May 15, 2023 Council Transportation Committee

Video

Agenda

• 1. CALL TO ORDER: At 6:30 p.m., Chair Kamei called the meeting to order. (00:00:38)
• 2. ROLL CALL (00:00:38)
• 3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC - None (00:01:18)
• 4. MINUTES APPROVAL (00:01:18)
• 4.1 Approve Meeting Minutes: There were no public speakers in-person or virtually. M/S Hicks/Matichak - To approve the Council Transportation Committee meeting minutes of April 10, 2023. (00:01:18)
• 5. NEW BUSINESS (00:03:05)
• 5.1 El Monte Avenue Corridor Study, Project 19-61: Senior Traffic Engineer Galang provided a presentation on the El Monte Avenue Corridor Study, Project 19-61. (00:03:05)
• 5.2 Miramonte Avenue Improvements, Project 20-01: Associate Civil Engineer Robertson provided a presentation on the Miramonte Avenue Improvements, Project 20-01. (01:18:08)
• 5.3 Castro Street Bikeway Feasibility Study, Project 17-53: Transportation Planner Whyte provided a presentation on the Castro Street Bikeway Feasibility Study, Project 17-53. (02:10:11)
• 6. COMMITTEE/STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS, UPDATES, REQUESTS, AND COMMITTEE REPORTS (03:19:52)
• 6.1 Staff Comments: Public Works Director Cameron announced the next Council Transportation Committee meeting will be scheduled for September 2023, with the date to be determined at a later time. (03:19:52)
• 6.2 Committee Comments: Chair Kamei thanked Assistant Public Works Director Skinner for his notes related to the recent Valley Transportation Authority Policy Advisory Committee meeting. (03:21:11)
• 7. ADJOURNMENT: At 9:52 p.m., Chair Kamei adjourned the meeting. (03:21:11)

Transcript

2. ROLL CALL

[00:00:38] Chair Ellen Kamei: All right, um, good evening everyone. Welcome to the Council Transportation Committee meeting of May 15, 2023. This is a hybrid meeting allowing public comment about in-person and virtually. Instructions for addressing the ver- the committee virtually may be found on the post-it agenda. So we'll move on to item two, which is roll call. Our public works director, Cameron, will take attendance by roll call.

[00:01:03] Public Works Director Cameron: Thank you, sure, person committee, here. Remember Mattachek? Give number Hicks. Here. Everybody is here. And for the record, um, we should have put this in agenda flow, the meeting started at 6.30. Great. Great.

4.1 Approve Meeting Minutes

[00:01:18] Chair Ellen Kamei: So we'll move on to item 3 oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter, not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes during this section. State law prohibits the committee from acting on nonagenda items. Would any member of the public on the line? Like to provide comments on nonagenda items. If so, please click the raise and bet minsu or approach the lectern. We'll take in-person speakers first. I am not seeing any in person. And I am not seeing any raised hands. Okay, so I don't see any. Right? Okay, great. All right. wonderful. So we'll move on to item 4, the approval of minutes, the minutes for the April 10, 2023 meeting are presented for approval tonight. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to make a comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in zoom or approach the lectern. We'll take in-person speakers 1st if we haven't. Okay, I am not seeing any. I'm not seeing any. So um, Would, uh, we'll bring the item back to the committee for deliberation action. Are there any corrections, public infant or comments from my colleagues on the minutes? I have no corrections, so I'll make a motion to approve, create a motion, type medium member hit, like, and a 2nd by committing a motion. Great.

[00:02:57] Public Works Director Cameron: So, no, since we're all in person, you can just do a I or race hand. Okay.

5.1 El Monte Avenue Corridor Study, Project 19-61

[00:03:05] Chair Ellen Kamei: So all committee members in favor of our name. So, you need this. Well, move on to item 5, new business. Item 5. is the El Monte Avenue corridor study. project 19 dash 61. The staff presentation will be provided by Darwin Lang, senior traffic engineer. Thank you. E All right, there you go.

[00:04:34] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Good evening, Cher, Parsons, May, Mary Hicks. and Counselor Matt Matichek. My name is Darwin Galan, senior traffic engineers for Public Works. I'm also joined by Lorenzo Lopez or Siri Traffic Engineer. Our presentation tonight is about Del Monte Avenue Cordon. In this presentation tonight, I'll touch on some background information about the study, including its goals and how we got to this point. And I'll present the road diet concept as the preferred alternative for the study. And lastly, we'll talk about the next steps and schedule. The Monte Abbey Quarter study focuses on these night intersections. 2 intersections sparked us one and 2 our long alchemine area on the north at Escala Avenue and Amonte Avenue. And the other 7 intersections marked from 3 to 9 are intersections along Monty Avenue from Edna Mary Way to J Street and Spring Road, uh, in the south. A study also includes evaluating various improvements throughout the corridor. The main goals of the study are to develop a multimodal transportation, conceptual plan, for pedestrian and bicycle safety, and to also improve traffic operations along the court. The conceptual plans are intended to evaluate corridor, to determine space allocation, for new improvements within the available roadway width. So how did we get to this point of the study? In 2020 staff held 3 previous meetings designed to get the community feedback and B-Pax feedback on issues along the corridor? Under the 1st 2 alternatives proposed by staff? During a 2020 BPAC meeting, the comedian requested the staff perform a road diet analysis. Which was completed in late 2021. Staff then held another public outreach meeting last year to promote additional community engagement and to present the community, the road diet concept. As you can see on the screen, each public meeting was well received by community, resulting in great turnouts. We had approximately 35 attendees. During the 1st meeting, 25 attendees during the virtual meeting. And 30 attendees during last year's meeting. Following last year's community meeting, on December 16, 2022, staff launched a public online survey to gain information on the public support and feedback to the alternatives. The survey was sent to approximately 10,000 households within approximately half a mile of the study area and posted in the city's Facebook page and website. Staff receive a total of 448 total responses online. And most recently, staff went to BPAC in April, with a recommended road diet alternative for the study. I would like to know that for each meeting that I mentioned, including tonight's meeting, notices were emailed to the residents and property owners, along the Almonte Avenue corridor and residents of the city of Los Altos, who live adjacent to the study area. In addition, project information was sent to a project email list, and has constantly been updated on the project website. So, please. Based on feedback received from the community during our 1st public outreach meeting, the top 6 challenges perceived by residents as to why the corridor provides an unsafe environment of what you see on the screen. As mentioned earlier, BPAC requested staff to explore a road diet alternative, essentially to address high vehicle volumes and high vehicle speeds along the corridor. For feedback received during the 1st meeting, staff prepared 2 corridor wide designal traders for the study. In a nutshell, alternative, one proposes to keep all side street access open, as it operates today, while providing 4 travel lanes, and stripe or race buffer bike lanes on both sides of the street. Well, alternative 2 proposes to restrict access on some side streets. With the installation of new concrete median islands, while also providing similar cost section. Before I focus on presenting the road diet concept, I would like to go to go over a couple slides that will show improvements that will be part of all alternatives. Alternative, one, two, and 3 being the road diet alternative. Here you see all community out between Escola Avenue and Amonte Avenue. High visibility, crosswalks, each intersection, green bike lanes, the conflict areas, removal of the slip lane from eastbound, El Camino Real to southbound on Monty Avenue, and maintaining 2 left turns from westbound, El Camino Real to southbound on Monty Avenue, will all be part of all the alternatives. During the design phase, staff will evaluate implementing protected intersection treatments for feasible. Improvements along all communery, I will be dependent upon Caltrance review and approval. So, please. In addition, other corridor wide improvements include ladder style, high visibility, crosswalks, enhanced street lighting, ADA compliant curb ramps, green bike land, conflict areas, striping and sinus improvements, and green street elements were feasible. Now let's talk about the road diet concept. What is the road diet? A shown in the slide, a road diet is a roadway reconfiguration, which involves converting an undivided 4 lane roadway. It's 3 lanes made up of 2 through lanes and a center two-way left turn lane. Essentially, the road diet allows the roadway to be reallocated for other uses, such as bike lanes, buffers, or potentially green street elements, or pedestrian crossing median islands. The road diet analysis generally found value to applying road diet along the corridor. This slide shows the benefits and potential impacts of the alternative. A road diet along Monty Avenue would increase safety, mobility and comfort level for both bicyclists and pedestrians. It will reallocate roadway to other uses, just such as bike lanes, buffers, and refuge island increasing motorists, recognition, and improving driver awareness. It will also reduce traffic volume, speed, and potentially frequency of traffic coalitions along the corridor by reducing weaving. Left turn conflicts and vehicle interactions. The road diet would serve as a natural traffic calming. By reducing lanes and limiting the single lane speed to the speed of the lead vehicle. On the other hand, a road diet could also divert traffic to local streets. It could make turning movements more difficult due to fewer brakes and traffic, and it would reduce the capacity of the roadway. Next few sites will show the Rhodai concept, its cross sections and conceptual plans, which staff believes is a feasible and preferred alternative along the corridor. Existing conditions along a Monty Avenue include 4 travel lanes with bicycle lanes on both sides of the street. With the road dial alternative, shown on the top. A Monte Avenue corridor can potentially. There you go. But the road answer alternative shown in the top, Amante can potentially have 2 travel lanes, 12 way left-ter lane, and stripe a race buffer, bike lanes on both sides to the street. The buffer area would be raised in locations that do not conflict with driveways or crossings. The image below shows the cross section at Hollingsworth, right? Where staff proposes to install a median island instead of instead of a two-way left turn lane. Just a reminder that the study aims to develop conceptual plans to determine space allocation, for improvements within existing roadway, and specific details of the improvements will be finalized during design. Here you can see the start of the road diet. As we transition from 2 lanes, to one lane along southbound Elmonte Avenue. As you cross marriageway. The slide shows you a longer stretch of a typical cross section, along a multi avenue with 2 through length, a center two-way, left turn lane. With stripe or race buffer bike lanes on both sides of the street. Here you see a location where staff proposes to install median islands and left turn pockets instead of a 2 way lestern lane. This installation of median islands provides a median refuge for pedestrians crossing on Monty Avenue, and also prevents legal use of a two-way left turn lane to pass lower traffic or access and upstream traffic. This slide shows the southern portion of the corridor. As we continue the road diet concept up to Springer Road. City staff has been in constant communication with the city of Los Altos. And they are aware of the 3 proposed corridor wide alternatives, including the Rhode Diet concept. In addition, both cities plan to look for opportunities and funding, to potentially extend the project limits to include the intersection of Belmonte Avenue and Springer Road, if possible, to better transition to the recent bike improvements that the city of Los Altos has completed along with Monty Avenue. As mentioned earlier, staff launched an online survey to promote wider comedian engagement. And here are some noteworthy feedback from the survey. The community supports the concept of a two-way left turn lane, but opposes the concept of left turn axis restrictions on some side streets. The community also supported the road diet concept as the most preferred alternative. On April 26, I mentioned earlier, Mountain View's BPAC, held a joint meeting with Los Altos Complete Streets Commission, and both committees provided input on the proposed for a diet concept for the study. City of Mountain Views BPAC, unanimously recommended that the CTC approved alternative 3, a road diet from 4 lengths to 3 lengths with Beaufort bike lengths. As the preferred alternative for the Almonte Avenue study. In addition, as recommended by EPAC, protected bike planes and Green Street elements will be incorporated into the project for feasible. Staff will also evaluate bicycle access. From marriageway to northbound on Monty Avenue, shown on the screen, to ensure that bicyclists have the ability to safety cross El Monty Avenue. Staff will also consider restricting northbound El Monty Avenue. Left turn movement to edemary way. To reduce to reduce conflict points along Monte Avenue, as recommended by BPA. And lastly, with regards to reducing the postage speed limit. Upon the implementation of roadway changes from Monty Avenue. And once the improvements have been in place for a few months, staff conduct a new engineering traffic survey, to determine if El Monty Avenue is eligible for speed limit reduction, including applying those applicable reduction provisions under AB 43. Based on an analysis. which identified several benefits of the road diet, alternative, including traffic calming effects of reduced speed, and conflicts, improved safety for other modes of travel, and the strong support from the 3rd community meeting, survey results in BPAC. Staff recommends that CTC recommend to the city council, the road diet alternative as the preferred conceptual plan for the study. As for the next steps of the study, staff plans to take the study to council in June, 2023, uh, and the study completion date is anticipated to be completed this summer and designed to start in 2024 and construction to begin in late 2025. Thank you so much.

[00:17:24] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. I see 2 chairs over here, if you would like to sit down, maybe if the audience doesn't mind shifting so that the rest of us can thank you so much. I know there's this. Thank you. I want you to have to stay on the whole meeting. Okay, um, So thank you for the presentation. Does any member of the committee have questions before we move to public college. Yes.

[00:17:49] Member Alison Hicks: So, uh, the speed here is one of the things that the community was most concerned about. And, um, I hear that you're possibly addressing that using, um, AB 43 and and possibly after the uh, changes are made, reevaluating the speed. I'm not, I hear that BPAC discussed A B 33 and 43 and ask for further education on that. Is that true? Is there a memo? And is there some way this committee can get education? At the same kind of education or is it out of date by now? I don't know what the status of that is.

[00:18:30] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: I'll answer that one. Thank you for the question. Lorenzo Lopez, city traffic engineer. We plan to take informational presentation to the BPAC in at the end of June. I believe that's still on the schedule, looking at other stuff. After that, we plan to bring it to CTC to communicate you as well. That's good.

[00:18:51] Member Alison Hicks: I don't even have to ask. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, because it seems like a constantly changing landscape and I don't feel like I'm on top of it and that's why you're coming to us to tell us more. Okay, correct. That question's answered. Thank you. Um, And then I've gotten a good amount of feedback on Main Street elements, uh, in this plan. Now, I'm wondering if, if you, when you'll make those decisions and will it be tied in with our active transportation plan? at all, those choices or um, or will it be discrete to this particular project?

[00:19:34] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Um, those details will be, uh, figured out during the design phase of the city. Uh, we have space for some Green Street elements. So we're feasible, we plan to incorporate that as part of design. And as part of this project, not separate with the ATP.

[00:19:53] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: You know, just to clarify, the, this is the study. This is going to be wrapped up in the next couple of months, and then the design can start. So kick it over to our design group, they'll go through the design phase as part of that design phase. It will look at any and every opportunity to incorporate Green Street elements.

[00:20:15] Member Alison Hicks: So the people who were concerned have time to weigh in again, and the space to weigh in. Correct. Okay, correct. Those are my questions. Great.

[00:20:25] Member Lisa Matichak: Yeah, and I'm on a Monte from time to time, but I've never seen it back up. Um, given the volume that was my footstep and stack up worth, does that straight ever back up? Do you know?

[00:20:38] Unknown Speaker: Thank you for... Yes. I'm about 24.

[00:20:45] Chair Ellen Kamei: So we're going to let staff answer the question. Thank you so much for the interactive element, but go ahead, Steph.

[00:20:50] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Thank you so much for the question. Based on traffic counts collected in 2019 traffic analysis as part of the study. Uh, there were 2 infections that had queuing, uh, which is the intersections of El Camino and Amonte. And the intersections of J Street, Springer, and Amonte. Uh, but, you know, it was, uh, based on the numbers that was part of that, uh, data collection, queueing was about 200 feet for a Monty, an El Communario, which is about 20 car length, and that's only noticed during the red light phase of the of the signal. Well, for the intersection of Day Street, it was only about one car length. Uh, during a peak. Okay.

[00:21:38] Member Lisa Matichak: Thank you. And is any part of the street on a safe route to school? Uh,

[00:21:47] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: thank you again for that question. Yes, El Monte Avenue is actually safe route to school for above elementary school and grab middle school. Including marriage way. And for the northern part of the, the limits, Escuela Avenue and El Camino Real are actually safe around to school for Los Altos High School. Okay. Great.

[00:22:11] Member Lisa Matichak: So, um, the changes to the 2 intersections with El Camino, um, Given the project to redo El Camino, how how would these fit in? Have changes are we been proposed, Caltrans? okay with them? Or like, how does this work? Okay,

[00:22:34] Assistant Public Works Director Arango: get over to your... engineer, Ed Rango. Thank you. Orango, Assistant Public Works Director and Signature. I think I can help with this question. So we have two, it's called 2 projects along El Camino Real. The 1st project is the Cal Trans Project, which will be including bike lanes, buffer bike lanes, along El Camino Royale, including between Escuela and El Monte. Um, they're also putting in uh, high visibility crosswalk, at the Escuela intersection, and then, um, by clean striping, as well as the El Monte and El Camino real intersection. They won't be doing high visibly crosswalks there, but they will be doing bike wing striping. Um, so I think the important element is that the El Camino real, um, improvements. Um, the other project that we have is the El Camino real, Escuela, El Monte project that we recently got the OBEG 3 funding for. And this project, which includes, it's the corridor that you saw. They're all consistent with the upcoming real streetscape plan. So it's sort of an element that we are coordinating. So, the, um, The figure that's in your packets, um, that identify the Escuela El Monte, um, El Monte, El Communal Real. It's a lot of streets here. Intersection are consistent with this recent plan. Um, When the 2nd project comes in, which is the grant funded project, the Escuela El Monte, okay, the real, grant funded project. Our hope is to combine the El Monte Corridor improvements together with a grand funded project to be able to deliver this call at one time. But they are consistent with each other. Great. Thank you. Um,

[00:24:24] Member Lisa Matichak: So I think you answered one of my questions. I was wondering, you know, when do we figure out the width of lanes, but that actually happens in the next phase, right? In the design.

