Laserfiche WebLink
Councilmember Cook-Kallio felt that if we continue to encourage additional growth over and <br />above what has been approved there, then the issue is that we are actually saturating the land. <br /> <br />City Manager Fialho agreed and said commercial, office and industrial traffic patterns are more <br />intensive than residential patterns. <br /> <br />Commissioner O’Connor said when we talk about being at capacity today, he asked if this <br />meant both residential and business coming in the AM and going in the PM in both directions? <br />Ms. Sterner said in general, we are at capacity coming into the city in the AM and exiting the city <br />in the PM. Commissioner O’Connor also confirmed that we are more impacted by the business <br />development than residential due to the pattern of traffic and because of the amount of growth <br />in business development versus housing development growth. A majority of citizens leave the <br />city with a new influx of vehicles coming in. <br /> <br />Commissioner O’Connor referred to the downtown level of service and asked if we knew today <br />when we are at those deep level capacities, how many of those vehicles are destinations to the <br />downtown as opposed to those who are driving through town? He felt if more parking could be <br />supplied for the downtown that the level of service might improve. Mr. Tassano said he did not <br />have an exact number at this time, but he felt it was a combination; if people are coming into the <br />downtown and your first intersection is Main at Ray Street, unless a parking garage is placed <br />somewhere prior to that, those people will still need to be pushed through that congested <br />intersection. You could bring the traffic around to a certain spot and there could be an <br />improvement in this way. <br /> <br />Councilmember Cook-Kallio questioned what peak times for AM and PM were, and Mr. Tassano <br />said in 2030 the peak times were not just the 7:00-8:00 a.m. They are seeing spreading now so <br />we are looking at that highest hour of demand; although that demand also exists on the <br />shoulders. City Manager Fialho suggested providing what the AM peak periods are and the PM <br />and how that might increase in the future. <br /> <br />Mr. Tassano said the easiest way for us to have a good indicator of where our peak periods are <br />is where we start to see the congestion building up on our freeways, because this is when <br />people start to push at the edges. 6:00-9:00 a.m. would be considered a peak period of the <br />most level of congestion. On Wednesdays, when school is in, it goes until 9:30. In the PM, we <br />start ramp metering at 2:30 p.m. and turn it off at 7:00 p.m., so this is the point where we stop <br />seeing the congestion on the freeway. <br /> <br />Councilmember Cook-Kallio asked that in the future if we could encourage less children to and <br />from school, what kind of impact would that have on the circulation pattern within Pleasanton. <br />Mr. Tassano said when he first got here he looked at how to bring busing back and <br />improvements that would occur. We found then and we have done one or two studies since <br />then that it is pretty expensive in getting people to actually move back into a bus and it is not <br />feasible. There would be a significant benefit if we had a large portion of the population that <br />actually rode buses as it would reduce congestion considerably. However, it does not seem <br />feasible in the last 10 years that he has been on staff. Councilmember Cook-Kallio felt that <br />perhaps this was a question for the School Board. <br /> <br />Councilmember McGovern said on school busing, the middle and high school kids are <br />predominantly riding buses which are being used. She did not know if any students would ride a <br />school bus if added. City Manager Fialho found that on Wednesday in the AM, congestion is <br />alleviated considerably in the morning because of the late start time. Whether it is busing or <br /> <br />Workshop Minutes 15 April 24, 2007 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />