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Discussion: <br /> <br />The connector streets, with on-street bike lanes, are too wide to have <br />traffic "calmed." These streets would need to be two feet wider to meet <br />State standards for on-street bike lanes. Traffic calming on these streets <br />must come from traffic circles, round-abouts, and other measures. The <br />two-foot widening is relatively inconsequential. The residential collector <br />streets are typical City subdivision streets (not collectors). Our experience <br />shows traffic will not be "calmed" at this width. To calm the traffic via <br />street-width narrowing, a 30-foot or narrower width is required, generally <br />coupled with continuously-used on-street parking. Bay Area experience <br />shows that fairly heavily-trafficked collector streets, if narrow, cause other <br />impacts (parking partially on parkway strip/sidewalk) and need other <br />traffic-calming devices (speed bumps, traffic circles, etc.) to slow traffic. <br />Staff suggests that Pleasanton learn from these experiences and, when <br />traffic volumes would reach 2,000+ ADT, use 36-foot wide streets coupled <br />with other traffic-calming devices. Streets with lesser volumes can <br />effectively have traffic "calmed" by using 30-foot- to 32-foot-wide streets, <br />so long as vehicles are parked on-street. Other project design elements <br />(street tree bulb-outs, traffic circles, curvilinear streets) will be available to <br />achieve the aesthetic goals of street-narrowing. <br /> <br />Staff believes round-abouts to be a satisfactory traffic solution at the <br />intersections shown. However, staff would suggest using a traffic signal at <br />Junipero Drive-Case Avenue due to the likely high pedestrian volumes, <br />likely traffic crossing guard utilization, and accent on safe vehicle/bike/ <br />pedestrian movements which can be accomplished with traffic signals; <br />volumes are not projected to be sufficient to need the capacity advantage a <br />round-about could achieve given the two-lane approach streets. <br /> <br />The reduced section courts proposed are short (limit six units) and of <br />typical "street" character. Larger courts would be the same design as <br />neighborhood streets. Staff believes they would be useful in some parts of <br />the project due to the undulating fairway edges. The short courts could be <br />made even more "traditional" by requiring standard court section <br />requirements. <br /> <br />The risk of future LOS E conditions if projections are not accurate is one <br />of the key issues created by the structure of the initial approvals coupled <br />with the Development Agreement. A performance condition similar to the <br />above last two "bulleted" versions best addresses this issue. The proposed <br />project does not contain such a condition due to San Francisco's agreement <br />to fund the Bemal Avenue-I-680 interchange improvements and make all <br />other Bemal Avenue capacity enhancements projected to be needed. As <br />the Bemal Property is the last significant project along the Bernal corridor, <br />staff had a fairly high level of confidence that the projections (based on <br />conservative assumptions) would not turn out to be worse. Staff <br /> <br />Substantive Issues/Alternatives Page 16 June 9, 1999 <br /> <br /> <br />