[00:24:35] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Correct. But we do have some preliminary, uh, design features as at this point, uh, to answer that question, typical, uh, standard width, it's 12 feet, but as part of this design, it we're actually implementing 11 foot wide travel length. And in terms of bike lanes, a typical bike lane would be about 5 feet, 6 feet, with a range of 4 to 7 feet, uh, for disc corridor, we're implementing 6 foot bike lanes, with buffer areas ranging from 2 feet to 6 feet. Okay,

[00:25:09] Member Lisa Matichak: and those buffer areas, um, areas where there's potential for green.

[00:25:15] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Correct.

[00:25:17] Member Lisa Matichak: Um, If this group or the council requested something other than alternative three, What would happen? Would it be delayed? Would that cost more money? Kind of what are the implications of that?

[00:25:36] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Just to clarify a question, are you asking outside of the 3 alternatives or? If outside

[00:25:44] Member Lisa Matichak: of alternative 3, the staff recommendation. So if we wanted some additional changes, besides what is shown in alternative three. What would be the implications?

[00:25:54] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: Right, depending on, you know, the scope of what would be asked, I think that would, that would delay the project, uh, similar to, I would say, comparison to what the VPAC requested. We thought we had 2 alternatives ready to present to the public and CTC, and they requested additional analysis, which, you know, took a couple years to complete, you know, given, you know, uh, pandemic happened and its staff, vacancies and also dealing with consultant agreements that added some time for additional analysis.

[00:26:29] Public Works Director Cameron: I may, uh, don't care for public works director. What is the same thing? Um, it really depends upon what the council has to be further considered. If we use the grant sleeper intersection as an example, there was a similar concept plan, study developed a lot of community involvement. And as we came to the CTC and were ready with the preferred alternative, the CTC asked that a couple other elements be considered. And that did not need to delay, taking the concept study to counsel and getting buy off, just noted these items would be, then be studied further during design, and brought back to CTC during the design phase. So if it's something of that magnitude, this is probably the same way we treat the Elmonte corridor study so that this quarter study could be completed and we could move into design. But if it is something more significant, that requires far more study and assessment and evaluation. Then, um, then senior engineer, um, and I. Um, his his response, which is correct, that we would have to add time so we can study an additional alternative. Okay. Thank you. Um, And

[00:27:53] Member Lisa Matichak: then the lighting improvements have y'all thought about what that might be. that you can share or is that you still need to begin to figure out, but lighting improvements.

[00:28:08] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: At this point, we don't have details for the lighting improvements and that'll be doing the design phase of the project. Okay,

[00:28:15] Chair Ellen Kamei: thank you. Great, thank you. All right. So my colleagues ask great questions. So I think that I only have. Well maybe two. So, um, for the um, city of Los Altos, um, you mentioned that, uh, they're also moving forward for improvements. Do you have any idea? I'm sorry, I don't think I saw the limit. So I report. What's their timeline? How does how does it work in conjunction with ours? We know that yet or not yet? So

[00:28:46] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: they actually completed their their their improvements along the Monte Avenue. They, they implemented some green bike plane treatments along Monte Avenue. Uh, and that's something that, you know, we noticed, well, during the city, and we brought that up to Los Altos, and it, uh, really, the intersection is what we can figure out in the future, to better transition from the Monte Avenue quarter from the city side, to Del Monte Avenue quarter from Los Altos.

[00:29:19] Chair Ellen Kamei: I did see some improvements. I just wasn't sure if there was more, to be honest, to be honest. Okay. Okay, so it's basically they made some improvements. We need to make ours and then the coordination of the intersection. Okay, great. And then, um, just to follow up on, um, committee member map checks question. So with the different, um, Caltrans projects that are coming forward that Mr. Ringo brought forward, it would be possible to like get, um, map or some sort of rendering so we could see all of the improvements and how they kind of talk to each other. I think that would be really helpful because I was trying to remember what counts approved. And it'd be great to visually understand as we're looking. Um, you know, what, the holistic completion of the Caltras projects plus, you know, this alternative or any type of improvement that looks like. Um, You know, this could be when it comes back to the full counselor unit, doesn't need to be like a right now thing, but if that would be possible. Sure,

[00:30:18] Assistant Public Works Director Arango: at a Ringo again, this isn't for board strictness each year. I was just gonna get the clarification on the timing you're looking for. and then the limits. Is it right here or are you looking for the entire El Camino corridor? Um,

[00:30:31] Chair Ellen Kamei: I don't know how college. I didn't know that was on the table. No. I mean, I think they were, from whatever call, there was three, right? Different, um, crossings that we had looked at in addition to my plane portion. And I think 2 are in this area that we're talking about, right? So maybe the 2 that are in this, and this is just from memory of it. This was last year, so it couldn't be fuzzy, but I, right? Okay. It's great.

[00:31:00] Assistant Public Works Director Arango: Sure. Okay. Absolutely. Again, the, um, there's a figure in your memo that identifies this specific that is consistent with the Alcoming Rio, but we can provide follow up with that and provide...

[00:31:12] Chair Ellen Kamei: They seem that we had heard that we had gotten grant funding too. Oh, right. So...

[00:31:18] Public Works Director Cameron: So the 3 new crossings, the pedestrian crosses, which is also was called out in the Alpino streetscape plan was Pedis, Bonita, and crustface. Thank you. And those are actually being funded now by Caltrans as part of their project. The city doesn't need to pay for because they went and got their own grant. Thank you, which we were very happy about. Yes, thank you. So, um, what Mr. Rango's been referring to is he announced as we did receive federal grant funds called OBEC 3. Now, to realize the vision from the El Camino Rio Street skate plaque for that El Monte and Escuela segment of El Camino Rio and those 2 intersections. And so again, the Caltrans paving project is going to make some of those improvements, high visibility crosswalks and so on, but this other project's going to come in in about 2 or 3 years. And finish the reconfiguration of both those intersections to get us to what was envisioned in the streetscape plan. Great.

[00:32:25] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Those are my questions. Do committee members have any other questions? Okay, great. Um, so we'll move on to public comment. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or approach the lectern. Uh, we'll take um, in-person speakers first. Great. So I think we can do 3 minutes if that's okay. If staff could help me. And I think staff will put up the timer. We'll do in person and first, just hold out a little bit. Yes. She'll put up the timer for you.

[00:33:06] Cathy Koehler: Okay. Um, Kathy Kohler, I'm a resident on Hollingsworth Drive. My husband and I have lived there for 40 years, so we've seen a lot of changes. We are actually in support of alternative three, the road diet. Um, can't say we're real thrilled about the median. Um, which we see, uh, impeding our ability to take left hand turns out of Hollingsworth. Um, Although I understand that those are their for the pedestrian safety, I assume it's like a halfway point, you know, I'm assuming, so you can clarify this. Um, so, I'm asking for clarification on the medians. And then the, uh, necessity of them. But, but most importantly, I want to ask about the 2 crosswalks right close to together there, basically surrounding Hollingsworth, because, um, I do recall that, uh, El Monte had 2 crosswalks at Edna Mary for quite a while, and both as a pedestrian and a driver, on El Monte a lot. It was a nightmare. I mean, as a driver, you're watching the one crosswalk and you just get going and you realize there's another crosswalk right there. And as a pedestrian, you were on guard, because you know what it was like as a driver, and they, you or somebody, ultimately got rid of one of those crosswalks. So my question is, why would you put 2 crosswalks? And do the same thing again versus just using one. Hollingsworth on both sides. The Los Altos side and the Mountain View side is not a big road. If you, you're on hauling towards, and I wanted to go, right, I just, Cross my, Street, and then use the crosswalk. And vice versa, on the other side. So I'm just wondering, what is the necessity? for the 2 crosswalks, which means 2 medians. Not that, you know, I only see one impacting the left hand turn coming out of the Los Alto side. But again, I assume that's for pedestrian safety.

[00:35:36] Chair Ellen Kamei: Any other in-person public comet?

[00:35:41] Chair Ellen Kamei: Hi, Jackie Tanner. No, Mountain G hold on one moment. Shall we do that? I work for you. sorry. There you go. Uh,

[00:35:48] Jacquie Tanner: Jackie Tanner, mountain resident? I'm curious, we're doing this from Springer and El Monty. What about that little section by Todd? Todd Street's part of Mountain View? But it's just, just right there. So I'm just curious. That's not seems to come up. And then in regards to the traffic diversion, Todd Street's already nightmare regarding cars, weighing 35 miles an hour. It's a terrible sound to hear that go over the speed bump at 2 in the morning. So I'm really worried that the diversion is going to make it. It's going to make it worse. So I'd like to know how we're gonna handle the diversions. Okay,

[00:36:34] Kristina Pereyra: Christina Fern Mountain View resident. Um, I actually live on a street that um, makes a dead end into a street with a median and forces you to turn right and not turn left and I was thinking about that as the previous speaker talked. I can see how that if I was always able to turn left, it might be really upsetting to me to take it away, but having never been able to turn left. It's just very normal and I'm sure it would be something you get used to very quickly. Um, When I 1st went to one of these presentations, that was, sorry, aside. When I 1st went to one of these presentations, I wasn't sold on the road diet until I actually saw one in action, and I got off the train, um, Somewhere in Burlingame, I think, and it was on a street where I'd been before. A road diet had been implemented. And suddenly, As a pedestrian, you weren't next to, you know, these zooming cars and it was, you know, it's like, a scooter sort of scooting by and a bicycle and it was just tremendously lovely. And, um, I'd never heard a road day before, but I'm delighted to, I'd be much more delighted to walk along at El Monte with that option implemented.

[00:37:48] Serge Bonte: I could try 115. My name is Sarge Bont. I leave number 9 on the map. So pretty much 2 houses from Edmonte. Um, My son went to school in the Los Altos school district, so he went to Almond, Egan and Los Altos Heights for about 12 plus years. He had to cross Elmonte twice a day, during each school days for, you know, that many days. I'm very familiar with the issues. And it's, you know, I'm very grateful with the city staff to follow up on this. In terms of the background, it started a bit earlier than 2020. That started when we had a fatality at by marriage way, but was more like in 2015, I believe. And the city did some great improvements in the short terms, you know, much better, you know, more visible crosswalks, some some speed feedback so that people know that they are speeding, not that it stops them, but at least, you know, with Taliban. Um, and um, and throughout this, we always talked about the long-term solution, which is pretty what you're looking at here, which is to slow down people on, on, on Almonte. So it's been a very long time coming. So that's been more than just this free past years of feedback and community input. And I think it's reaching the point where, um, you know, our driver Steve is bidden down. I mean, it's unfortunate it wasn't done during my my son's school years, but I'd like to see it during my lifetime or whatever is left off. So, uh, so please add up this, uh, as it. And you are talking about things that could delay things. Feedback, unfortunately, suggested one thing, but I think was not called for. There was no public input on this, no public support. There was no public feedback on this because it was done at the very end without any sort of feedback. And I think, and I'm talking about the, uh, removing the left turn from, um, uh, Ermonte to marriage, uh, to, uh, Edna Mary. Um, I'm very concerned that it's going to trigger a traffic study because the traffic will have to be routed somewhere, marriage at Camino or Clark. But also, um, there was no, I mean, the people living on that streets would be completely blindsided, and it includes 2 important businesses of his depot and McDonald's. And I'm sure they're going to have an opinion, which I suspect will be pretty strong, against removing that I have done. So all of these screams to me, more traffic studies, more outreach, more things like this, and the next thing you know, it's going to be two, 3 more years until it's done. And to paraphrase a slogan, you know, safety delay, the safety delay. So, thank shift. Hello.

[00:40:50] Charles Mathes: Charles Mathis, I'm a homeowner on Holland's work. Um, I have 2 kids, so we spend a lot of time out and about in the stroller. We go to a preschool via stroller. They'll be going to Almadell Elementary. So as you can imagine, pedestria. Traffic safety has been on my mind. Um, I'd like to say largely in support of alternative three. I feel it will improve traffic safety while still maintaining the ability of residents to move about. Um, I feel like throughout this process, the traffic engineers have done a good job of uh, taking feedback from the community, both in terms of previous meetings as they referred to. And then also a poll. Um, my only specific or critical comment I'd like to make, which is echoing what someone else said is that I would, I would ask or hope that the uh, the pedestrian refuges at Hongsworth don't cut into the intersection so much that they make it difficult to take left turns uh, from Holleaguesworth to El Monte. But on the whole, I support the plan. Thank you. I'm

[00:41:59] David Beggs: gonna be go short. David Beggs Los Altos. Uh, I said, I just wanted to secondly, uh, suggestion that Hollingsworth may not have 2 crossings, just one, because the, the, uh, people trying to cross from one side of Hollingsworth to the other is, is very easy and so it'd be very easy to just go around and just have the one crossing, whereas two, I think it's confusing for both, uh, people who are driving their cars in the pedestrians. you.

[00:42:32] Chair Ellen Kamei: Wanting to speak on the time? Yeah, yeah, feel free to... I'm sorry that you need to. It's just the microphone is right there. over right here. Yeah. It was about you, but. And when we, when we do the title. Okay. Hi,

[00:42:51] Pat Kong: my name's Pat. I live in Mountain View. I apologize for being late. I just found the dose of my mail. But the meeting here in England is on this topic on the traffic. But I'm pretty close to a spoiler. And So is it going to be converted into a 3 lane? Is that what I ordered? Or I might have misunderstood. So

[00:43:16] Chair Ellen Kamei: public comment, you could share your concerns with us. We can't have a too late dialogue, but committee members can ask staff follow-up questions after the public comment, but we can't have direct. Okay. If you have concerns, feel free to share.

[00:43:31] Pat Kong: Well, for any of these 3 plans that you had, we're going with direct 3 or whatever that, how you call it. category. Um, If, as you're studying it, in, let's say you implement it, and it's not working out as good as you had hoped. The conversion to the next option that the public would like, That is it the way it's made now with direct three. Can it be made into a direct, well, maybe 4 different. option or something like that, without that much breakup and cost. Because sometimes, you know, it's just like you have a play and it doesn't quite work good, then you say, wait a minute, let me think of it. Maybe a better one. And then we'll try it out and see which way works out better. And then that would be the one you use ongoing. future of time. Thank you. Any

[00:44:32] Chair Ellen Kamei: other in-person public comments? All right, I'm not seeing any, but we have some raised hands virtually, so we'll see how this goes. So we'll... In the meantime, do you want me to? I don't seem to, if they need to be promoted at home. but you're welcome to do it. So, Bruce, you're you're 1st in the queue, but we just need to figure out how to... Bruce England. Thank

[00:45:18] Bruce England: you. Um, yes, Bruce England, speaking for um, Mountain Coalition for Sustainable Planning, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, Mountain View, and Green Spaces, Mountain View, and um, we wrote a letter in. I won't talk about the contents of the letter was fairly detailed. One thing I didn't include in the letter, but I intended to was concern also about the Escuela intersection and particularly the driveway coming out of Walgreens and allowance for right turns on red there and some other details others might speak to. Um, we are interested in seeing the project expedited. However, we did want to call out some of the details that we did in the letter so that if there is time, and it can be done, that some of those details and features could be considered. Um, one point that was made in the staff report was about a speed study being done some months after um, the actual project work is done. That might be reasonable, but we're not sure what some months later means, and it would be good to have some sort of a sense of what kind of time frame we're talking about. Thank you. Great,

[00:46:28] Chair Ellen Kamei: thank you. Next, I see Terry Bush in the cue. Hi,

[00:46:42] Terry V. Bush: this is Terry Bush. I'm a resident on Hollingsworth and Los Altos. And I agree very much with what the others of us on Hollingsworth have said so far. Um, Specifically to me, my biggest concern, and I'll say 1st the, the, Proposal 3, I think is by far the best, and I think you guys have done a great job on getting that ready. Oh, the 2 concerns I have are the left turn lane, or left turning from Hollingsworth onto El Monte with the on traffic barrier there, the median. Oh, that causes us to continue to have to cross both lanes of traffic to actually merge onto Hollings or onto El Monte. And so that, I think, has, oh, some problems there. I think you need to check out, um, what the, um, implications of not doing it or doing it are a little bit better. Oh, I agree with the others about the 2 crosswalks across Del Monte at Hollingsworth. Oh, only one is really necessary. I think it would reduce a little bit of cost, and it would reduce confusion, and it just isn't necessary, as Hollingsworth is a much lower traffic street than, oh, El Monte by far. And then, oh, thank you to Los Altos for just repaving, oh, Hollingsworth and Sparter in Los Altos. And during that time, we were actually shown what happens when you have only one southbound lane on El Monte because for a whole day or most of a day. The traffic was closed to just one lane there. And even with big trucks stopping it occasionally and stuff like that. There still was really good throughput. We didn't see any serious problems. Oh, another neighbor and I both. Oh, stood out there for a while and watched the traffic going and there really wasn't any problem with it. So, oh, hopefully, oh, you'll consider just, oh, keeping that, and for the others, especially in Mountain View that, oh, are concerned about the, oh, traffic going to other, oh, street, side streets and stuff. I, I, oh, understand your concern, I do not believe that that will happen. I believe, oh, that just simply the traffic calming here will help, oh, just reduce, oh, any issues and actually make the traffic flow smoother, because you won't have people in a through lane trying to turn left and causing issues. And so I think this own solution actually may even help reduce some of the, oh, blockage in the traffic there. Thank you very much. Great, thank you.

