We have a quorum.

I just counted.

Thank you.

Lisa, you're good?

Welcome to a lovely meeting.

On a lovely evening in the world's greatest city, Alameda, California, the Transportation Commission meeting for Wednesday, May 20th, 2026.

We will begin with roll call.

Commissioner Dara Abrams.

Commissioner Kim.

Present.

Chair Whitsey.

Here.

Vice Chair Sue Thanthira.

Present.

Commissioner Johnson.

Present.

And Commissioners Gloin and Noctigall are absent tonight.

Seeing that we have a quorum, we will continue with the agenda.

Let's move on to any proposed agenda changes.

Any agenda changes, everyone.

Seeing none, we'll move on to our next item.

We move on to staff communications with, I believe, Lisa Foster.

Good evening, Chair White C and Transportation Commissioners.

I'm Lisa Foster, Transportation Planning Manager and Secretary to you all.

That are recent.

On March 17th, the City Council accepted the Transportation 2025 annual report and 2026 work plan.

And on May 5th, they approved the bike share pilot concept and funding that you'll discuss tonight.

Our next couple of regular meetings are July 22nd and September 23rd.

And some potential agenda topics for those meetings include design concepts for Pacific Ave Wilmachan Way and nearby neighborhood greenway segments, a mid-year transportation report, and Clement Av from Grand to Sherman.

In terms of public events coming up, Caltrans is hosting another I 580 truck access study listening session in Oakland on May 23rd.

And then on May 28th, the city is holding the Pacific Ave Wilmachan Way and Neighborhood Greenways workshop.

I'll give a little more information on that in our updates.

And on June 5th and July 10th, at Mastic Senior Center, there will be transportation 101 and clipper cards for seniors' events.

For updates, we have been enjoying a lovely bike month.

Around 700 people joined the bike festival at Ruby Bridges Elementary in the very beginning of the month.

And it was a wonderful time.

We combined it with the home electrification fair this time, which worked well.

And then on May thir 14th was bike to wherever day and bike to school day.

The city hosted an energizer station at City Hall.

And then for Pacific Ave and Wilmachan, I've been mentioning a few times.

We are in we have funding to do improvements at that intersection, which is a neighborhood greenway crossing for Pacific Av.

And at the same and so we're working on alternatives for that, and then we're also working on a couple of segments of neighborhood greenways nearby.

So we'll be having a public workshop and an online survey opening um for the end of the month.

Construction big news for the Clement Ave Tilden Way Improvement Project.

As I imagine everybody knows, on May 18th, uh stages two and three of that construction began, and this is the most intensive time of that construction.

There is a detour uh at Fernside, which no longer connects to Tilden Way while the roundabout's being constructed.

That should stay in place uh through about the fall, depending on weather and other things.

Um the travel will continue on Tilden Way.

Uh in June, it'll it'll be a temporary roadway north of the regular road, so that that can continue.

Oakland Alameda Access Project, you all know the Webster tube is being constructed during weeknights, and then Posey tube will begin after Webster tube is done.

That's Caltrans project, as you know.

Oakland Alameda Water Shuttle uh the this July marks the end of our initial two-year pilot service, but we will have we have funding for another two years with our partner uh funding agencies and um in April the water shuttle carried almost well 11,600 passengers.

So that concludes my communications.

Thank you, Lisa.

Let's move on next to non-agenda item public comment.

So again, if there's a qu a comment from the public on non-agenda items, do we have any non-agenda item public comment?

Yes, we have two in-house, and if you are on Zoom and would like to speak, uh please raise your hand.

But first we have Danielle Mueller.

Hi, Danielle.

Good evening, Commissioners.

My name is Danielle Miller.

I'm sustainability and resilience manager for the City of Alameda.

I'm here tonight to talk to you about a potential infrastructure bond on the ballot.

So over the last year, we've been engaging with community regarding the city's significant infrastructure challenges.

During four city council workshops last fall, we identified more than 800 million dollars in urgent needs.

This includes our aging roads, bridges, storm drains, and public safety facilities, all of which are increasingly vulnerable to severe storms, sea level rise, and major earthquakes.

So I'm here tonight to update you on this work and share how we are gathering community input on these critical issues and projects.

To give a recent example, last year we experienced a major power outage, or a few years ago, I think we um a major power outage power outage while the high street bridge was in the open position, and we had to wait hours for the simple issue to be resolved.

To prevent this from happening again, we're exploring backup generators to ensure residents can get on and off the island 24-7 even during a blackout.

And you likely remember some significant flooding this past January during king tides.

This is a preview of how sea level rise will impact Alameda in the coming years if we don't take action now.

At the same time, we must ensure city facilities remain operational after major earthquake.

