Stop, Drop and Roll

20 July 2009 | Alameda, Transportation, Transportation Commission | John Knox White

On Wednesday (July 22), the Transportation Commission will hold a joint public hearing with the Social Services Human Relations Board to discuss the proposed AC Transit service changes aimed at reducing overall service by 15% due to reductions in operations funding from sales tax collection and the State Transportatio Account (STA). A brief  overview I wrote up is here.

Current and proposed service changes

So for the next three days, I’ve put together some maps and info on the changes to local service that are being proposed (West End, East End and Bay Farm). Lack of time has kept me from putting together the TransBay information and the North Shore, which is seeing a complete loss of the Line 19, can be discussed on tomorrow’s posting. I’ll also have a map of Alameda’s coverage, so that it will be easy to identify which areas are losing (or gaining) coverage.

The gain here is that Alameda Point will now have a direct connection to downtown Oakland and Marina Village shopping on the weekend. This has been a major sticking point with the existing service, especially with the transit dependent populations at the Alameda Point Collaborative, who make up most of the West End loop ridership. This could, with some likelihood, result in increased ridership from the West End.

The other major West End change is the loss of the Line 63 loop, which is a 22 minute loop through Alameda Point and serves Encinal High School and the Lincoln/Pacific corridor. From the city staff report on the proposed service changes:

Main Street/Pacific Avenue/Central Avenue/Lincoln Avenue – Currently served by Line 63. There are an estimated 241 boardings and 285 alightings per day on this portion of the route, a large portion of which is associated with Encinal High School, the Alameda Community Learning Center, and Island High School. The nearest transit service to this area would be on Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway and Webster Street. AC Transit staff has indicated that modifications to the school service (Lines 631 and 632) could potentially address the needs in this area.

The high school comment is key here, the boarding alighting info show that only 29 people get on the Line 63 between Webster/Lincoln and Main/Atlantic. These would be the folks heading into Oakland or the ferry (only 14 people get off at the ferry, and 11 people get on, heading to Webster/Marina Village/College of Alameda). And interestingly, most of the activity is the morning arrival at the middle and high schools and the return trip from same which suggests that the school bus (line 631)  could easily be modified (if necessary) to cover the majority of this ridership.

Here’s the passenger loading info on all the stops that are proposed to be removed (heading into Oakland):

Line 63 Stops (to Oakland)	On	Off
LINCOLN AV:5TH ST	8	25
PACIFIC AV:4TH ST	9	28
pacific ave:3rd st	7	30
3RD ST:SANTA CLARA AV	2	41
central ave:pacific ave	0	1
MAIN ST:ATLANTIC AV	9	28
MAIN ST:USN AIR STATION (SE GATE)	11	34
MAIN ST:SINGLETON AV	7	33
MAIN ST:GATEWAY CENTER	3	9
ALAMEDA FERRY TERMINAL	11	14

And the information from the return trip from Oakland/Ferry terminal (ferry ridership is 33 on, 12 off) with 44 People getting off between Atlantic and Webster (the part of the line proposed to disappear).

Line 63 Stops (from Oakland)	On	Off
ALAMEDA FERRY TERMINAL	33	12
MAIN ST:GATEWAY CENTER	0	0
MAIN ST:SINGLETON AV	22	7
MAIN ST:USN AIR STATION (SE GATE)	25	10
MAIN ST:ATLANTIC AV	21	3
central ave:pacific ave	17	9
central ave:3rd st	14	10
3RD ST SANTA CLARA AV	1	0
3RD ST PACIFIC AV	17	6
pacific ave:3rd st	1	0
PACIFIC AV:4TH ST	11	5
LINCOLN AV:5TH ST	26	12
LINCOLN AV:6TH ST	3	2

The Ferry ridership continues to be small. Even when there was a dedicated ferry shuttle, the number of people using it was small. Ample free parking most likely makes the bus seem uncompetitive. Before finalizing this proposal, AC Transit should lay out specifically what it would like to do with the school service. This should probably include some ridership surveys once school starts in the Fall to determine the needs of these students.

In the end, we’re probably looking at the loss of about 30-40 riders from about 330 boarding (Oakland Bound) and about 60-70 riders from about 300 riders (East End bound). By rerouting this line, and making changes to the Line 63 which make the line significantly more direct to downtown Oakland (eliminating a meandering 22 minute ride through the Point). It’s possible that this change will result in a net positive (or at least a very small reduction in ridership). It also increases the useful connections for all Points West of Webster and North of Lincoln which will remain within 1200 feet of a stop. (Map tomorrow).

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