[00:49:36] Chair Ellen Kamei: Next, I see, uh, Bayan, Bengory. Hi. Hi,

[00:49:49] Bayaan Mengerink: we hear you. Okay, awesome. Um, hi, my name is Ryan Menjink. I'm a student at Fordham University, but I'm home for the summer, and I just recently joined the Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning, and I was just curious if you guys would consider building continuous sidewalks when reesigning these streets instead of building the sidewalks that go down to the same level of the street. Um, I just find that these kind of product pedestrians because it forces the cars to slow down for the curb, which provides a sense of safety for the pedestrian and also makes them feel like they are in a place for the cars. And instead cars kind of feel like they're a guest replacement for pedestrians since it's their walkway. Just to kind of promote safety and slit on the speed of cards. That's all I have. Great, thank you. Next

[00:50:33] Chair Ellen Kamei: is Dan. Okay,

[00:50:40] Dan: finally, front the mute button. Can you hear me? Yes. So thanks. I wanted to echo a few of my previous speakers, uh, particularly regarding the Hollinsworth intersection. Uh, I think number one, the crosswalk, I think one would be more than sufficient to actually accomplish the goal of having a pedestrian being able to cross uh, the Alamonti. I think 2 would be able too much. And on that point, uh, what about the flashing lights? I unfortunately missed a couple of previous meetings. I don't know whether flashing lights, uh, was considered as an option, similar to the one near the shopping mall, um, uh, the area where you can push a button if you want to cross, and cars will stop for you. I think that is actually a lot more, from a safety perspective, a lot more preferable. Uh, the other thing is that I think I agree with the previous speaker a couple of speakers ago that is, it could be quite dangerous. Uh, we need to take out the left turn option so that uh, we would have to merge uh, onto oncoming, um, uh, speeding traffic on El Monte and then make uh, some sort of U-turn or something. So I would seriously consider uh not giving the option of letting left turn. Um, as the previous speakers had mentioned, you know, the street, uh, El Monte is very, very sort of major thoroughfare, but not Hollingsworth. So the way that the current proposal is, it would actually really increase danger risks for residents. Hollingsworth, without really gaining much benefit. Uh, for uh, traffic coming for the main street uh, travelers. So that's really all I have. Thank you so much. Great, thank you. Okay,

[00:52:15] Chair Ellen Kamei: and Larry, Dato. Mary, did you put your hand down? Okay Your hands back up. Okay, great.

[00:52:31] Mary Dateo: Sorry, I clicked the wrong button. Um, I, um, just in here to speak in favor of um, alternate three. I'm really excited to see the road diet from a cyclist perspective. And, um, um, I'm glad to see in the staff memo that staffs, um, heard at the at the last meeting that, uh, the public's desire to incorporate, um, trees and and green infrastructure. Um, I, in general, um, I feel that pedestrians deserve to have double crosswalks across intersections because pedestrians, be it, walking is the slowest form of transportation, and it doesn't make sense to me to make a pedestrian cross the street and then cross another street, and then, you know, cross the street again, if really all they wanted to do was go straight. So um, I'm not familiar with this intersection. Maybe there's something I would understand about it, but I will say that, um, at Questa and Fordham, there is a double crosswalk. That street is similar to what this is going to be look like when it gets down to 3 lanes. And um, it has flashing lights on both. And I, there's lots of school traffic there. I haven't noticed any confusion by drivers. Um, or by pedestrians. I'm probably take that intersection a couple times a week and it seems to work great. So, again, in general, I think. Thanks, we should make life easy for pedestrians because they're the slowest ones. Why make them, you know, add way more distance to their, um, their trip. Then, um, the other thing, I, I, keep bringing up the, um, Escuela and, um, El Camino Real, and maybe nothing can be done as part of this project, but it does seem to me that a, uh, signal light change, that Caltrans, uh, I guess if theirs has to be a study, Caltrans could do it separately from every, you know, everything else because, um, just changing the timing and the signal and adding separate green lights, um, From Walgreens versus Escuela. Um, Uh, it seemed to be just a traffic light change and it shouldn't, I wouldn't expect that would interfere with, um, anything happening with this project. And, um, I mentioned my letter, um, about how difficult the intersection is for cyclists, but it's also crazy for pedestrians because they're, you know, also have the same thing. They're walking across 7 or more lanes of traffic and all of a sudden a car comes out and is making a left turn. you know, toward them in the crosswalk because there isn't a separate um, cycle. So I'm, I'm hoping that the, there's some way the city can um, try to encourage Caltrans to make that change. Thank you. Great, thank you. All

[00:55:27] Chair Ellen Kamei: right, and Celia Paymer. What happened? Exactly.

[00:55:36] Silja Paymer: Hi, um, this is Celia Paymer, um, also representatives of Green Spaces, Mountain View. I guess. We lost our home. Oh,

[00:55:53] Chair Ellen Kamei: there you go. So, yeah, you back. There you go. Okay,

[00:55:56] Silja Paymer: sorry. Um, yeah. Um, so I wanted to echo some things um, as well. Um, I'm really hoping that we can get the um, speed down over there. I do take it fairly regularly and go through the intersection of Amonte and Springer every morning. Um, and so just bringing it all down to that 30 miles an hour could be really helpful, um, to make it a safer um, intersection there as well as um, all the way down. I'm looking forward to the opportunities for design with Green streets. Um, and I agree with um, Mary in terms of the 2 crosswalks. I think, um, it could be a very car centered view to think. Because there aren't a lot of pedestrians there. We don't need to crosswalks, but maybe the reason there aren't a lot of pedestrians there is they're being forced to walk further. Um, so, um, I would also like it to be considered that when young bicyclists are using it as a safe route to school. It's safer for them to practice, to cross onto the correct side of the street, than to force them all to one side of the street and then have them be crossing in front of cars again on their bikes to get on the correct side of the street. So having those 2 sided crosswalks are really beneficial to teaching young cyclists, proper, um, crossing strategies. Okay. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

[00:57:16] Chair Ellen Kamei: Okay, so that concludes both are in person and virtual speakers. So I'll bring the item back for the committee for deliberation and action. Committee member hits.

[00:57:30] Member Alison Hicks: So I was going to start by asking some of the questions that were brought up by members of the public and maybe I'll miss some of them you guys. And some up too. So I was, I'm wondering about staffs, um, uh, what staff's thoughts are, about the treatment around Hollingsworth, because that's what we've heard, the most about, we heard sort of pro and con arguments, for having the 2 crosswalks and medians, and we've heard some people express that having to so close together can be unsafe and other people express that it's more safe for pedestrians. and new bikers. So, do you have, since you have more experience with this than I do? Do you have some thoughts on that and why you suggested it as it is?

[00:58:20] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: For that question. We do propose to cross-lots it, calling for drive, uh, given with the low, a left training movement account at that intersection coming out of the, uh, of Longsworth, and the benefits of having 2 cross-lots for the districts, a bicycle, as mentioned by separate, uh, several of our, uh, public speakers. Um, aside from 2 crosswalks, we're also proposing side crosswalks at the intersection. So that would definitely make that intersection safer pedestrials and bicyclists. I didn't catch the word you said. What kind of crossbox? A lighted crossbox. So, a lighter cross, yes, lighter crossbox system, similar to what we have at El Monte marriage. Thank

[00:59:02] Member Alison Hicks: you. I hear hearing must speak out. Um, And then there was a question about a traffic, a change to a traffic light, uh, around the Escuela area, um, and possibly communicating, uh, with Caltrans about that, to have comments on that. Sure.

[00:59:23] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: Good question. We had actually brought this up to Caltrans many years ago. The issue is that cars going north or south. If you're on a square or you're coming from Walgreens out. Um, Your left turn conflicts with the pedestrians in the crosswalk. It doesn't have a protected left turn arrow. So we reached out to Caltrans years back and ask them if they can make that change. At the time they said they didn't have the funds and they weren't really interested. So, We're continuing to push them. There's been a change in staff and decision makers on the Caltran side. So as part of this project, and even sooner, we can reach out to them to continue to press them on that because there are conflicts with that left turn, vehicular traffic, the bikes at that, that are crossing up. Thank

[01:00:14] Member Alison Hicks: you for the details on that one. Um, and then uh, somebody brought up the issue of continuous sidewalks, which I assume are raised sidewalks at entrances to shopping areas that act someways like speed humps for cars, but as continuous. And when you look puzzled, so maybe I'm not describing it right. I actually was going to ask, can you define for me what a continuous sidewalk is so that I can make sure that I've understood correctly. Good

[01:00:47] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: question. We were asking.

[01:00:48] Member Alison Hicks: We were asking. talking

[01:00:52] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: amongst ourselves, what, you know, the speaker was talking about. We were thinking, she, she was thinking about race bike plants along a monster, not. you know, sidewalks behind driveways or whatnot. I believe she's talking about a raised crossing. So

[01:01:10] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: like a speed table at the crossbone. Oh, what?

[01:01:14] Transportation Manager Lo: Do you mind begin? I think if I can jump in. Hello, thank you for the question. This is Rhea, who's very low transportation manager. Um, I think what is being described is a flat uh, sidewalk. And so the ramp for the driveway is either ahead of or behind the, um, the sidewalk. That's

[01:01:37] Public Works Director Cameron: what I was trying to describe, but I wasn't describing it. So for a large portion of Elmonte, the sidewalk is attached to the curb and there are driveways, which means when you have the vertical curb, a portion of your sidewalk will dip down for the driveway approach and that up again. The only way to have a continuous level sidewalk is when you have room to put in a park strip so that you can have your driveway approach within the park strip. One of the things you heard today was, you know, this study had to consider what the front railway was available to work within. What we don't have is the right of way to separate, to start adding park strips and moving sidewalks closer to homes that would require actually purchasing right away. much bigger projects. So, this is always the challenge when you have sidewalks connected to the curb. We do have a lot of areas of city with that. Sidewalk does dip down. Thank you for the definition.

[01:02:50] Member Lisa Matichak: Those are the questions I... Yes. Um, so back to the intersection of Hollingsworth and, um, El Monte. I also heard a question about the medians and maybe I need a better explanation of these medians because based upon what some people said. I think I had a different idea of what they were. So, um, They are, they're in the, what would be the turn length in the middle. That's correct. And do, and then they restrict movement so you can't use that term. Is that true? No,

[01:03:30] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: you can still use. So it, if we could pull up the... Maybe

[01:03:41] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: while they're doing that, I can. I can give you an example at Delmonte in marriage. We installed a raised median adjacent to the left turn pocket onto marriage. So if you're going northbound on Monte. Um, making a left turn next, adjacent to that left turn pocket is a raised curve. That was installed as part of that project, the Almonte marriage project. And you have the raised raised curve, then you have an opening for the sidewalk, and then you have what we call a thumbnail on the other side of the crosswalk. So when you're crossing, you're within those 2 raised curves as cars are going beside you in the other direction. If for some reason you didn't make it across, you could wait there. And the people in the left turn pocket are not through traffic, so they are stopping and yielding to you also should be yielding to you as you're in that. left turn area, that middle of the roadway area. So we've done it at, um, a Monte Marriage as part of that project. And I think some of the concerns were the length of it and being able to get into the personal driveways. We had a similar case at that location with the Chevron gas station. So we've reduced the length of it to allow for the left turns out of Chevron to go northbound El Monte. So

[01:05:03] Member Lisa Matichak: if you're on El Monte, no matter which direction you're going, you should be able to turn left. And as always, right. And if you're on Hollingsworth, you can also turn left and right. Correct. So, okay. So the, The challenge sounds like would be the length that you said you adjusted it. So, um, Say you're going eastbound on Collingsworth and one turn left on a latte. Like, do you have to go out of your way to turn, like how far out do you have to turn, or can you, like, cut in a way that corner? at medium. So, again,

[01:05:50] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: this is conceptual and only, and that's something that we can take a look at during the design phase, so make sure that the training movement coming from the side streets would be accommodated and not be disrupted by the median islands. Okay.

[01:06:03] Member Lisa Matichak: And are those medians or anything else, um, for this project, um, temporary improvements, kind of like we do with the ATMP and then we make permanent a year later. Are any of these temporary, then we make a permanent or are they permanent from the beginning? The

[01:06:22] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: plan was to make them permanent from the beginning. Okay.

[01:06:25] Member Lisa Matichak: I was just wondering. And why did we remove that 2nd crosswalk? I can't show from marriage. Okay. So that,

[01:06:36] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: that, that's a tea intersection. And It kind of, you have to look at the bigger picture. And it involves Clark and El Camino. Because of the restriction to the left turns from Clark onto El Camino, a lot of the traffic in that area, would take El Monte to get to marriage, go up to El Camino, turn left, go tell Camino, and then turn left, go towards Palo Alto. So, the crosswalk, actually the crosswalk where the where the woman was was pit. was that crosswalk on the north. So what we wanted to do was eliminate the conflicts with the left turning vehicles and even now there's 2 lanes in each direction. So you're looking at multiple lanes of traffic as you approach and you're trying to find a gap to make that turn. So what we recommend it to counsel at the time was to remove that northern crosswalk. So there is only one crosswalk to cross. And it's different from Hollingsworth because It's not a T intersection at Hollingsworth. you have, it's a 4 legged intersection. So if you need, you do still need to cross marriage one time if you're on the north side to use that crossing, but you don't need to do it on the other side because it's continuous sidewalk along the shopping center. So that's that's the reason why we recommended it. The high volume of left turns, out of marriage that would conflict with that crossing, just the amount of traffic on marriage itself. I mean, El Monte itself, there's a lot of different factors and there's some very tall redwood trees that are very close to the face of curve. So when you were standing in that crossing, um, on the shopping center side, It almost created a wall that you're not very visible. when you're about to cross going westbound. So several factors made us, push us to recommend that to to be back and to counsel. I don't think we went to CDC but to council at the time. Thank

[01:08:37] Member Lisa Matichak: you. I had forgotten all those details. Okay, let's see. And then there was a question about Todd. And, um, did Los Altos do? Like, where do Los Altoses, like, let's start? Will this connect them all when opening, but LMD? Uh,

[01:08:58] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: the the improvements that they recently completed, it's actually Del Monte side of Los Altos, which is going. you know, west. So it's not on the springer side. It's a long, though, Monte. So there were no, I don't believe there were, uh, improvements along springer, as you go straight from Almont, he changes it to spring. Oh, oh, okay. So it turns a monty turns. I should go to Los Altos.

[01:09:24] Member Lisa Matichak: Okay. So there are so many things printed out here. We

[01:09:30] Member Alison Hicks: don't have any improvements planned past spring. Correct,

[01:09:37] Senior Traffic Engineer Galang: and I believe that's mainly... on MLT. Yes. Okay,

[01:09:42] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: got it. The majority is in the city. Got it. Okay.

[01:09:50] Chair Ellen Kamei: questions. Other questions or items? Okay. So, um, Since, uh, we have, online, I just, do you mind, um, talking a little bit about the safe routes to school for all the, uh, schools mentioned, um, Ms. Low, because I think one of the things counselors received a lot of feedback, um, over the years was about the safe routes to school, and I know we were making improvements, and I, um, I know that Bob, Graham, and Los Altos High School were mentioned, and how some of the approaches that are being made might fit it to our savory school efforts would be. Yeah,

[01:10:39] Transportation Manager Lo: so the, say, for instance, school program, um, oh, sorry, this is for you, his parent, low transportation manager. Thank you for the question. Um, the secrets to school program has a number of different components to improve safety for um, students getting to school. A lot of the work is programmatic, so it's education as a students, and encouragement. Um, we also have done walking audits for uh, all of the schools, all but one of the schools, we have another one scheduled for next week in the last year. And um, and so that's identified some of the pain points and this project addresses some of those pain points that have been uh, uh, noted in those walk audits, um, and also the next project that you'll hear about tonight also addresses some of those pain points as well. So it all kind of fits together. Um, and this, I think that these improvements that I recommended would be complimentary to the program. Thank you.

[01:11:36] Chair Ellen Kamei: So and do you mind sharing a little bit what a walking audit entails? Um,

[01:11:41] Transportation Manager Lo: so a walking audit is, um, uh, staff go to the school and meet with, uh, usually parents, the principal, some of the crossing guards, um, sometimes the police and, uh, staff both from transportation and traffic, and, um, and, uh, watch as students are arriving at the school or leaving a school, to see what's going on, to understand the travel patterns, how people are accessing the school, which modes they're taking. Um, and what some of the issues are, um, And so we've, we've noticed a lot of things kind of really close to the school at the drop off locations, but then also we've um, made observations a little bit further, like blocks away from the schools as well, um, in locations that were identified by the school community. Thank you.

[01:12:33] Chair Ellen Kamei: So thank you so much. Those are my questions. So, um, do committee members have any, um, deliberation or action I think recommend? Okay. Okay. Mine.

