Transportation Focus Group

Meeting Notes by Charles Rivasplata

Bicycles

Tonight's meeting is covering bicycle transportation in the Western SoMa Plan Area. Members of the bicycle community were invited, as were representatives of the City family, including peter Albert and Oliver Gajda or MTA.

It is anticipated that these monthly focus meetings on a specific mode will continue through the end of this calendar year, with a full draft released in late January and a plan ready for adoption in May, 2008.

Principal Topics/Current Conditions

The following issues were discussed at the meeting:

• Double or triple left turns are also problematic for bicyclists, as they often result in drivers intimidating them. Bicyclists need to feel that they can safely cross an intersection, as they are clearly in the right.
• Townsend Street has no bicycle lanes, no sidewalks, and poses a barrier for pedestrians and bicyclists entering the area. It badly needs improvements.
• As a ceremonial street, if we took the bikes off of Folsom, where could we put them? Some point out that Howard would be void of most transit, but that it would not be a better bicycle street than Folsom
• Apart from the topography and poor street surfaces, is that there are barriers between Howard and the Mission at Division Street (under freeway). Similarly, Bryant is not a good bicycle street due to its proximity to the freeway.
• Folsom is actually a good choice for bicycles and could co-exist with transit, as long as adequate bicycle lanes are provided in each direction. It is also good because it has less back-up as there are not as many cars on this street.
• As far as bulb-outs are concerned, the one at 6^th Street is good, but the one at Eighth is not because cars don't always show their intention until the last moment.
• What are the implications of ripping up 4^th Street? This could adversely impact the placement of bicycle improvements there once the injunction is lifted.
• According to the MTA (Peter, Oliver), there is a window of opportunity within the scoping period to address projects to be analyzed in the Bicycle Plan EIR (in the next month or so). Western SoMa work could be brought in as an addendum to Eastern Neighborhoods (see notes from Nannie on meeting with MTA).
• MTA is excited that they are constantly receiving data, and can make revisions through an iterative process. This way they avoid waiting until the end to work out changes.
• It is important to note that bicycle improvements cannot be implemented until after the injunction is lifted, making the move away from LOS methodologies a moot point at this point.
• MTA is coordinating with the Better Streets program staff to make sure that their changes are incorporated.
• As far as bicycle data is concerned, counts taken last year are now on the web. This data is essential for differentiating between the used and the formerly defined bicycle network. Reports will gradually become available.
• It is important that the Western SoMa Task Force give input into the scope within a short period of time. Members suggested the following changes:

- Connection between Polk and 11^th Streets (across Market)

- Connection from Howard to South Van Ness (across Division)

- Evaluation of other areas – Eight and Grove)

• It might be advantageous to incorporate a Howard bike boulevard (Tom). The programmatic approach could accommodate such projects (Peter).
• There are additional issues to consider (Paul):

- 4^th Street area to the north is becoming a de facto neighborhood commercial area, however no recognition is made of bicycle needs there;

- An area of employment has developed south of the freeway; however, there are barriers for people coming in from the north.

• It was suggested that an ongoing dialogue go on between MTA and Planning (Peter, Charles, Paul. Oliver), so that the Western SoMa advances whatever the MTA is advancing.
• There are huge opportunities for working with the PUC, but the agency is not well coordinated (Tom).
• On the subject of Townsend Street, improvements are being considered by the Better Streets program as well as MTA (e.g., sidewalks, bike lanes).
• The focus on Townsend (Peter) can be tied to three areas:

- Mission Bay and progress on changes there

- Desire to work with DPW

- Links to the Better Streets forum

• Another issue is the need to integrate bicycle sharing pods into the proposal, especially where need is the greatest (e.g., hubs such as the Caltrain Depot).
• If there is a desire to go from a minor project (e.g., sharrow) to a major project, there may be an opportunity to do so with the programmatic approach, as long as the project does not adversely impact capacity.
• In all, MTA is slated to clear 60 bicycle projects citywide, with implementation in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Approval of projects isn't expected until Fall 2009. In the meantime, MTA is still trying to queue up pavement construction projects so that they coordinate with bicycle improvements.
• We need to make sure that the projects that are in the Bicycle Plan are basically the same ones that are in the Western SoMa Plan.

Next week, the Focus Group will focus on private vehicles:

• There's a need to address street types and orientation of traffic (Tom), with a need to look at traffic volumes:

- 8^th and 9^th, Howard, and on Bryant, Harrison

- turning movement information needed for next month

- information reporting what cars are doing vs. what pedestrians are doing

In addition, there are some other areas that need to be pursued by the group:

- need further a group transit discussion once the TEP advance further and data is made available – a second round of discussion

- stemming from a discussion with Michael Jacinto, there's a need to understand the implications of conversion to two-way streets for the Greater SoMa transportation Study. We need to move as far as we can, but when can we get project-level clearance?