When studied, our West End uh fire station received a C grade.

The Alameda Point Fire Station and Training Facility received a D, and the animal shelter received an F.

Alameda's pavement condition is scored currently a 66 out of 100.

While it's slightly better than Oakland at 58, we are lagging far behind neighbors like Emoryville at 78 and Pleasanton at 76.

Neglecting these needs increases costs for everyone.

It shows up in our rising insurance rates, property value, slower emergency response times, and vehicle wear and tear.

Without a dedicated funding source, the city is forced to use the general fund for urgent repairs.

These repairs become more expensive every year they go unaddressed.

One option under consideration is a 300 million dollar local bond.

This would create a protected dedicated funding source specifically for our infrastructure needs.

If approved, property owners would pay approximately 49 dollars for every 100,000 of assessed value, not market value.

For a home with assessed value of 500, for example, 500,000 for example, that equates to roughly 249 dollars per year.

This funding would allow us to prevent flooding in the Posey Webster tubes and on city streets, install earthquake safe backup power so our bridges remain operational, repair potholes and improve traffic safety, maintain stormwater systems to prevent bay pollution and flooding.

Ensure our first responders can react quickly to fires and emergencies.

All funds would stay here in Alameda.

No funding could be taken by the state or federal government with an independent citizens oversight commission.

We recently mailed Alameda voters an information guide and survey.

If you haven't yet, please visit www.alamedaca.gov slash stronger together to review the materials and complete the online survey.

We want to hear from as many residents as possible.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next we have Jim Strelo.

Hi Jim.

Good evening, folks.

Cross Alameda Trail has been declared open.

And yet I still see a obstruction between Grand and Hibbert.

You know, there's some sales office that has blocked off that roadway so that vehicles can't go between Grand and Heberga.

It says no trespassing, it says uh paint penal code section blah blah blah blah.

And you know, so you know, somebody has erected that blocking the roadway since it's citizens' money that paid for uh the roadway.

Why aren't the citizens able to use it?

You know, I use the the bikeway, no problem.

But friends of mine that you know drive vehicles, hear about the cross Alameda Trail being open, go down there and see it's not open, they have to go around.

So citizens like to know why is that there and when is it going to be removed?

So that I can tell my folks, yeah, please use it.

Uh another thing that I've noticed recently is uh along West Atlantic and Ardent, which is about oh, you know, about three blocks uh west of Main Street that because of the planters that are in the center, uh, you know, nice little pretty planters.

That uh one day I saw a huge truck, not just the normal you know, 50-foot or whatever, you know, the 18-wheeler things.

It was a longer, you know, vehicle uh going uh northbound on Ardent, and in order to make the turn onto uh West Atlantic that it swerved all the way into the planters off the road on Ardent, swing as much as it could to try to make the turn uh onto uh West Atlantic, couldn't make it.

Uh, it decided that oh, look, the opposite lane is open for me, and he went and drove against you know traffic.

There wasn't anybody there at the time, and you know, went against the traffic because that's the only way he could make the turn, you know, in order to go uh you know, on and then once it got to the next stop sign intersection, he was able to chicane over and continue on uh West Atlantic.

But those platters are apparently too, you know, you know, uh too confining to some very large vehicles.

It's all because of the uh traffic circle work that's being done at uh Pacific Avenue in Maine that these large vehicles have to go other directions.

And I saw this and I said, well, looks like there's some design problem here if uh you know they have to go off the road and still make the try to make the turn and they have to bail out.

Uh it's it's a concern.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Next comment, please.

If anyone online would like to make a non-agenda public comment, please raise your hand.

And we have no speakers.

See new additional no additional comments.

I do remind uh my fellow commissioners that there have been some letters submitted on non-agenda items.

Feel free to review.

Uh let's move next to the consent calendar.

And I have a question about bureaucracy.

So we have minutes approval, but we do not have enough people that were present for the previous meeting.

Can they do they need to abstain if they were not at a previous meeting?

Are they allowed to vote for minutes for meeting they were not at?

We generally abstain when people have missed the meeting, so we can put it on the next meeting.

Look at that.

Bureaucracy working for us.

Okay, I'm going to uh withdraw the motion to approve draft minutes.

I'm going to move next to uh number six regular agenda items.

Let's move to item sixa.

This is to accept the West Alameda Transportation Demand Management Association annual report for 2025.

And this is a voting item.

Let's get a presentation.

Go ahead, Rochelle.

Hello.

Good evening, Chair Whitesy and Transportation Commissioners.

I'm Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator with the City of Alameda.

And I'm here to present this item to you to accept the West Alameda Transportation Demand Management Association Annual Report for 2025.

It is an action item to review and accept this report.