[01:12:48] Member Alison Hicks: I mean, overall, I agree with the, um, with the speaker system, we want to move forward. So overall, I do support alternative 3 I'm, um, I'm thrilled to see the removal of the slip lane, it's a large slip lane, and uh, uh, slip lane, and I'm excited about the road diet, um, and that there's so much support for it. So that's just my overall reaction. Um, I think from the things I've heard tonight, I would like to, as you go through the study and design, take care with the medians, of course, as we spoke about around Hollingsworth. Um, continue to ask for demand, uh, traffic light around the trans around the Escuela area. Um, and, uh, request that lighting improvements be made with forethought about an upcoming dark skies ordinance that the, that is on the council work plan. Um, And for that, you can, I guess, um, Google and uh, the school district are referring to both the Cupertino Ordinance and the International Dark Sky Association. So that might, they might have some information for that. Um, I, Okay, so those, those were my additional comments. Oh, how much did you want? Sure. I I mention, um, I will make a motion for, uh, alternative three.

[01:14:33] Member Lisa Matichak: So 2nd that mention. I do want to add that I agree that the Dark Skies organs? I think we're heading down the path to adopt one so we should keep that in mind right now. and appreciate the comment about the, uh, taking a look at the meetings. And I agree with the other. said. Um, I guess I want to make sure that, um, There's nothing they've said tonight that was like this time. I don't think there is, but, um, I just want to make sure that. And, you know, I did indeed on page 8 of the 2nd report about, um, a couple other things staff could do is follow-on. I don't know that I would prioritize those. I feel like Steph has so much work to do. On so many other streets and intersections, right, City. Uh, let's focus on all those. A huge list of other CIP projects. Um, rather than like tweak this one a little bit. So I don't think you have to do that, so I don't think that, but...

[01:15:50] Public Works Director Cameron: If I made for clarification. So, I think one of these items that we're talking about is really, just the time to study, um, eliminating left term lanes from Almonte onto February. Staff is also concerned that can affect access for those businesses and other users along itinary, so it would require public outreaching. And some analysis of the world to pursue that, which was something the BPAC product,

[01:16:20] Member Lisa Matichak: but the Cave Vietnam. Yeah, and I'm saying I don't feel like we need to do that and add it to this project. Maybe at later date, but I wouldn't prioritize it. It was... Yeah,

[01:16:35] Member Alison Hicks: I agree that I wouldn't want to slow it down. Although I do wonder, do any of these come up during the active transportation plan, are we? you

[01:16:44] Public Works Director Cameron: know, any of these kind of tweets or not this kind of thing. I would not imagine the active transportation plan's going to get to that level of detail.

[01:16:55] Member Lisa Matichak: And like, if let's do this and if we see if there's issues, we can always go back. and open up a UCIP to changes, but I'd like to just get these done. Move

[01:17:08] City Traffic Engineer Lopez: on to other CIPs. Yeah, if, if, when constructive, and this is all complete, and we see that there's just a huge issue at, and the Mary. I think it would be pretty easy to temporarily close that left turn, and then consider it a permanent closure, but we don't know what kind of issues we'll have until it's built. And we're actually doing quite a bit of improvement by eliminating that slip lane and the conflicts there. So, I think these improvements are good and maintaining that left turn look to Enemarian. Really, the only conflicts you're going to have is right turning vehicles from Al Camino, which should be turning very slow to make that turn and then left turning vehicles from Al Camino. That's it. Besides bikes. So that's all you're conflicting with when you make that. Aside from heads up across. Okay, great. All

5.2 Miramonte Avenue Improvements, Project 20-01

[01:18:08] Chair Ellen Kamei: right. So, um, thanks to my colleagues for the motion in the second. I'll be supporting it. I think the only other items I'd like to add is, um, I like that we're making Mountain View at a safer place to get around, um, reducing eliminating slip lanes. I think might be my fucking new thing for this term. Um, and just overall reducing conflict zones. And so I do feel comfortable. I was did quite a bit of walking last fall, especially in this area where I wouldn't say it was very pedestrian or cycling friendly. So, um, really is great to hear about the protected bike lanes, the opportunities for the green streets. One of the things I'd ask staff to do, if they could follow up and apologies that I didn't do this ahead of time. I can't I couldn't remember, but I'm not sure if we've done a letter of support or I know that there's a new, um, bill that freedom is putting forward about reducing speeds, and I don't, I can't remember if this is the one, or if it was like a 2 year bill, but I know that some other cities have recently had a press conference about speed reduction. And so if we could just look into, um, and ask just go more, if we, you know, if it would be something of interest, I'd like to learn more about that. And I think Mayor Hicks asked earlier about a memo that went to beat Pack. So that's of interest to me. Um, and and really appreciate, um, staff, including the Caltrans projects that we have that will kind of be incorporated in this area. I think it's great to see like the holistic changes we're trying to bring, especially to this portion of the city. So really appreciate that. And then for the, um, The Hollingsworth area, it sounds like for Edna Mary, we were able to make a median design change with the total thumb you were talking about. Oh, sorry, America, on the little thumb that was out, I was trying to zoom in on it. I would ask if we could look at that design element, finish it, but people feel like they can still. All right. Okay. So I think this concludes item 5.one. Right? Okay. So move on to item 5.2, our Miramonte Avenue improvements, project 2011. The staff presentation will be provided by Captain Robertson, our associate civil planner.

[01:20:39] Public Works Director Cameron: So it was a 3 vote, yes. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh, it's

[01:20:43] Chair Ellen Kamei: okay. For the record. Sorry. Sorry. Yes, yes, yes, sorry. So we have the emotions by Mayor Hicks 2nd day by Councilman Armatic, who just does a favorite. All right, it was humanimous. Thank you. And

[01:21:00] Public Works Director Cameron: Laura will make sure for me. apologies.

[01:21:03] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: It's not on camera. So we're thinking to put it here.

[01:21:06] Public Works Director Cameron: If you can fit it, that would be great. Right up, sorry, on my scribble, I guess. Oh, shit. No. You're right. Oh,

[01:21:45] Member Alison Hicks: so you could see. All

[01:21:55] Chair Ellen Kamei: right, whenever staff is there.

[01:22:44] Associate Civil Engineer Robertson: Good evening, good evening. Thank you, chairperson and committee members. The item before you on the agenda tonight is a project update on the Miramonte Avenue Project, CIP 20 dash 01. My name is Catherine Robertson. I am an associate civil engineer with the public works department. Also with me tonight, it's Robert Gonzalez, the principal civil engineer for the civil infrastructure section, and Edorango, the assistant public book structure, and they will also be with answering your questions about the project at the end of its presentation.. See

[01:24:12] Public Works Director Cameron: what it takes to... Okay, perfect.

[01:24:14] Chair Ellen Kamei: So if staff doesn't buy while we're waiting for the presentation, a committee member match check has just a general question before we get started. Sure. Address that. We'll wait. So as I was

[01:24:26] Member Lisa Matichak: reading the staff report and some of the public headput. Um, I, I, uh, change me, excuse me. to the rules rep biking. And I was wondering if you could refresh my memory. Um, We now allow bikes, whether they are on the road or on a sidewalk, to ride in any direction you want to go. Is that correct?

[01:24:54] Public Works Director Cameron: Actually, Ray, you're welcome to our eye can. Hello, here. Position yourself

[01:25:04] Transportation Manager Lo: so you can be seen there. There you go. 3 transportation manager. I think that's the question. So yes, your memory is correct. So we had, in 2019, we passed a new on that's for operation of bicycles. So bicycles, bicycles are allowed to ride on the sidewalk in Mountain View, everywhere except for Castro Street, between Yosemite Way High School, High School Way, Yosemite Avenue, and Central Expressway. And the exception to the exception is children under children 10 and under. Um, can ride on the sidewalk oncaster, but nobody else can. On roadways, the operation of bicycles is governed by the California vehicle code, and oh, and so on sidewalks, you can ride omnidirectional, you know, either way, just like a pedestrian, but you need to exercise due care and consideration under due care under the circumstances and conditions and circumstances. So basically you have to ride slowly, you have to yield to pedestrians, um, and kind of it's it's more for the slower cyclists. On roadways, cyclists have to ride in the same direction as the motor vehicle. So they're like a motor vehicle with light on the road. Okay. And does that apply

[01:26:24] Member Lisa Matichak: to scooters as well?

[01:26:27] Transportation Manager Lo: So motorized scooters have a different rule in the California vehicle code. Motorized scooters are not permitted to ride on sidewalks anywhere in California. They're not nice. Well, motorized are considered the same as pedestrians. Okay. So on sidewalks, you go, both

[01:26:48] Member Lisa Matichak: directions, yes, on the roads, you follow the way the vehicles are going. Okay, thank you. And

[01:26:56] Chair Ellen Kamei: our PowerPoint is working out. Perfect. continue.

[01:26:58] Associate Civil Engineer Robertson: Thank you. Okay. All right, let's get started. This not indicates the project limits along Miramonte Avenue. The northern limit is the intersection with Castor Street adjacent to Graham Middle School. The southern limit is the intersection with Questa Drive. This project includes pavement resurcacing and various bicycle pedestrian enhancements to Miramonte Avenue. In the next stage slides, I'll be breaking down the project into 3 limit, 93 segments. So one, 2, and 3 from north to south. Well, first, a little background about Miramonte and the timeline for this project thus far. Miramonte Avenue was originally constructed in 1970 and has had various roadway rehabilitations in the past, with the most recent being asphalt overlay back in 2007. In 2019, Miramonte Avenue from Quest Drive to Caster Street was approved by council under the Capitol Improvements program for street resurfacing, since the last treatment had been 12 years prior. In 2020, our in-house design staff created street resurfacing plans that were nearly complete, at which point it was determined that construction need to be caused to allow the Mir Monte water main and sewer main replacement project to be constructed first. The city aims to sequence underground work before roadway work, because otherwise you would disturb a new refringe street. This project sequencing provided an opportunity to modify the original pavement resurfacing project scope to include additional pedestrian and bicycle safety enhancements. Therefore, in 2022, city staff issued an RFP and through that competitive proposal process, bleaching associates was selected to complete the additional design scope. This brings us to 2023 and the designs need finalized for construction. Project scope. In 2019, it was pavement resurfacing from Castro Street to Quest to Drive. This resurfacing includes 1000000 down the existing roadway and replacing it with fresh asphalt for a clean, brand new surface, and the installation of ADA compliant curb ramps. Then we added some enhancements to the existing crosswalk at Hans Avenue, to include the installation of the pedestrian actuated overhead, rectangular, rapid flashing beacon, or an RRF. Restriping with high visibility crosswalks, and a segment of class 4 bikeway or cycle track, on the east side of Miramonte Ave, between Tans Avenue and Castro Street. Um, Now we have proposed a new road diet striking layout. I will go over the details of the layout in the next couple of slides when I break down the project into segments. But with the new road diet striping now, we were able to add a buffer to the green class 2 bicycle lanes on both sides of the street. We'll also be closing a sidewalk gap between Barbara Avenue and Starway instead of a narrow asphalt pathway. This aerial photo shows the full length of the project from Questeta Castro, and the next few sides were going to zoom in. As a reminder, the current conditions out in the field today include on street parking on both sides, with class 2 bike lanes, and 2 vehicular lanes in each direction of travel. So 4 vehicle lanes toll. Now zoom in. We'll start at the northernmost end of the project at Castro Street and work our way south towards Quest Drive. Segment one focuses on the new layout from Castro Street to Hans Avenue to orient you. Please note that the parcel identified at the bottom stating ownership by the city of Mountain View is the parcel adjacent to Graham Middle School, which is the terminus for the student bicycle traffic. Starting at the intersection. You will notice that we're not making any changes, the number of vehicle lanes approaching the intersection with Castor Street. In order to maintain intersection operation. We're conforming to the existing conditions. We will be upgrading to the existing crossbalks to high visibility striping, and as vehicles travel south along Miramante, the lanes merge from 4 travel lanes to 2 travel lanes with a two-way left turn lane in the middle. As presented to council last year, on the eastern edge of the roadway, which is towards the bottom of the image shown here, you can see the start of the 10 foot wide two-way cycle track. This cycle track will allow students to ride south towards Hans Avenue, on the east side of Miramonte, instead of having to cross the street twice. As we move south, we see the cycle track continues until the intersection of the concept. The Castro Street and Hans Avenue intersections are only 650 feet apart. Recycle is traveling south into cycle trash track that wish to continue south along Ramonte. When they reach Hans Avenue, they will need to use the enhanced crosswalk to cross near Monte and continue south in the buffered bicycle lake on the west side of the street. We are proposing to bulb out the curb brands at Hans Avenue to shorten the crosswalk length and encourage slower vehicle turning equipments. At Hans Avenue crosswalk, we will be installing an overhead, rectangular rapid flashing vegan. And upgrading to high visibility screen. Here's a typical cross section of the roadway. If you were standing in the crosswalk on Hans Avenue looking north towards Castro Street, starting from the left side of the image, which represents the west side of the street. As you can see, we are retaining the on street parking on Miramonte Avenue and keeping the bike lane while adding a striped buffer. Then there will be a southbound traffic lane, a two-way left turn lane in the middle, a northbound traffic lane, a one foot buffer next to the curbed median, which is protecting the 10 foot wide two-way cycle track. Segment 2 is from Hollands Avenue to Barbara Avenue. This segment includes class 2 buffered bicycle lanes on both sides of Miramonte Avenue, filling in a sidewalk gap on the west side, which is the top of the image here between Barbara Avenue and Starway. The reconfigured striping layout allows for the inclusion of buffered bicycle lanes, the retention of long street parking in front of the residences between Barbara Avenue and Starway. Zooming in further on the intersection with Barbara Avenue. The curb reps will be upgraded to meet 88 current ABA standards, and the crosshop will be striped with high visibility markings. Segment 3 includes a continuation of the class 2 buffered bicycle lanes on both sides of Mirmonte Avenue, high visibility crosswalks, and 88 curb compliant improvements. Similar to segment 2, the reconfigured striping layout allows for buffer bicycle lanes while retaining the onstreet parking. Here's another typical cross section of the roadway between sections 2 and three. Starting from the left side of the image, which represents the west side of the street. We see that we are retaining the on-street parking, keeping the bike lane, adding a striped buffer, then a southbound traffic lane, a two-way left turn lane in the middle, a northbound traffic lane, another striped buffer for the eastern side bike lane, and again retaining the on-street parking. Lastly, similar to the intersection at Castor Street, the number of vehicular lanes approaching the intersection with West Drive is not changing in order to maintain the existing traffic signal operations. We will be restriping the crosswalks with high visibility markings. On March 29th, Staff provided a project update to the bicycle Medestrian Advisory Committee or BPAC with the inclusion of the Road Diet Lane reconfiguration. The meeting was attended by 24 members of the public, and the BPAC indicated support for the project with the following feedback. To provide directional curb rants at the Hans Avenue intersection. This concept has been incorporated at this intersection. To reduce the two-way left turn lane width and provide additional space devices elements. Staff are evaluating the turn lane width and will reduce if feasible. Include Green Street elements. Staff are evaluating and including where feasible, native drought tolerant, low growing plants, such as within the concrete medium adjacent to the two-way cycle track. APAC committee members also inquired about the decision to provide buffered bicycle lanes rather than parking protected bikeways. Parking protected bikeways were considered, but due to the high number of individual residential driveways, there would be a significant impact to the available on street parking in order to maintain state visibility for exiting each driveway. The proposed road diet reconfiguration, retains on street parking, while also adding the buffer to the bike lengths. The following month on April 27, 2023, the BPAC recommended $346,000 of transportation development act article 3 for TD8 3 funding for council approval to help fund the additional bicycle pedestrian safety enhancements proposed in this project. The project budget has increased over time as follows. In the original street resurfacing project, The budget was one.7 million. With the additional scope items in 2022, council appropriated additional funding to bring a new budget to 3.05 million. As mentioned in the last slide, $346,000 of TJ3 funding is recommended to cancel. With the latest editions, the current project is estimated at around 4 million. Staff estimated shortfall approximately 500,000 and are currently working to identify additional funding sources. So what are the next steps? The Legion associates will complete the plan, specification, and estimate in preparation for advertising the project for construction. Staff will bring the project to council for approval and then the project will be advertised for construction this year. But an exact start date will still be dependent on the construction closeout and completion of the miramenti, water and sewer major project that's currently underway. All right, that wraps this presentation, thank you to your person and committee members, questions. Great.

[01:37:34] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Any member of the committee have questions?

[01:37:44] Member Alison Hicks: So there was a member of the public asks about larger

[01:37:48] Member Lisa Matichak: pull-outs on,

[01:37:50] Member Alison Hicks: uh, what's the plan? Is that something that you consider it so that, uh, So that the pedestrian crossings would be short. So that's the thing. considered.

[01:38:05] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: Appropriate adults, principal civil engineer. Thank you for the question. Yes, we did consider that. That was an additional detail, but that we added at the X intersection. I think the question also was interested in Barbara or perhaps. Additional ones, yeah. other intersections. So we did look at those as well, and we've worked with our consultant to consider those at this point. And turning radiuses for the emergency vehicles were another consideration that we needed to consider for those instances. We could, We could look at that further, but we don't want to change, um, in an area where we would impose or impede those string ordinances for the emergency people. So that's why they wouldn't consider it this one. We

[01:38:52] Chair Ellen Kamei: could consider them at

[01:38:53] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: a later date, but we wouldn't want to add those to this project at this point. Orango.

