SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION - Laserfiche WebLink

Karen Gonzales From: Pleasanton City Clerk Subject: Owens Drive SUPPLEMENTAL MATER- L Provided to the City Council After Distribution of Packet From:Steven Dunbar Date i�g Sent:Tuesday,January 16, 2018 4:05 PM To: Mayor and City Council Subject:Owens Drive Dear Pleasanton Councilmembers, Unfortunately, I am extremely busy this week and will not be able to attend the meeting tonight. I also work very early which makes public meetings difficult. As a daily user of BART and the Owens drive trail crossing, I am forwarding you snippets of my response to Councilmember Brown posing a question on Facebook. I hope you find it useful. We should not be creating superstreets near BART stations - we should be encouraging people to use BART not drive to those tech center jobs. That includes making it safe to cross the street there. Suggesting that everyone will wait for the pedestrian signal is glossing over a lot. As staff notes, beyond a certain time delay, you start to see significant noncompliance from pedestrians at signals, as they (rightly) sense their time is not valued. I take the Iron Horse daily and I do not wait for those signals if it is clear to proceed. Why? Because to do so would be to add 20%delay to my biking time (+4 minutes on a 20-minute bike ride). *exception: I will wait if there is a child at the intersection. 20% doesn't sound like much, but the staff report notes that the non-active readjustment will likely delay peds and cyclists even more. Why is the city is going to spend millions to take off a few seconds for drivers and significantly delay bicyclists and pedestrians in the process? We don't value their time or safety and then are surprised when no one walks or bikes. We should be encouraging these environmentally friendly modes as much as possible. Even with everyone waiting for the full cycle for a pedestrian sign, adding a lane will tend to make the top speed higher. Right now everyone flows well at 25mph through there - safe but also steady. The staff report bears this out-everyone makes it through the light in one cycle even at peak hour. The people who live and work in Pleasanton (Oracle, Kaiser, etc) are free to take the 1 OR bus already, which runs every 15 minutes, by walking, biking, or driving to a stop along the way. Are there some people who physically can't do this, for some reason? Sure, but they're probably in the minority overall. Finally, why are people required to take Owens drive to Oracle? If they live in West Pleasanton, they were already on Stoneridge, which they could take to Hacienda as there are no houses along Owens. If they were on the freeway, they could get off at Hacienda as well. Speeding up access to BART also isn't a reason for this, because the parking lot already fills up at 7:30am. This delay is not a barrier to drivers. They have options -but cyclists who want a pleasant protected bike trail don't. This is the only one they have. 1