It certainly would improve mobility for residents that go back and forth between places and through the region.

C

So to review where we are at this point, it is a joint plan and review requires review by several agencies. I'm South, San Francisco, has accepted the plan and they've asked for additional translation into Chinese for any outreach materials that come out of the plan seek addict, has also accepted the planned contingent on incorporating the comments from the City Council and then looking forward. Other community-based transportation plans have resulted in significant grant funding for local projects and programs.

C

So completion of this plan should improve our chances of receiving funding in the future, and it's useful to have the plan and to know the City Council's priorities that way. When the grant applications come to us, we have the projects ready to go and already know what your priorities are. So in closing, staff is looking for council feedback on the plan for incorporation into the final version and samtrans staff is available for questions I'm available for questions. We also have a member of the sea CAG staff here tonight. Thank you very much. Corinne.

A

I noticed the on the PowerPoint they mentioned specifically el camino, real san bruno Avenue and Jenna Ben and el camino al. What concentration or interest have you put on the area surround your new grade separation.

B

What's a good question, um it didn't specifically come up because we say because we're looking at people what what is here now, not especially what is going to be here in the future, um but all of these improvements, I think address. You know safety, walkability and so forth.

A

I'm thinking in terms of you know, bicycle racks and all the different kinds of things that that are going to be more heavily concentrated in the area with the whole lot more people going in and out. So we brought it up tonight. Okay,.

B

A

D

I just want to do good, just two quick questions: um how do you, if you could briefly say how do you see this plan for south city san bruno, assisting us to acquire grants that will help make some of these improvements that have been outlined here? It.

B

Certainly has worked for other entities. East Palo Alto in particular, has used the plan to get shuttle funding and I'm.

B

Trying to think of the other gene gene is the one who is the the Guru of lifeline funding, but the Bayshore plan resulted in a couple of grants, one for the Seven Mile House improvements to that bus stop another one to add a shuttle, so I think the importance of this is you're not going to get a grant unless the first thing you can do is document that there really is a need and that you've done an outreach process.

B

So, as I said, it's kind of the genesis of these projects, because you are doing just that- you're documenting what the needs are and.

D

Then finally, I just wanted to just to confirm to that. The review of this and or acceptance of this document doesn't, shall we say, confirm san bruno obligated in any financial situation going forward or having to come back to say. Well, you know you you folks, who are in favor of this and so now here's something that we wanted to pursue, but there's a price tag involved. No.

B

It doesn't, it really is just providing the city and and other agencies with a better reading of what the the transportation needs are. Thank.

A

You, okay, Michael.

E

I was curious. You mentioned some other studies in different areas and I was wondering how the priorities that came out of this study compared with the priorities in those areas or are they fairly similar across the county? Yes,.

B

E

D

Let me clarify staff. Are you at you're, not asking us tonight, to give you the priorities we have for this, or are you.

E

What we're looking excuse me, what we're looking for is your general feedback. Excuse me on the priorities as their outlined within the plan. So there's nine total priorities with us, taking the lead on several of them are those the priorities you like us to focus on. Are there any ones that you like to see a spork become more involved in as we move forward.

D

D

If I might add, mr. Merrick submitted comments in the community development director. It certainly is the city council's option. We would welcome comments at any point, particularly as we're doing more long-range planning and thought about capital improvements generally. So this is not your last opportunity to identify priorities, particularly as you might see them being implemented.

D

Vyas the city itself, okay,.

A

The only other thing I would say is you know this is all well and good, but along with it, without clutter and on how you do it, but we probably need some signage as we go along so to tell people you know on a day to day basis, instead of trying to outreach to them with with flyers or mailings or things just something at certain Street locations to.

A

Let them know that repeatedly these things are going to be available, whether the bike racks, whether they're you know whatever happens to be and I, would like a little more concentration on our great set, because that's that's a huge thing coming up.

A

Mr. lucky, did you have a question.

F

Thank you for your briefing. I have a comment and a question in my comment is: my name is Alan lucky I live on fleetwood, dr.

F

My comment is here: here's a remarkable suggestion that can be executed immediately and solve help alleviate transportation in the end of the area with sound trance. Why? Why does it take to fairs to get from.

F

The shopping center at well anyway, from where I live on sneath lane to get to El, Camino, rial and then pay is pay. Another fare to get on another SamTrans bus on el camino real. Why can't we have a transfer system, even if it be a even it would be a lesser cost, but why should you pay to fairs to go one to go for four or five blocks to get to to get to another point?

F

So that's a comment and I wish that the people who are here the players, the notables, can take that to heart and put it in their minds and maybe it would execute it now. My question is for the planner here: oh I, don't know most five. Six years ago we talked about this city's, a greement or disagreement with ferry service up at Oyster Point. Now, when I get my free bicycle on the sand trans bus, what will I be when I get on there?

F

Will I be able to ride my bike up to a point and get on a ferry to go to San Francisco how's that coming.

B

So the first thing relative to transfers SamTrans recently instituted a day pass, so you can purchase a day pass. That would give you any number of rides that you want, which is equivalent to about the cost of three rides and that's about where we're at right now and relative to the ferry service I.

B

The ferry service that is going to happen is from may be wrong, but I think it's from Alameda to South San Francisco, not from South San Francisco up to San Francisco.

F

B

Understanding is, they are within just talked to our Transportation Authority people about four to five weeks of completing construction, but the water transit authority would like to wait for better weather to actually start the service, so the construction is virtually complete, and so it's it's up to wetta now to determine when they're going to start the service.

A

Thank you, so you need anything else from us here other than some will think about after the meetings over we'll think of five things. No.

E

Nothing else, just as the city manager said, this is a good place to start as you're looking at plans in the future as you're evaluating those to look back at this plane as well. Great.

A

Thank you very much good report. Thank You Corinne.