[01:38:59] Assistant Public Works Director Arango: Rango is a simple work director engineer. If I could add on to principal engineer, it's all this response. Yeah, as you saw on the outline on the, outside of the project. This really is a payment. We have the limitation project. We're really trying to get rare money approved as if it needs it. We all know that. Staff saw an opportunity to add something from a tier for the school, which she saw the 2 a sample track. And then tonight we're just talking about the road that I explained. So, um, the scope is growing much larger than we had anticipated. I think it's a benefit to do it in corporation with this project. We are trying to limit the additional scope elements to not delay the project going forward. any further scope elements. We need to look at from design standpoint, and then if CTC council authorize it, we can move forward with that. But again, it's delay the project, and then we're really trying to keep it out to pave the project, I think, here, and that's our goal. That's

[01:39:58] Member Alison Hicks: good answer. Thank you. And then my last question is about, um, I think the biggest concern that was raised, uh, to us was the cycle track from, uh, Grant, Fisk, from Grant school to Hans that, uh, since bicyclists would be going in the opposite direction, uh, traffic and basically the opposite of what, um, and cars would expect that there's some danger and we got an email with 3 different recommendations on how you could address that. And then I know you have the, um, you're suggesting, uh, a, I don't remember the name, is that, a red light beacon or something of that sort. So I'm just, I'm wanting some comments on that, you know, because that can be dangerous, not expecting someone to come out pretty quickly in an opposite direction. And I think that is how a student was killed on, more or less going an unexpected way on maybe not in the right place. Yeah,

[01:41:09] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: thank you for the question. So the conflict, the case of the incident, the incident, the collision, was at the intersection with Hans. So in terms of just in general, we did put a lot into the design here. We have a raised intersection. We have a buffer. So there is a lot of distance between the northbound vehicular traffic and bicycle traffic coming in that would be used in cycle traffic. So as a driver, you're, you're, you would be, that would be a high visibility area for you to do and see the median and then on the other side of it.

[01:41:54] Public Works Director Cameron: And it may be helpful to bring that intersection. Yeah, you could bring out

[01:41:58] Assistant Public Works Director Arango: the pom later. So, um, the public comment therapy was receiving it, Edorango, um, The public comment that was received, outlined a few alternatives. One of them was basically closing cons to vehicular trafficking. On the 2nd one, identified a full traffic signal at that location. And then the 3rd alternative was various measures. They could be implemented to improve the safety of that intersection. We really see the alternative 3 or components of that that we could evaluate. Again, this is a concept plan. We developed it rather quickly. We wanted to be sure that this could be an opportunity to take advantage of the professor we're doing out there. But we can do various measures of alternative three. which really is a lot about signage at the intersection. It is sort of a new movement of bicyclists, new formal movement, of bicyclists that are traveling southbound on Mermonte, but they're on the east side. And then once you, once they get to the Hans intersection, at that point, a vehicle who's on, on, approaching Miramani would stop. And then the bicyclist would have the right of way going north or going south. And so there is some signage that we would need to include to make sure that, um, vehicles are also paying attention to the southbound or to the right of them, bicyclists that are coming approaching the intersection. So again, this is a concept. We're trying to identify if CTC would be supportive of that and then we develop the measures and tools in order to ensure that we want it safe. Thank

[01:43:42] Member Alison Hicks: you for explaining that more. Is there one that? Um, I think that I'd read it for, like,

[01:43:50] Transportation Manager Lo: transfiction edge. Thank you for the question, ma'am. Um, so I think that this is an example of what, uh, the previous the previous comment about um, from the previous item about Orcom audits. So, This design emerged after the collision with the student and after a few 4th photos. I sat out there on the street for a couple of afternoons and also POT, who was our San Francisco coordinator and I met with parents and also looked at the location. And what we noticed was there's a huge number of students who come out from a graham, turned left onto Miramonte, and then turned that straight into the neighborhood at Hans. And so we felt that there were 2 options. The current cues on the street are that they should be traveling on the right side of the road. They should cross it near Monte. They should travel in the biplane, along Miramonte, then they should cross the ponds, and then go into the neighborhood. That's what the current queues say, but that's not what they're doing. They're riding on the sidewalk and they're riding in the street in the wrong direction. And, uh, to double down on the current, um, movements. But we could have put protected bikeways on both sides of the street. But that would also expose students to more traffic, like crossing twice. Um, whereas we've seen this, uh, this kind of design work in other places. If you look at Green Middle School in Palo Alto on the middle field of California. There's an example that's similar to this, the students stay on the site as the school and kind of rip into the neighborhood. But hopefully they're not whipping across the street. So we need some education and also some signage also to help them to know that they need to stop at the crossing. And that's one of the things that we've been highlighting in our, say, for instance, school program. But when they get to the, to cross things, they need to, uh, you know, they need to stop and then, um, you know, get a field a few scan before they cross. I have, I

[01:45:48] Member Alison Hicks: think I have more details, but you are, can I ask, even more if you want to, do you have any impressions? No, that's okay. That's no question. And so I asked the question earlier about, um, the direction of Cyprus on

[01:46:02] Member Lisa Matichak: a street, but if they're in a psycho track. And what else can they ride in the opposite direction? Like playing? I mean, what wind is it, the street versus something else? Thank

[01:46:21] Transportation Manager Lo: you, that is a good question. So in a two-way cycle track, they're allowed to ride in the direction of the cycle track. The tricky thing here is at the crosswalk. There's a little bit of ambiguity because the crosswalk is both an extension of the sidewalk and it's part of the roadway. And so there is a little bit of ambiguity. What we recommend is that they actually get off their bike to cross if in the situation, to cross parts. So

[01:46:51] Public Works Director Cameron: I'll add in, you know, and again, what makes it a, why you can go in both directions of the cycle track is you need to have the protected, you need to go out of the impactors, so you have separated the cycle track from the roadway. So we have an example of this at the North Bay Shore with Charleston, the phase one. You can see there's a 2 way protected cycle check there, but we're getting a lot more of those. When you get to the intersection at cons, as was noted, um, there's a lot of effort, you see extra green skip boxes, uh, right that designate that. Hey, there are bicycles crossing gear. We're going to look at doing some additional signage, the narrowing of the intersection with the bowl bouts will further cause cars have to move slowly as they make their turn. Um, so that the bicyclists will continue to cross, um, in the southbound direction and then, uh, cross over to Maramonte if they want to continue south or continue down haunts on. the brick side of Broad Street. So

[01:48:05] Member Lisa Matichak: when you're doing the audits, um, do you actually see children getting

[01:48:10] Transportation Manager Lo: off their likes at intersections? No, we don't. And actually, Brandon just pointed out that I misspoke on the intersection because there's the skip boxes with the arrows that indicates that they can actually ride across in that location. Uh. The

[01:48:27] Public Works Director Cameron: aeros skip the onward they'll user just signal also that it's a two-way crossing. Okay. And then

[01:48:34] Transportation Manager Lo: they would turn. Most of them are going to turn left into hands, but it also allows because we don't want them to continue to go down there so they don't keep the cost. yeah Um. That was fun. Uh, I

[01:48:54] Chair Ellen Kamei: do not have any questions. So we can move on to public comment. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item or Monday? Yes. If so, please click the raised hand button in Zoom or approach the lectern. You can take in person. Jimmy Shanders. I'm sorry, I'm going to finish reading. You're right. I'm going to finish reading and then, yes, you're welcome. Sorry. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker, we'll do 3 minutes. Um, and so those who are virtual, you could start raising your hands, and then we'll start with in person. Okay.

[01:49:32] Jeanne Sanders: Jeannie Sanders from your money Avenue. Um, I haven't been on top of this. But number one, is. I have the only block that's not the sidewalk. And now, I, the house was built in 1951, had no sidewalk ever. Um, and then you can go around the star away and they have no sidewalks. So most of my neighbors and myself prefer not to have a sidewalk. We're, we like the little country feel we get with the little dirt on the walkway and we already have bike lanes going both directions. And I don't understand. Are we going to have 2 lanes in each direction on your plans? I'm trying to understand. Do we have 2 lanes going in each direction? Will there be 4 lanes of moving traffic?

[01:50:31] Chair Ellen Kamei: So you're welcome to provide public comment, and then we as committee members can ask staff the questions, but it's not a 2 way dialogue. Okay,

[01:50:38] Jeanne Sanders: I've not been to the meeting. No, no, I'm not sure what to do. So if

[01:50:42] Chair Ellen Kamei: you have opinion, you can share it with us and then you can always follow up after your desk.

[01:50:46] Jeanne Sanders: I sit there in my house with 2 lanes of traffic now and when this winter, all the lights are flashing in my windows. And if you're gonna double those cars in a single lane, they're going to be going there for quite some time. uh, to get past them. I mean, it's a wonderful street. It becomes deader and doornail 8 o'clock at night, except for falling trees. It showed yourself away. But um, Now we have cars that restart theirself. So they shut theirself up at Barbara Delight. And then I hear... They start up again to take off. So now I got lights. I've got a sign out there, says no vehicles over 7 foot. I got 2 of them. Uh, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm being told. I can't have the, I won't be having the sidewalk anymore. It'd be hard for us to get in and out of the, uh, you got a single lane of traffic. It is accommodating 2 lanes, then we're going to have cars forever trying to get out of our driveways. And most of my neighbors, uh, wouldn't think of coming to a city council meeting, but are rather in favor of what I'm saying. I can't speak for all of them. That's basically my comment. Okay? Thank you. Thank you. Hello,

[01:52:16] Dan Rutherford: my name's Dan Rutherford. I'm a resident of Blessing Valley. I lived there for about 17 years. I am also a member of the Silicon Valley bicycle coalition, a few local teams. So I think probably Bruce and maybe Mary are online as well. They might have something to say about the letter that they put together, uh, recommending those potential 3 alternatives for the Hans Miramonte intersection, but we do very much appreciate you considering those alternatives. Um, I am a personally, I'm a bicyclist. It's my main way of getting around Mountain View. I ride Miramonte regularly. I'm probably on it 4 or 5 times a week. I bike to it tonight. So this probably is very important to me and very supportive of the road diet, very supportive of improvements that you are making. Um, I do have concerns about the intersection, uh, of Hans and Miramonte, as we've laid out in the letter. And you've seen that and you've already reacted to it. Personally, I just would like to note that that intersection is likely to become more important over time. If you're biking back to Mountain View from Sunnyvale, there's a natural corridor where you would come up, uh, Evelyn to, um, Calderon and, uh, Phyllis and then across tons. Currently that intersection is too wide to cross on a bicycle because there's no signal there. But when you do start making these improvements and especially when you make the improvements on El Camino. I think that intersection is going to become more important. So we do appreciate you thinking about potential improvements. Um, Personally, I'm somewhat disappointed that you are, um, uh, keeping the on street parking on Miramante. I would have preferred personally the parking protected bike ways. I don't think anyone can really argue plausibly that there's not enough parking in that area. There's obviously enough parking. But, uh, with my remaining time, just something very concrete. I'm glad that you mentioned the water and sewer project that's not going. I'm not near a mane. That currently is a disaster for bicyclists. This is my bag, the gravel, that I picked up last night from the bike lane on Miramonte. This has been out there for months. They're not cleaning it up properly. And if you bite on that road, you either have to ride through this and risk getting a flat tire, or you ride close to the curb and dodge the cars where you ride in the street and you dodge the moving cars. I've had 4 flats over the past 3 months. So please, by all means, get this project going. If you can say anything to the contractors that are currently doing the work on the road to clean it up, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[01:55:21] Public Speaker: So, um, as previous, they did, I live near Almonte, but my neighborhood is actually sandwich between Almonte and Mirabonte. So they are kind of 2 ways out, for me, on bike, on car, on anything, is, you know, Go to Elmonte or go to Meramonte. So I'm also familiar with this. Uh, I suddenly agree that the, the, yeah, I want it needs to be repaved. I didn't bring the gravel, but I happen to have switched to a grabber bike and it's the best decision I've made to ride in Mountain View. Um, I wanted to speak into part of the 2 ways cycle track. You know, kids don't do this to defy authorities of things like this. It's typically the safest way for them to get to a place. I'm glad you clarified, but it's okay to ride against traffic on the sidewalk because my son, when he went to school, you know, crossing Elmonte was doing so by running on the wrong side, the wrong way on the sidewalk from Lloyd to the crossing. And I'm glad that's legal because it becoming a neighbor scout and I didn't want to break anything. Um, there is an example of a two-way cycle track that was put in near Los Altos side. So from Los Angeles, outside to San Antonio, so you can look at this as an example, and it's again something that kids were doing, because it was the safest and more expeditious way to do this. And it's it's worked pretty well. Um, I had one suggestion for the intersection at Owns and, um, Oh, Miarmont, sorry. You should try to put some big signs saying that this is a school crossing area, and you have signs like this on the road, paintings near St. Francis, which is just up the road and also by St. Joseph. which is Don Yarramonte. And the final thing is that it looks like this project is on a kind of a straight timeline to make sure that we get things re-dived in marijuana, which we never want. And we don't use money. So, uh, BOS concerned about adding to scope, but things like this, uh, because they can impact this project, but can impact other projects that are in pipeline. And I hope that you're considered also at some point fixing uh, the portion of Miramonte from uh, Castro to Pat Cavin Orear, because it's also a route to school. You know, kids in my neighborhood are assigned to Springer and Black. That's kind of one way that can move about it. There are kids going from Gemero to above or ground. They go through my neighborhood, to Miramonte, and up to... Thank you.

[01:58:15] Chair Ellen Kamei: Okay, we'll move on to virtual speakers. So 1st I see Celia Pamer.

[01:58:25] Silja Paymer: Uh, hi, um, yes, so your paymer again. Now I'm speaking as a resident on Barbara Avenue, so and just a couple houses in. Um, and I'm really excited for the road diet, so I wanted to speak as a neighbor in favor of it. Um, we, Have had a couple weeks of, or months actually at this point of the sewer works and almost every day they take it down to one lane. in at least one direction or the other and there hasn't been any real negative impacts on traffic. So I think it's already kind of had a trial period that shows it is a feasible design for the road. Um, I do, um, agree with the previous caller that I would love to see, um, parking maybe just on one side eliminated, um, as it is not very densely used. Um, but I wouldn't want to um, postpone the scope, so maybe something for a future project if necessary. And again, I'm hoping for those um, green components, which might be facilitated by if um, parking on one side was removed. Also, I hope that in this project, um, the light, uh, timings can be looked at because they're very short, um, for child cyclists to cross Mirmani at both, um, Castro and Barbara. They struggle to get across in if they use the street. Um, uh, way to, whatever, to sign, um, to trigger the crossing. Um, and then finally, I also would love to have, um, a red stoplight beacon at Hans, um, again, I wouldn't want it to postpone the scope, but if that is something that we get grant funding for around the city, maybe that is a location to add one of those red light beacons there. Um, thank you so much, and I really look forward to um, having a less gravel on my bike ride down there. Thanks.

[02:00:24] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Bruce England?

[02:00:34] Bruce England: Thanks, chair. I actually didn't have comments on this, so I'm not sure how that happened. Maybe I didn't lower my hand before. So carry on.

[02:00:41] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Okay. All right, Mary. Radio?

[02:00:50] Mary Dateo: Hi, it's Mary Dadio here, and I'm speaking as person that uses, um, uh, uh, Miramati and and, uh, the Hans intersection, uh, pretty frequently, driving, uh, biking and walking. So I'm all 3 modes of transportation. Um, I'm really, um, excited about the road diet on Miramonte because it's, um, It's not very pleasant for cyclists and and even pedestrians in some ways now. Um, I heard stuff um, say just now that they're talking about adding some green elements um, between Hans and, uh, Castro. I'm hoping that they can all include even as maybe something as big as trees in the section. Um, south of the cycle track, um, in some of the in some of the buffer areas, that would be really great. Um, I've heard, um, I clearly obviously have uh, concerns about the, um, safety of the intersection of Hans and Miramonte, and I realize students are, it's probably going to be safer than what's happening today because, 0 my gosh, kids riding south in the bike lane is super scary. Um, but, um, I'm, I'm encouraged. I thought I heard staff say something about the Hans intersection having a raised crosswalk and cycle track across the intersection and in addition to the bump outs, which I'm hoping that's correct, um, because that would be one of the safety measures, but as many safety measures as you could include there, reasonably, um, to warn drivers. So, um, Um, I, uh, have stood at the intersection of Miramonte and Castro and tried to decide how I'm gonna get to Hans or into the quest in neighborhood because you get there and it's a wide road and it's really discouraging to think about how to make a left and to make another left. And um, it's uphill. And so, um, I have actually also ridden the wrong way on the sidewalk here for the same reason that the students do it. And so, uh, I just want to make sure it's as safe as possible because, again, People not thinking, you just need one cyclist and one driver that doesn't, isn't like in the, at night, if there's some student going home from practice, words practice, and starting to get dark. Uh, driver, not from this neighborhood, not used to seeing uh, cycles going the wrong way. So as many safety things as you can incorporate as possible. That'd be great. And I want to echo what the previous person said. In addition to young kids having a hard time getting across Barbara, getting across Miramonte at the Barbara intersection. Um, uh, some uh, older people like me also have trouble getting across all the way. The lights always turn in yellow before I'm like 2 thirds of the way across Miramonte when I try to cross the intersection of Barbara. So if you could increase those cycle times for the cross streets, that'd be great. Thanks.

[02:03:53] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. David S. Hello? Hello.

[02:04:03] David S.: Um, uh, thanks for thanks for having this uh, discussion. Uh, longtime listener, 1st time caller here. Um, My, my comment is, um, around the bulb bouts. I'm I'm the bulbout. Bulbout fiend, um, and specifically directed to Mr. Gonzalez and the other gentleman. Um, look, I get it. We're a little late in the design process to add in bulbouts into the sidewalk design. Um, as the parent of a 38 inch tall human. Um, I just ask that you strongly consider this for future designs. Um, we know that these make small humans more visible. And uh, I think they can be incorporated in future sidewalk, sidewalk designs. Um, and the bulbs out, bulb outs work and many other places, and to the 2nd comment around emergency vehicle, uh, turning radiuses. Palo Alto has figured out how to accommodate their emergency vehicles while allowing for bullbouts. So I'm thinking we probably could figure that out as well, and I'm hoping we can consider their design treatment to pull outs. Um, but overall, uh, I give this 4 Yelp stars. It all looks great. Um, few, few 2 weeks that could be made better, but I'm very excited for the plans that the staff have put forward, uh, to make this a much more manageable roadway for pedestrians and bicycles. Thank you. Great,

[02:05:38] Chair Ellen Kamei: thank you. All right, I don't see any more PN soil that concludes virtual public comment. So I'll bring the item back for committee, quite further questions, deliberation, and action. Set

[02:05:54] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: to make one clarification. Yes. I believe I misspoke earlier when I mentioned it. It's across a block. My intention was to, um, to point out the design feature of a race curve that would separate the travel lance from, from this place cycle track. So we're not putting in a raised cross-walk at cross-hong. So we're not putting in a, a, striping at that is showing. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:06:27] Member Lisa Matichak: Um, they come in to put out all the gravel. I've heard the same thing about, took care of this one. A lot of gravel on sidewalks a lot. Um, because of the, uh, The poor condition of El Camino. Does Caltrails, on El Camino and just city on Miramonte, require our contractors to clean them, direct

[02:06:56] Public Works Director Cameron: constructions. We do have requirements for the contractors to clean as they go. Um, I did notice that Assistant Public Works director Renko was making a note of this, so we can follow up with our construction inspector team. to talk to the contractor about sweeping and cleaning up as they go. We did the same thing in L.A. cabins. Uh, we can certainly talk to Caltrans and monitor what they're doing when the doctor starts work, as you commented, Um, they gravel that built up on the sidewalk. We actually sent down our street staff and they're the ones that cleaned up the gravel on the stuff. Yeah. Yeah, where

[02:07:41] Member Lisa Matichak: I was like, I appreciate staff doing that. My few staff did that, but I feel like it's really Caltrance is responsible. It's their road, it's such a worse. Okay, thank you.

[02:07:58] Chair Ellen Kamei: Now I'm ready to buy the staff. Okay. Well, I have a question. I just have one because I made a, made a joke because we had taught, we were talking about payment index. And so what is the condition of marijuana? Do I want to know? No, okay, so that doesn't want to answer this.

[02:08:19] Member Lisa Matichak: Oh, it was. Okay. I mean, and it's, it's green, saying it's a good, excellent condition. I think that

[02:08:26] Public Works Director Cameron: is dated, this is the, yeah, data. It's a little bit on the older side and it's been deteriorating rapidly because it is so overdue. in a point with pavement condition where it seems to be doing good, good, good, and then it gets deteriorated to a point where it just, yeah. I feel like that's...

[02:08:44] Chair Ellen Kamei: We went off the edge on marathon. Okay, great. Because I know we keep it at a certain percentage. So, yeah, I feel like it is well below a percentage of it.

[02:08:53] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: The average for the cities in the low 70s and this is below average. The data you've looked at is probably from 2021 at the latest. Um, and I will say that we are, we have Catherine, um, is leading a project, um, along with MPC to update all of the cities segments. So that's good news for us.

[02:09:15] Chair Ellen Kamei: Great. We will anxiously await for that study to come back, but I see. Okay, great. That was, it was just a question of curiosity. So, um, Committee members have any uh, Liberation or action, all this items. Okay,

[02:09:31] Member Lisa Matichak: yes, please. I move that we go forward with the roadside alternative on air.

[02:09:37] Member Alison Hicks: So a couple of that is made of motion. A 2nd and, you know, there were a couple little things that people mentioned, but you probably have been taking notes, but just in case checking the Barbara light timing, talking to the contractor about sweeping, and then the Hans, uh, Hansmir Monte bike way interaction, you know, just making sure that as you look this over, you add all the safety features you need. And to be public. It's very...

5.3 Castro Street Bikeway Feasibility Study, Project 17-53

[02:10:11] Chair Ellen Kamei: Great. Great. Um, and so we have the ocean bike house member, uh, Metachek 2nded by Mayor Hicks. I think the only other thing I'd add is I do see the improvements and the paving on both sides of Maramate as a public benefit, I feel like, while the city has many charming aspects, walking from sidewalk to ground, the sidewalk that makes me feel unsafe as a pedestrian who's had to walk that. Um, and I feel like, uh, we have received so much feedback about making our community a safer place, um, to walking bike that we need to make these improvements, even if it's a, a potential inconvenience because I do feel like, um, We need people to get around safely. Um, and I think overall, people want Miramonte, um, fixed and repave more than anything else. So hopefully, um, it'll be a little bit of a growing pain versus a forever nuisance, but I would ask that, um, we, and I think that staff has, you know, done the noticing to those property owners, um, or Montana, maybe it's continuing that, and if there's a possibility for them to, um, further provide feedback for when we go to the design, further design phase, um, that might be a value for them to feel like there's a, for the hurricane to be heard. Those are my comments. Okay. So, um, now we'll do a bunch. So all those in favor. Yes, we'll do it this time. All those in paper. Okay, let's see unanimous from the committee. Thank you to staff. Well, move on to item 5.3, our Castro Street, Highway Feasibility Center, Project 17 dash 53. That presentation will be provided by branded white, active transportation planner.

[02:12:56] Transportation Planner Whyte: Good evening, chair. And committee members. My name is Brandon. I have the active transportation plan for the city. And I also have here the transportation manager. We ended up art. Um, I thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today about the caster flight. All right, so 1st I sometimes think it's it's best to start with the end in mind. So take a look here at the recommendations. So for the Castro Street. And church intersection. We are recommending to approve the short immediate term alternative to and the long term alternative to. Or the Castro Street segment for Yosemite Avenue to California Street, except for, so not including the Castro Street church intersection. They're also recommending short ski, uh, which you need to, and long-term culture. Take a look at some of our goals. So the castor bike wafies building study supports council's major schools, creating mobility. I got it. specifically helping a shift to all their forms of alternative transportation, and then also increasing biking safety through. The Castro bikeway feasibility city school. is to improve bike accommodations from alchemy real to California. I do want to mention 2 other aspects of the project. So at elk new real, to high school way. We are recommending and do have funding for bike lanes and protected intersections that will come in the next 2 to 4 years. So. But then additionally at the other end of the project at California Street. We are recommending a roundabout. We have funding for that via the pedestrian mall. Right, so take a little talking a little bit about the history of the project. This project was brought to the EPAC and to the downtown committee several times. It started, uh, early in 19 and was brought to various committees in 20. And then with further refinements being requested by the BPAD and the downtown committee. We came back and updated that scope in 2022. We work through that. And we brought the project back to the BPEC and the now town committee and we also had a community event. in April of this year. Um, where we brought all the alternatives to committee further evaluations. They were very supportive of the recommendations. And we did feel that they were well represented as a diverse group. So what we did for that open, for that community event is we sent postcards to all, the residents, property owners, and tenants in that area and also put out last via social media, uh, in our email last in various different uh, music. But in order to be responsive to that EPAC and DTC input that we had received, um, in the previous years, we felt the stuff that we had to take, a different approach. We had to take a short term, medium term approach, 3 to 7 years. And then we had to take a long-term approach 8 to 20 years in order to be responsible to this big pet request, but we also wanted to do something. sooner. And so we have 2 different ways from too early to take a look at this. So, let me now walk you through the alternatives. Um, And what I'm gonna do here is show you alternative 2, and then I will talk about the differences that exist for alternatives one, 3, and 4 via alternative 2, alternative 2, is the recommendation. So up here at the top part of your screen, you have the existing editions, which you can also see, um, here underlaid, uh, with the suggested alternative. So, moving from Yosemite North, we have a race pedestrian crossing here. And then with alternative, one and two, we drop the biplane and provide shared use markings or sharerows through the church and castro intersection. And the reason for this is maintaining the left turn lane and maintaining the 8 phase signal that generally increases protections for pedestriates. So what I mean by that is, When pedestrians are crossing here, the traffic is held. So there is not a movement where the motorist is trying to evaluate the gap between the pedestrians. This increases safety for pedestrians that decreases their crash risks. The significant difference between alternative one and alternative 2 is with alternative 2 parallel parking is provided. This parallel parking was a request by the EPAC, as parallel parking has demonstrated it, decreased crash risk for both motorists, and cyclists, but significant crash severity, decreasing risks for bicycles. So said another way. Crashes from angled parking can have increased, crash risk, and increased severity. So we were able to provide parallel parking with alternative two. That is the significant difference from alternative one. What that allows us to do is to utilize the space behind the trees for different uses. And for our purposes, we are suggesting bike racks, people put place back there to ameliorate some of the parking lots that does occur from motor vehicles. Um, I do want to make clear with all of the alternatives short and long. That the trees that are in the parking area do not have to be removed or changed in any way. They are maintain as they are. It's moving north. Moving north, you see the parallel parking again. And you see, we are trying to provide as much bike lane as we can up to the intersection. As we go northbound from the Kaiser Driveway, we are able to provide a class 4 protected bikeway. We do that, utilizing tough curves, which are small, Yellow, plastic, um, bumpers, if you will, that are placed in the buffer space between where the bikes ride and the motor vehicle area. We use those particular devices, tough herbs, in order to maintain fire compliance in this area. I mentioned fire code specifically because we are not able to provide, um, a bike way in the southbound direction. A bike lane south that direction. The reason we're not able to ride a bike lane and stuff bound direction is the minimum width or a bike lane is by feet when there's a current. This is also a bus route. Bus buses require 11 feet due to their mirrors, making the bus 10.5 feet with. Therefore, there's no way to do the 2 things together in the short term. This is one reason why we'll look at all long term options. And then as we move north, you can see the continuation of the class 4 protected bikeway. And then as we move, uh, in the southbound direction, you can see, uh, parallel parking is provided similar to before. Now let me briefly talk about alternative 3 and four. Alternative 3 has angle parking. An alternative 4 has parallel parking. The significant difference between that and this alternative to an alternative one is that the bike lanes are brought through the Castro on Church intersection. And that does change the nature of the intersection, changes the cost and shifts some of the risk. All right, I'm not going to talk about long term alternative too. Long term alternative too. allows us to address some of the things we couldn't do in the short term. So the only difference between long-term alternative one and alternative 2 is alternative one as angle parking, alternative 2 as parallel parking. Otherwise, they're exactly the same. So here you still see the race, the restaurant crosswalk. Now at the intersection, we bring the bike lane through, but we will consider feasibility of a roundabout or pedestrian scramble at this intersection. If either of those streaments were used, then we would be able to drop the left turn line and break through the bike line. Just so everyone's aware, what a pedestrian. Scramble is, it's where all the red lights are on, and then all the walk symbols for pedestrians are awesome on. So what are bagels, do not, or bikes, do not have the ability to go through the intersection and just pedestrians are able to go through the intersection. All right. Moving down the project. We have here the other side of the intersection, breaking through the pipeline. And in the northbound direction, it is the same as in children. Now, in the southbound direction. It is different. In the southbound direction. We are able to provide a fast forward protected bike weight. provide this platform protected bikeway. By reducing the medium width. The medium width reduces by 5 feet. That specific number brings us into compliance in the southbound direction, which is a request by the fire engine team. 2 fire code, which is 20 feet when parking is not provided. So we, in order to do that, we have to relocate those trees. We are making a recommendation that those trees be relocated in the short term, the forester has looked at the trees. Believes they can be transplanted and be still maintain their health if that does occur reasonably soon. So, you see in the southbound direction, a class 4 protected bikeway, utilizing tough curbs, and a 6 foot bike lane and maintaining the bus service with an order for traveling. And then as we move north, we have the same recommendation of a roundabout or pedestrian scramble at Mercy. And then, as in the southbound direction, you will see here, uh, a buffer bike lane, and we place the buffer against the, the, arched cars and provide 4 feet for the buffer space so that full swinging car door can be maintained inside of that buffer space. Um, one thing I will mention with all of the alternatives, we did have to restrict parking through, uh, Mercy Street to California, short term and long term, and that is, again, to bring us in compliance with fire. Then as we reach the intersection of California and Castro, you'll see here, we are recommending a fully protected roundabout. As I mentioned before, this project is going to happen. in a reasonably short amount of time, um, through funding made available with a pedestrian. And so those are all the alternatives. Uh, that we are explaining today that I have answered any questions on anything. And then here are a bunch of comparisons, some summary tables. So we have short term alternative one. And short term alternative to both provide bike lanes up into the church castro intersection, at which point they provide sharers and maintain the pedestrian productions at Church and Castro. Alternative one, has angle parking, and alternative, that's parallel parking. The difference between parallel and angle parking is an additional loss at 5 parking spaces. And there is a bit more cost with a parallel parking in order to provide the changes necessary to move the parallel parking from angled and repurpose the space behind the trees. With all of the short term alternatives, there is no change in the whole service for motorists. With alternative 3 and four, they bring bike lanes throughout, and go away from the 8 phase signal at church in Castro. Alternative 3, rides angle parking, alternative 4 provides parallel parking. And they have the same reduction in, uh, motor vehicles parking S one and 2 and same for vision if the space behind the trees are utilized for other activities. We can provide up 94. We recommending 94 bike racks be at it. The cost, um, is a bit more, as there are changes required to the signals at Church and Castro. Long term alternatives. Long-term alternative one, and alternative 2 are, again, exactly the same, the only difference being angle parking and parallel parking. So with angle parking, we would lose 10 motor vehicle spaces in order to support the changes made, and then we're recommending, uh, 10 bike racks we provided to ameliorate that. With alternative 2 parallel parking. Uh, it has an additional 2 spaces lost for 12 motor vehicle spaces, but the space behind. The trees can now be pre-olitous for other activities and we are recommending 94. Right. Um, It does have an increased cost because with alternative too. That sidewalk is actually brought out because we're in the long term. We're actually bringing it right out to the parking. as in a normal sidewalk situation. So past the trees, right up to a little parallel parking is, that does increase the cost of the project. Um, LOS level of service for motorists. It's the same, except where roundabouts are considered, in which case the LOS improves and for all votes. And so, the BPAC, the downtown committee and staff recommendations are the same. Short term, medium term, alternative too, is recommended as it maintains pedestrian improvements at Church and Castro increases bike planes, converts to parallel parking, increases pedestrian space. Has a moderate cost. And we did ad race crossings from the long term, brought that to the short term, for the engagement, we received at the April 23, uh, event. EPAC supported this 4 to one, and the downtown committee supported it unanimous. And we did visit the downtown committee twice. Or long-term alternative to BeatPack, downtown committee, and SAC, recommendations are all the same, long-term alternative too. Considers around about a pedestrian scrambled at church. Castro and RC Castro. increases bite lanes, converts to develop parking, the right space behind the trees. does have a higher cost. If a long-term option is pursued, we are recommending to live the trees in the short term while they're so healthy. The DPA supported this unanimously, as did the downtown. And here we have the recommendations again. And I am happy to answer any questions. Okay. Um... So

[02:29:04] Chair Ellen Kamei: it has me taking what comment first. In

[02:29:07] Unknown Speaker: this case, we do it because there is a recuse of certain changes.

[02:29:11] Chair Ellen Kamei: Perfect. I just want to make sure. Yeah, okay. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please put the raise hand button in Zoom or approach the lecture. We'll take the in-person speakers first. Any? Okay, great. So we'll move to virtual. We'll do 3 minutes. Uh, and I see 2 hands. 1st is Celia Paymer.

[02:29:45] Silja Paymer: Hello again, sorry. Commenting on everything tonight. But as these are all places I bike, I go to Cascal, probably too much. Um, I'm really excited about this plan. Also, it's a route I often take with my children to the library because the Castro, um, between Maramani and El Camino is the safest way to get across El Camino and then it kind of dumps us on the sidewalk. So I'm really excited to have a route that I'm going to feel a lot more comfortable with them biking on. Right now it's a diagonal parking. I wouldn't bike behind diagonal parking with them, even if there was a bike lane. They're just not going to be visible enough to someone in reverse. Um, so I really hope we go with alternative too. Um, I'm also very excited for the possibility of a roundabout at church. It's one of those intersections that's low density enough that everyone's just waiting for nothing. Um, I think last time I was there, pedestrians waited for no cars and then their light turned green and then a car showed up and waited for no pedestrians. Um, so since it's so low density, I think, um, aroundabout would be a really good option there. Um, And, um, I think it's great that we're getting the chance to change this now and we can still move the trees and save them. Uh, it would have been even better if it was before they were planted a couple years ago, but um, sooner's better than later. Um, and um, I'm excited to be able to have both bike lanes and um, keep the greenery there. So thank you so much for your time.

[02:31:11] Chair Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Bruce England.

