Stop, Drop and Roll

16 September 2008 | Alameda City Council, Alameda Community Development Forum, Tranpsortation, redevelopment | John Knox White

There seems to be some confusion regarding SunCal’s transportation plans for Alameda Point. As described in WRT’s Transit Oriented Design (TOD) study, the plan relies on existing transit technology, operating at frequencies similar to (or slightly greater than) the Santa Clara transit corridor, to reduce auto VMT in Alameda. These plans describe possible future Bus Rapid Transit and the use of queue jump lanes. However, some attendees of the public meetings and even a councilmember, seem to feel that the plans call for removing a lane of traffic in the tubes.

There are absolutely zero plans for this type of treatment. The beauty of the WRT’s proposal is that it relies not on high-technology solutions, but instead on known transportation principles regarding ridership as it is affected by proximity to transit and increased frequency of service. There’s no futuristic gondola, no rail, no bridges, just average buses, doing what average buses do, carry lots of riders in very little space.

It’s unfortunate when arguments get made simply for the sake of backing up a predetermined premise (this time it’s “you can’t do anything about traffic without making driving really really really terrible” a personal favorite of mine, it’s the same premise that’s behind “The TMP is saying that the city should remove traffic lanes.”).

So for the point of having an honest and fact-based conversation about this issue (transportation) which is such a large part of the angst (as it should be) around Alameda Point, it should be clear that no one is proposing removing auto lanes from the tubes.