[02:31:19] Bruce England: Thanks, chair. Bruce England, uh, again, speaking for Mount Your Coalition for Sustainable Planning, Green Spaces Mountain View, and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, Mountain View Team. Um, We wrote a letter, and I'm not going to repeat the letter, but I just want to pull out a few things in this. Like, Celia. I'm very excited about the project and think that it will bring a lot of improvement to that area and in concert with improvements on Hope Street and on the pedestrian mall and the roundabout it, Castro and California. So, as Cilia was just mentioning that intersection of Castro and Church is very complex and yet it's a very quiet intersection. And, um, So anything that can be done there with roundabout or pedestrian scramble, which I hope could also include diagonal crossings by pedestrians, not just that 90 degree angles. Um, that's one point. And then the time frames that are called out in the staff memo for the projects seem very broad up to 20 years, and I just wonder if that, um, could be tightened, and we have that in the letter. The minimum lane width for VTA buses at 11 feet. This is more of a general comment, but there is any exploration into what newer VTA buses and emergency vehicles can be like if they're narrower to accommodate internal streets in Mountain View that we would like to have be narrower. Um, we like the implementation or the intended implementation of raised midblock crossings that's been brought up several times tonight. Um, concerns for the trees, says Celia, uh, brought up. And ideas for the space behind the trees along there, utilize for purposes such as plants and bike parking. That all sounds great. Bite parking facilities. As close as possible to destination points is good rather than further away. So those can be good. But art and plants, definitely good. And then lastly, green spaces, mountain in particular is concerned about increased hardscape, as a result of changes like this. In spite of the fact that a lot of these changes are really great. We do get concerned about seeing increased hardscape where maybe it can be avoided. And that's it for me. Thank you.

[02:33:41] Chair Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Mary, video.

[02:33:50] Mary Dateo: Hi, um, I am excited, uh, for all these changes that are going to make it, uh, easier to, uh, less scary to bike on, on, uh, Castro. Um, and, um, I'm also, I'm also excited to see maybe something like a pedestrian scramble and or a roundabout, um, and more raised crosswalks. We have a few race crosswalks in my neighborhood, and um, Uh, They're really, really appreciated. There are several on on Cuesta. Um, at Border, for example, from school kids and, um, uh, it helps with the visibility and and controlling the, uh, auto traffic speed, but, um, not, uh, barrier to to cyclists. And so, um, I think those are um, that's a great solution. Thank you.

[02:34:43] Chair Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. All right, I'm not seeing any other public comment. So we'll take this item back for committee comments. Steph has a recommendation related to the Castro Street Church Street intersection that requires a committee members recusal due to a conflict of interest, and will be considered first. Mayor Hicks, do you have an announcement to make?

[02:35:05] Member Alison Hicks: Yes, I'm recusing myself from the discussion of this intersection due to the proximity of my residence to the intersection. Call me back when you... to get

[02:35:21] Steph: in there. Oh, no, I have, I can put you right.

[02:35:34] Chair Ellen Kamei: Does any member of the committee have comments or questions on the recommendation related to the Castro Street Church recommendation?

[02:35:46] Member Lisa Matichak: I don't have questions about it. Yes,

[02:35:52] Chair Ellen Kamei: sorry. comments, comments, questions, recommendation. I'm assuming we'll need to make emotions separately and then go on to the other end. correct. Okay.

[02:36:01] Member Lisa Matichak: Yeah, I am. I actually appreciate that it was emphasized that it's an 8 phase, is what it is, because of pedestrian safety. Sometimes I feel like, um, we focus a lot on bicycles and safety for bicycles. Um, but Castro is a Theory, a pedestrian oriented uh, street and I think it's going to be made even more so. And so I actually think it's okay to leave that signal. Um, I, I

[02:36:41] Chair Ellen Kamei: would say of the, the thing mentioned, the only one that, I felt somewhat called to was the pedestrian scramble. you know, I've experienced with those other locations, but I do find that in my opinion, I actually find the church, Castro intersection heavily utilized, perhaps that's when I'm coming, in this area, and I do feel like, um, I don't know, I guess I haven't seen or experienced some of the challenges that are Harvey. described. And so I would say I would lean towards keeping it the same or moving towards the pedestrian scramble, which is when everyone can cross, you know, at the same time and go in the diagonal direction and, um, you know, I think if, if anything, but I wouldn't, um, in that loc- in that location and I was trying to go through. Was there a traffic circle mention for that? In

[02:37:46] Transportation Planner Whyte: the in the long term, we can't consider a roundabout edge of Church and Castro and Mercy Castro. I should also mention, we verified that no private property would be necessary in order to make that happen. However, the curb lines would have to go back a little bit at the corner. That's

[02:38:06] Chair Ellen Kamei: also what I was thinking. I thought it might be a little tight to do a roundabout. And so that's where the pedestrians scramble kind of appealed to me more because it seemed like that would be more of a signalization, maybe a striping situation, you know, again, this is not my. I'd like to invite Steph to

[02:38:26] Steph: talk to that for a reasons why it's not something we're recommending doing tomorrow. Um, for an intersection like church in Castro. So, um,

[02:38:36] Transportation Planner Whyte: with a pedestrian scramble, you increase the delay for all users, spikes in cars and then also the pedestrians. So typically you do see them at locations with high pedestrian volume and high carbon because pedestrians will be less inclined with high car volume to jaywalk. Um, so, putting it in the long term, because of the reasons you mentioned that Castro could see a lot of pedestrian, uh, increase in volume, uh, could make sense in the short term. We felt that the production is provided by the A face signal, outweigh that. Yeah,

[02:39:17] Chair Ellen Kamei: yeah, that's and that's and that's fine. I mean, I don't. So I don't know if there's more to the recommended clue. So I

[02:39:26] Member Lisa Matichak: guess my recommendation is the English short-term would leave it as is. Um, I guess I would say in the long term, I would like to sort of take a holistic view of guest travel, and it might make sense to look at it in the long term. It might not. And depending upon other changes that happen, on Castro. And so I'm not sure I'm ready to say, Definitely do this. Um, You know, given that we're going to be doing the update to the data action size plan? Yes. And part of me also thinks, gosh. You know, as we expand, as we do the pedestrian wall, Will it ever expand? Um, on the other side of Central Expressway or toward El Camino. Um, Maybe not my lifetime, but. You never know. So I guess I'm not even sure I've been to say, let's let's look at it almost. Yeah,

[02:40:29] Chair Ellen Kamei: I I, I, yes, I think that was like a little bit of my confusion on the topic because I feel like, um, I guess the best way is to describe it. I'm not there yet. I want to, I, one of the things I was looking in the staff report and I don't remember seeing, um, any, I know that it went to the downtown committee, but I didn't hear anything from the chamber and one of the things that's made. I think our pedestrian, um, uh, centric uh, area of Castro successful is that we were able to partner with the chamber and our businesses to kind of have the dialogue on doing away with the 60s spaces of parking while Castro arrived when we closed it down and having that discussion and I didn't see anything in the materials and apologies, I missed it on that dialogue and I don't feel comfortable making a recommendation without hearing from. kind of the, businesses and the, and the chamber, and I don't know if that dialogue is in the works or happening or, you know, it's still been too preliminary, but that on top of the council looking at the downtown, doing the downtown precise plan makes me hesitant, and perhaps that's where I was. If I may. With,

[02:41:46] Transportation Planner Whyte: uh, you mentioned confusion about, uh, roundabout, pedestrian scramble or... Yeah, which phasing? Or leaving it. So we, we, we write, consider the feasibility of, it could be that the way that it currently is, is what should continue to be. So in the long term, we come at it as with an open line for at least those 3 options. And then, um, to provide clarity to the chamber. They were at both at the DTC both DTC meetings, they were present, and they sent a representative to the community event on the 13th paper. Yes. I

[02:42:27] Chair Ellen Kamei: just, we didn't receive a letter. Usually they'll send a letter. So, you know, we didn't receive one. So, I think, typically they do, but it's great to hear that they were occasion involved and then they think, uh, just making sure we have that pulse because I, I do know that, um, one of the pieces of feedback is that the businesses for their longcaster want to see the successes of the 100, 300 blocks as well, right? So, um, yes. So I think that the motion may be to keep us in the short term and then kind of evaluate for the long term.

[02:43:07] Member Lisa Matichak: I feel like the long term would be, let's see, what happens with the downtown precise plan, maybe it makes sense as part of that to look at this. laptop. It's going to fall up. Is it really?

[02:43:23] Chair Ellen Kamei: Did you scoot your? Does staff have what they need on this item? Yes. Okay, great. All right, so... So like we have a motion, I'll 2nd it. Do we need to do that? I don't know, access, kind of celebration. I'm sorry. Well,

[02:43:43] Steph: or is that okay? So one of the things that we're gonna, um, ask you to consider, uh, after you complete your deliberations is whether there should be a recommendation to counsel or you request that we just take your input for now and, for instance, after the downtown your size plan and come back later. So right now, you could make emotion as I'm hearing to, you support keeping it as the intersection as is in the short term. But would like to see, you know, the result of the downtown precise plan and other things happening in the downtown before making a decision on a long-term approach for the intersection. Well, um, I think we heard consensus. I would agree with that for that. Okay, great. Thank you. All right.

[02:44:49] Chair Ellen Kamei: Shall we have Mayor Hicks Reacher? Yes. Thank you to mention. Thank you. Thank you.

[02:44:57] Steph: Thank you. I don't know.

[02:45:13] Member Lisa Matichak: Yeah, we do pretty questions on everything else. Yeah. Not...

[02:45:25] Chair Ellen Kamei: All right. So we could, the committee can consider questions that do not include Castro Street and Church Street. Many members have questions on the remaining portions. So that is, what is that? Mercy, California. So

[02:45:44] Steph: it's basically from Yosemite. to California. of the short term, alternative to recommendation is to consider, um, moving away from England Park to parallel partly, um, bike improvements, bike lanes as possible, where not possible, Charles, for consideration, right, it's going to, correct me. They've got this wrong. Um, and then the long term, which you can talk about separately, uh, would be uh, to more fully implement bike lanes throughout from Yosemite to California, but that does include narrowing the median. Um, between City Hall and Kaiser to create uh, more space to build half bike lanes with the vehicles that need to share the southbound travel. There is some parking implications to converting from ankle to parallel. And just for a point of clarification as well. Well, Castle Street was built, was approved. At the time it was, it was met fire requirements, otherwise would not have been allowed to be built the way it was. That included the parking that currently exists on the northbound direction between uh Mercy and California. which has parallel parking, those 7 spaces, um, that type of situation. However, When we go in to change a road, and I mean more than just painting, I mean, if you're going to start with your trip lights, like the media. That's when now fire engineering is going to come in and say, you need to meet current requirements, which is why it's saying reduce the medium by 5 feet. You provide enough with, for the southbound direction, castle right outside, city hall, to not only to ride a bike lane and a travel lane, but also be wide enough to meet fire code. Same could be said for those 7 spaces on the northbound direction between Mercy and California. Parking is currently allowed. Technically, current fire code would be would not have parking there. Um, so if there's a desire to put in bike lights, you would be bringing it into performance now. But there's no legal reason to remove that parking. all on its own because when it was built, it was approved. I hope that provides a little clarification about meeting fire code. If a change in the street, you got to meet it. Um, the decision for those uh, parallel spaces. Between where Saint California is a decision of. Do you want to remove that parking to put in a biplane. If you choose to do that, you will bring it also up to fire. So you're saying it's out of park right now. Today, for today, it would be, but when it was built, it was. It was allowed. Okay. And that's what I thought about. You don't have to in the north bathroom. Okay. Sorry. I spoke out. And fire will tell you. If there's an emergency, they'll just drive up on the media, they'll drive over Shepherd. They'll do what it takes to protect life safety and building, which is why they're not saying sending us a notice today, make changes. Yes,

[02:49:39] Chair Ellen Kamei: on the remainder. Yes, I go. So

[02:49:42] Member Alison Hicks: I have a question on the overall, just the overall thing. Um, It's, and this seems like a very naive question to me, but I'll ask it anyway. So we're also considering just one block over wide plans on hope. Um, so I'm, and there's a lot of changes here, uh, proposed so, you know, getting rid of parking and now I am a median. So I'm wondering, and also if we were to do something on hope, that would also require, I would assume, getting rid of a lot of parking and a lot of other changes. And I'm just, um, I guess I'm asking you to take the temperature of the neighborhood. Like, can we, Sometimes you can't do everything. Sometimes it's better to do one thing well, then two things not so well, or two things, that's so much that the community doesn't really like it. So, I guess I'm wondering how this fits in with that with questions about hope. Um, because I frankly feel like hope has warmed, and I could be wrong because I haven't designed a lot of problems. that hope has more potential for more direct you know, uninterrupted, easy, um, easy bike lanes to get downtown and then to the transit center. So how is this going to interact with that? So

[02:51:17] Transportation Planner Whyte: with the active transportation plan? We are going to look at hope, but also the entirety of the downtown area in order to make the connection from. the underpass at the transit center to whatever the next bike way is, which this plan would be California Castro. Um, So we are going to go an in-depth detailed comprehensive analysis of the entire downtown, including hope, and hope has a lot of positives, as you mentioned. The cross section for hope south of California Street is much more narrow. And so the facilities that you can provide will not be as robust as the facilities you could provide on Castro. And I would also say that the destinations that people want to go to are also on Castro. And the last thing I will say is that we see a lot of safe route to school traffic through the Castro and El Camino Real intersection. And we have a protected bike way south of that for leading to gram. And so this would be a continuation of that into the downtown core. And that's the perspective for which we were thinking. And we are definitely considering hope um, in that future process, which will be part of the ATP. So

[02:52:41] Member Alison Hicks: you're seeing this stretch from El Camino, I think the answer I heard, that you can tell from. is that you're seeing this stretch from California from El Camino to California as important because one hope gets broader at that point. And so that would be a connection to hope. And two, there are for recommended routes to school. Uh, it's parts. I actually don't know which parts of that people use. My kids biked to school, but probably. They biked it Mount View, Play School. That's in a different direction. So, I'm, I'm not sure exactly which portions are most used by uh, students. It's all of it.

[02:53:33] Transportation Planner Whyte: I think they funnel. into the intersection at El Camino. They coming in from different directions all across the downtown area. Um, and then they, We have observations. They are crossing at El Camino and cash. For sure they are. I just don't know how they're

[02:53:52] Public Works Director Cameron: coming. They're all different. We do. I mean, and I, and I, I'm out there every day during school time. And, um, It does seem to be a higher concentration once you hit Yosemite in high school because they're coming in off there as they head towards El Camino, which is one of the reasons why, you know, staff has proposed in the 5 years, CIT, to definitely get bike lanes in from high school way to El Camino and get a protected intersection in an El Camino And castle street and we would like to do that in the next 2 to 3 years as soon as Caltrans finishes their repaving project. That's one of the next ones we want to start working on. Um, in terms of students traveling to school from north of high school way, Yosemite, while you see students, Starbucks, is always an attractor, as we know. You you just see viewer students, as as Brenda was saying, they're coming in from more. As you did, as you did, further north. You can't see students, but you don't see the concentration that you see. Um, that you start to see gather around high school, especially the far south of the, of Castro. Once you get on one shot Castro. Yes. Okay. Um, and

[02:55:21] Member Alison Hicks: then I have a small question and one, it's, um, How, you said you would bring this up. I may not be phrasing this right. You would bring the sidewalks out beyond where the trees are. But aren't, this is, aren't the trees lower? than the, no, they're the same. I know at some places they're lower and then someplace and the sidewalk is up higher and at some places they're at the level.

[02:55:49] Transportation Planner Whyte: So the trees are at the level of the parking, which is currently lower than the sidewalk. And so, yes, that is. So

[02:55:57] Member Alison Hicks: how do you bring, if the trees are here on the side, how do you bring the sidewalks out? I've been wondering this for a while.

[02:56:02] Transportation Planner Whyte: This is something that we would have to address in that long-term design face. That would be a design detail. I am not able to answer that at this time. Everybody went to here.

[02:56:13] Public Works Director Cameron: I mean, I don't think you just have a chance to look at it, Robert.

[02:56:17] Principal Civil Engineer Gonzales: I have not. I'd have to go out there Yeah, to see how it begins wrong. It

[02:56:21] Public Works Director Cameron: is a, it is a significant reconstruction project to bring the sidewalk out and protect the trees and it is, it's, it is more of a reconstruction. Yeah, I mean, I wondered,

[02:56:34] Member Alison Hicks: are you physically lifting the trees up? Are you doing something around them? I've walked out there, I'm wondering about it, but okay, so you have not just... The people in this room cannot decide the answer to that, somebody else. Okay.

[02:56:46] Public Works Director Cameron: Even converting from angle to parallel parking lot. I've been assured and shown a cross section that you could fit the car in. Right. Um, you know, in front of the tree, so you're not affecting the tree area and and have passing vehicles, the car might be on or straddling a little bit of that linear drainage. Right, great because they don't bark right up against the curb, usually. So it's still a bit of a design feat in my mind. to try to make that happen. Um, And it's gonna would require some real effort, which is another reason why we're not saying this can be a short term thing. It has to be a longer term. You want to address

[02:57:29] Transportation Planner Whyte: that drain. We did discuss that. the capital improvements program manager, Robert Gonzalez and I, and it is able to switch 4 cars parking on it, shit that happen. As the director said, it's like, yes. And it is able to be changed in the future and, um, It can, it can be done. Okay,

[02:57:51] Member Alison Hicks: because that was maybe more a comment than a question. But I looked at a lot of this and I was just like, Design. This is, you know, like where you say, well, we'll reangle the cars and then we'll, we'll put some bike racks and artwork and I'm like, no, you can't just throw some artwork. bike, bike cracks there. you know, as this is the downtown. I think you should think it out everywhere, but particularly here, and there's going to be a lot of development, a lot of pedestrians, and it can't just be throw a bunch of junk out there. Um, that's my, now I'm going into comments, but that was my feeling when I read this stack. So do we have any more

[02:58:32] Chair Ellen Kamei: questions? Okay, well, those questions and the whole movement. Okay. The commenting phase. Okay. So I just

[02:58:38] Member Lisa Matichak: want to say I didn't throw a bunch of bikes in our work out there. Okay. I just want to make sure. Um, So, uh, actually, it was asked a little bit about, um, taking a look at Hope Street. And are we looking at all that Hope Street? Or just Home Street from California to? We

[02:59:03] Transportation Planner Whyte: are going to look at all of the downtown from our initial review. What does that specifically mean? I guess we're gonna feel that out a little bit through that process. But to directly answer your question. Yes, all the way down to Elcoming real, that doesn't mean that we would do something there, but we are definitely going to consider it. Okay. Um,

[02:59:27] Member Lisa Matichak: Same. When is the downtown precise plan? Uh, potentially start, finish, finish. Uh,

[02:59:40] Transportation Planner Whyte: yes. So this is a response from our English element team. In December, the city council doctor minor updates to the downtown precise plant regarding design and ground floor office uses in several sub areas of the plant. During this year's council setting process, the council directed staff, begin working on comprehensive downtown precise plant empty. Staff expects to start work on it this summer. Working work during 2023 will include an RFP press proposal. Hiring consultant, initial outreach and assembling background research and analysis. Is there a chance? Okay.

[03:00:17] Public Works Director Cameron: But they didn't say that. No, but a precise plan of this nature can take a good solid 18 months. It's a more comprehensive for you. I would, I would say. Um, let's see.

[03:00:37] Member Lisa Matichak: The changes we would make to El Camino, that's true, for protected, intersection. So that can't be done at the same time as help me husband paved. It has to happen later. That was, oh, come on.

[03:00:54] Transportation Manager Lo: So that was not included in the, in the, um, a cooperative agreement with Caltrans. So they didn't take that on. It was something that we asked for, but they did take that last call, their project. So it's something that we want to do. as a city to finish off the design. The

[03:01:10] Public Works Director Cameron: protective British sections. Yeah, they require a lot more civil work, building out curbs. They affect your signal systems. The estimate is about $3000000 per protected intersection. Which is why also in the proposed CIP. Um, we, we have 5 intersections, like El Camino, we would like to consider for protected. And, um, this would be the 1st one, but we're showing in the CIP every couple years, putting it protected at another location. Second one. Second one. Well, that's coil, Almont. Yeah, I'm going to try to get you to at the same time. We'll see. Surprise. But they're going, you know, between the 2 of them, we're going to get them both done. before we move on to the other locations that have been. identified. Yeah. Okay. Um,

[03:02:07] Member Lisa Matichak: that's different questions. I

[03:02:09] Public Works Director Cameron: took that pretty well. Just looking at me in terms of, is

[03:02:14] Kristina Pereyra: he getting more staff? That's what he's asking. I have one more question. Do

[03:02:20] Chair Ellen Kamei: you have a question? No, go ask your question. No, I was just talking about the timeline of the downtown precise plan. When are we going to see the active transportation plan? Sorry if I forgot.

[03:02:31] Transportation Planner Whyte: We should wrap up the active transportation plan in the 1st half of 2024. We're right in the middle of it. We're off schedule. And the survey for public input should be released any dangerous.

[03:02:46] Chair Ellen Kamei: I'm just trying to think about how all the

[03:02:48] Member Alison Hicks: plants are. Okay. So what's the implication? I mean, I'm leaning towards what recommendation too, but what's the implication of voting for it? Because if we're looking at all of hope and the downtown precise plan, I honestly don't want to get too married to it, particularly some of the some of the longer term things in particular. I would rather they be. You know, so maybe maybe I voted for him not marrying it tonight, but I would rather, uh, see if we use all of hope and how that impacts it or, you know, I would rather, um, sort of have the, or the active transportation plan have those things interact. Um, because some of them are in the downtown precise plant because some of them are fairly, you know, coming up soon.

[03:03:42] Transportation Planner Whyte: So, as was the implication of not voting for, I'm sorry, voting

[03:03:47] Member Alison Hicks: or not voting for it. It's still open to like if we did a biking down all of hope, not doing or changing some of these things.

[03:03:56] Transportation Planner Whyte: It, if we have a recommendation even forward with these 2, um, the short term and the long term, they will indicate what the active transportation plan should do. So they will, that transportation plan will build off of this as it does our other existing plans. This would be included in that body of planning direction from the council that the ATP would build off of.

[03:04:22] Public Works Director Cameron: Or you have the option to flip it and want to see the results of the act transportation plan with this being an option being considered. Um, The committee, um, has the option to either take action tonight or choose to defer action. And

[03:04:42] Transportation Planner Whyte: I will add if there's a deferment. One other implication is any development or anything that calls for us to reference a plan in the meantime, this plan would not be approved, and we would not utilize this plan in that process. Well, yes,

[03:04:59] Public Works Director Cameron: but this is such a basic concept plan. It's not enough basis to, um, condition developments on. So, I, you know, I appreciate what you're saying, Brandon, but, um, this, Given what's happening along Castle Street right now. Um, We would, it's not something we would start conditioning development to start changing the parking from, you know, thinking as buildings are taller, and the development, do this and do that. knowing what's already happening on Castro. The one exception is between high school way in El Camino because that is a CIP. We have identified it. As we all know, there is a proposed development for 881 Castro, and if that goes forward, we would then work with them to condition them to change how they do the frontage parking to better support the biplane. That exception is the reason

[03:06:00] Transportation Planner Whyte: I gave that answer. We've been using this in that process. Yes. So, but I do stand correctly.

[03:06:07] Public Works Director Cameron: We can, but we can go ahead and do that because we have a CIP for that project. Yeah. Well, okay. So we're, I feel like we're reselling questions?

[03:06:18] Chair Ellen Kamei: Are we moving to comments? Yeah, I feel like we're moving into comments. Um, which is, which is fine. I just want to clarify that. So it sounds like for the remainder segment from, uh, in discussion, do people have things they'd like to share at this point? Okay, customer ref. Yeah, so, um, I'm glad we have the CIP from high school. That's great. because it sounds like that is the route that a lot of students kind of converge on, on their way to El Korea. Um, so, you

[03:06:55] Member Lisa Matichak: know, obviously they should go ahead. I feel like there's so many other projects. We have going on, um, the downtown precise plan, um, certainly the changes we're making to the 1st 300 points. Castro, uh, the active transportation plan. A bunch of changes on El Camino, which is wonderful. Um, but I feel like I'd like to, um, Make sure that as we do those other plants, we're taking a look at what really does make sense, not just for bicycles, but for available pedestrians on Castra, and maybe other changes need to be made. I really want to make sure Castro is a very good pedestrian experience and I'm not sure it is right now. Um, I think it could be better. And so I'm kind of hesitant to move forward with bike changes without taking a look at the other bones of getting around at the same time and having a complete view of what we would want to change. And I will say it just really pains me to think of taking out 5 feet of the incredibly nice landscaped media that we have. Um, It's such a, A beautiful part of downtown that, that, that really, I mean, just. So I feel like, okay, we just did that. I don't want to then do other changes and then change it again. Um, so I guess I'm leaning toward, um, As part of the other plans, what should we do? But make sure we're looking at all moms of getting around on Castro in particular. Yeah,

[03:08:39] Member Alison Hicks: so I agree with that. I

[03:08:44] Member Lisa Matichak: was just saying. All right, that was another, and I guess it sounds like it would be a deferral for about maybe 18 months to 2 years, depending upon when those other plants are finished. Yeah, I think I'm trying to, I was trying to understand

[03:09:04] Chair Ellen Kamei: that too, but, um, Counselor text, you want to give your comments. That was my comment. She gave my comments. Okay. So it's okay. So

[03:09:14] Member Alison Hicks: you don't have any additions to ask it? Okay, I can give some of us. I mean, the only additional thing was, you know, that I want to see where we go with hope. I kind of want to see the whole picture. Um, and I also feel like, I mean, I guess council member Matachek wasn't implying this, but I feel like presenting this as a bike way. I feel like many people maybe didn't show up who are interested more in the pedestrian experience or, I don't know, parking their cars at an angle. But, um, that's not my biggest concern, but, but I feel like we need to look at this overall. And that we're on the verge of doing that. So I don't want to put this 1st when we're just about to look at the debt, all this. Uh. So

[03:10:09] Chair Ellen Kamei: I think that, I feel like we're just treating this item kind of like a, a study session, I think, or that an action item, though I know it's not necessarily a study session item, but, um, you know, I think that there are elements that are really appealing to me. And I think moving to the parallel parking, for example, makes sense because I do find that the parallel parking. I see lots of conflict from what I can see or potential conflicts, whether other vehicles are not being able to be seen. I think that, um, so I do see that. Um, I see opportunities for, It sounds like or working to improve our safe routes to school. And so I'm excited to hear how we're prioritizing, um, Alchemia Rio Castro and the high school way. So, um, you know, those projects have me excited. I think that, you know, some of the renderings, actually. I thought that might appeal to you. I thought these looked good. The example planting, some of the colorful example bike parking, like those appeal to me and to think about how, um, our cyclists, but mostly our students can go from graham and crossing it to the downtown. You know, I feel like, um, they're not only going to the Starbucks, they're going to all the boba shops, because that's, uh, you know, which we have like, I think we have like the largest boba per capita in a city because everything is a boba shop. So, you know, I like what I'm seeing and I feel like is the direction that I, that appeals to me. I think that one of the things, and perhaps I was saying this in my earlier comments is, I, uh, I would have loved to, yeah, a little bit more like engagement for tonight, and perhaps, you know, uh, I, you know, we're just used to that when it's downtown at this Castro. Um, but I do think one of the things that gave me pause was just the relative costs we only have dollar signs. And so I think truly understanding the physical impact. I don't feel comfortable at this point making a recommendation without fully understanding that because, um, You know, it's an investment in our, in our downtown and in our community. And I think maybe some of my colleagues are asking questions about the different plans because we're trying to put together, okay, we're doing this, we're doing that. This cost, excess, cost, Y. How does that all fit together? And for me, the dollars, while it's, you know, some of the, uh, the alternate 2 is is moderate. of cost. I don't know what moderate is anymore when we're talking about infrastructure because it's so everything is so expensive, right? That improvement alone, you said, was $3000000 dollars. So, you know, doing, I don't know how many, like, 5 to 6 blocks of the downtown. I don't know what moderate means. And so I think I just need a little more information. But I think the direction it's going in and I understand wanting it to be a reference point, so it's not ad hoc from, you know, El Camino to, um, uh, Petrol? No. Yes. Central Expressway makes sense, but I think I just need a little bit more. So I don't know. how the timing can work out. Um, I'd like to say we're off the right direction. I think people want to be able to flow a bike into our downtown. Um, you know, I don't have any issues with the parallel parking or some of the examples. I think I just need a little bit more of understanding the cost and uh, how this talks to the other things we're working on. So, I don't know where to take that, but it sounds like, perhaps more can come or as the transportation plan it sounds like is coming, can we build it in and we can, that way we can get this more feedback on.

[03:14:13] Transportation Manager Lo: I think so, we've been doing this project for several years. Um, What I'm hearing is that the segment from El Camino to Yosemite years ago. Um, and you're not sure about the other segments, I don't want to spend any more of my staff time examining it further. If this is not of interest, I would prefer for them to focus on other corridors if we're not certain about it. So, So that's kind of my reaction.

[03:14:41] Public Works Director Cameron: And it was a feasibility study, by the way. That's, it was the, the question behind feasibility studies are. What would it take to do this? So we've asked the question of what it would take to add biplanes, at least partially or through the whole thing. Yep. That's the question we've answered. I think, so what can be done is not spend more time on this per se, but as the active transportation plan wraps up as the precise plan is being done. Look at the results of the feasibility study in those contexts, and it comes back in a couple years in the context of, as being talked about, what is happening in the broader downtown. What are we looking at for Hope Street? So it doesn't mean putting more work into it. It just means pulling it out again and saying, okay, we now have more information about what we're saying for circulation in downtown, in general for bikes, in beds, what's the future of Castle Street, all of that. Now, let's look at this again.

[03:15:50] Transportation Manager Lo: So I think what we would do in our current contract, we have a fun report. So we would just present each of these options that we found to be feasible in the final report. And then, wait, until the other ones are done.

[03:16:07] Chair Ellen Kamei: I'd like to clarify that, at least for myself, I can't speak for the whole committee that, to me, feasibility also means prices. And so that is something I can't react to tonight because I don't know how much it costs. So to me, you know, I appreciate where stuff is coming from. I just need a figure of what all these implications mean because we just went through the CIP exercise. How will we fund it? And that's where I'm thinking about this. And again, I'm only one of three. So, you know, I, it's not that I, Yes, I just think that dollar sign is not a number. And if council, if we're being asked to recommend this to the full council, the full council will expect dollar amounts and for us to be able to decipher where it might fit into the CIP process to bring these into fruition. That is just my comment. I just want to clarify that. Sure. I

[03:17:10] Transportation Planner Whyte: do believe we still have residual budget that might be able to get its cost. because I submit that the director mentioned for the intersection. They produced for us and the Uniquest on that for their time. Does, from my memory, does not exceed the amount of residual budget we still have. So that still might be a possibility to provide you cost estimates for these alternatives. Because

[03:17:34] Chair Ellen Kamei: I don't know how others feel, but that could be... I think that could be helpful. And then maybe it's not a full pause, but it's just with that further information, we could be more fully informed, at least in my opinion, or I feel like it can be fully important. I know how others go. But, I

[03:17:53] Member Lisa Matichak: guess I, I'm not sure I can recommend it with the cost of information because I do feel like I want the complete picture. And I don't feel like, um, this is like the end of this. To me, it's like, okay, as we do the precise plan, we update the downtown precise plan. You know, we're taking a look at really what's going to happen on history. And this is, we've got this for bikes. Let's look at what we do for pedestrians. Um, and what do we do for vehicles? And which of these alternatives, if any of them, fit with what we want to do for the other modes? And also what we do on other streets, like home street. you know,

[03:18:36] Member Alison Hicks: do maybe we look at Oak Street and say, that's actually a terrible place to put bikes. Let's do this. This is a

[03:18:42] Public Works Director Cameron: little bit ahead of where

[03:18:44] Member Lisa Matichak: we are with the other modes. And I don't want to do something that then we change in a few years. Sorry. Um, so I don't think this is like the end of this. Um, what? I, I think, do you have, do you have any?

[03:19:08] Chair Ellen Kamei: So I think that we've kind of given some feedback and maybe the director and staff could talk and maybe it's that CTC looks at it. our

[03:19:17] Public Works Director Cameron: next meeting or another meeting or you

[03:19:19] Chair Ellen Kamei: could decide, maybe given the budget left in the consultant's budget, what could happen? Um, I

[03:19:31] Public Works Director Cameron: think we can, we know what the next steps are. We finish the feasibility study, with the cost estimates, and I'll talk to you about how we use it as input into precise plant work. others so that we can bring it all back as part of a greater context. Okay, great. All right. So

6.1 Staff Comments

[03:19:52] Chair Ellen Kamei: I don't think any motion is necessary, but we'll kind of later this in. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. All right. So we'll move to item 6. Committee staff announcements, updates, requests, and committee reports. Uh, I am 6. is to have comments. Dot cameras, teleworks director will provide stop comment. Okay,

[03:20:14] Public Works Director Cameron: just really short because I know we're running late, but again, like, I hope you're seeing that we are starting to catch up. We're taking on the big items. Really take your exclusions to ride. We will meet again in September. We'll start working 7 days for it. Uh, one of the things on the agenda will be a presentation about AB. I speak. That was that was in our work plan. We've probably got a better project or 2 to bring your way. So, and as I said before, it might be another meeting. Catch up. So

[03:20:50] Chair Ellen Kamei: October, September, October, November. So 2 more meetings, 2 more meetings. Okay. Keeping the fun going. What would the, um, other

[03:21:00] Public Works Director Cameron: 2 projects we discussed tonight, go to cancel. 12 of those are due to cancel on consent in June. Did you know? Yes, and they'll be on consent because they'll have your recommendation.

7. ADJOURNMENT

[03:21:11] Chair Ellen Kamei: Okay. Thank you. All right. Item 6.2 is committee comments. Do any members of the committee have comments or reports to share with the committee? Our BTA pack meeting met in person for the 1st time. Thank you to Mr. Skinner for his notes. It was our 1st hybrid environment, um, which was like just exciting to be back. That was our 1st one. Um, all right. And that was last week. Okay. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person, like to provide comments on this item? If so, please click the raise handbun in Zoom or approach the lecture. Hey, I am not seeing any more public here. Um, forehand in the queue. So we will now move on to item 7, which is a German. Thank you so much for joining us. Our next council transportation meeting will be held in September 2023. The date will be announced at a later time. This meeting is insured at 9.52 PM. Thank you, everyone.

[03:22:30] Unknown Speaker: Okay, thank you all.

[03:22:43] Public Works Director Cameron: Oh, I was wondering if I just... Right.

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