Um I just wanted to say that I'm also um joined here by Brian McGuire, who is a planner in our planning department and also works a lot on transportation projects.

And between the two of us, we're hoping we can answer any any questions that come up.

Um person who could not be here tonight is um Lucy Zishley, and she is the um current executive director of the West Alameda Transportation Demand Management Association, and she um was the one who prepared the annual report, and so um we'll try to do our best to answer any questions you might have on that.

But um, she had a conflict for tonight and regrets not being able to be here.

Um I'll just start off by saying um I will be referring to this organization or association with by our acronym that we refer to it as, which is Watma.

So just up front, and um and Watma is a transportation uh management association.

You can see that in its title.

Um, and so I uh we thought that this would be a good opportunity to give you all background on what um transportation management associations or TMAs are and why we have them, and kind of where uh this this WATMA came from and how it was established.

So with that, I will start off.

Again, Watma is a TMA, and in general, these first few slides are just generic to TMAs.

TMAs are nonprofits, they're member controlled public-private partnerships.

They are not entities of the city.

The city does have representation on both of our TMAs and Alameda.

Their general function is to implement a transportation demand management strategy that's that's outlined in a development agreement or some sort of previous agreement.

Generally, they have a geographic focus for addressing traffic and commuting within a specific area or district or neighborhood.

They bring together basically developers, real estate developers, local government, and businesses and residential HOAs together to form them.

And then they have secure regular funding, primarily they could be through developer fees, property assessments, or parking revenues.

So generally they work on implementing, like I said, transportation demand management or TDM strategies.

You can also think of these as trip reduction strategies.

So TMAs might have a whole suite of different kinds of programs, and so some types of programs might be transit pass programs where they give out transit discount passes to members, working on eliminating or filling that first and last mile gap to transit between these areas that are represented represented, such as a you know, running a local shuttle.

Some of you may have heard of the Emery go round that is operated by a TMA in Emeryville.

And then they can also provide active transit support, such as transportation support, such as for they can provide e-bike rebate programs, which the Alameda TMA does that now.

They also can try to bring together people for carpooling, matching carpooling, or guaranteed ride home programs, and generally do marketing and education to try to shift commuters out of their driving alone habits into other ways of getting around.

So why do cities use TMAs and why do they exist?

Fundamentally, they come from conditions of approval, so they're really serving as zoning enforcement mechanisms to reduce any new traffic that is associated with large-scale private developments.

So essentially, another way to say this is that as cities are approving this development and knowing that it's going to have an impact on increasing trips, they can require either participation in a TMA or creation of a TMA in order to mitigate those expected increased trips.

Rather than having each individual HOA or each individual commercial development have their own program, having one TMA can really you know have efficiencies, pool resources, so that these smaller entities can enjoy kind of the benefits that you can get from being a larger group, such as with transit benefit programs, which might be a lot for one small entity to operate and administer, or one small HOA.

Ultimately having the TMAs and reducing these trips reduces the city's need to just keep building more and more roads to accommodate all the traffic.

And you know, with that is trying to reduce the number of single occupant vehicles so that there's less traffic, especially during the peak hours.

They can also help to meet our greenhouse gas emission local goals and our regional goals.

So today in Alameda we have two TMAs.

Um the color is a little hard to distinguish, at least as I'm viewing it, but the one in the middle, which looks a little kind of purpley mosh mauve colored, is the West Alameda TDMA or WattMA.

Um and it's a you can see it's um in the Alameda Landing area, and then there's two other entities, one out at Alameda Point and one along the northern waterfront, and both of those areas are part of the Alameda TMA.

So these are the areas in the city that are covered by TMAs today.

So Watma was established to include includes members from both residential and commercial.

You can see on this map the area, the areas that are included.

There's four residential HOAs or communities, and there are three commercial areas that are included.

And so that is the area that is included within Wattma.

And the timeline for the establishment of Wattma is that way back in 2000, the city and Catellus, who is a developer, you might have heard of their name, entered into a development agreement to develop all of Alameda Landing, and they also developed the Bay Port development, which is around Ruby Bridges School.

And so that agreement was entered into with the city in 2000, and then as a part of a requirement of that development agreement in 2007, a TDM or transportation demand management again program was required, and that was approved by the city in 2007.

And as I was referring to before about why we have these, you know, for this particular project, an EIR analysis was done.

It found that there were going to be significant traffic impacts from this Alameda Landing development.

Not surprising given that there wasn't a whole lot there before that things were going to change.

And so creating this TDM program is a part of those traffic impact mitigations that were required in the EIR.

And that is then also a requirement then in the subsequent individual development agreements that occurred as these different developments happened, which happened over the course of about 16 years from 2010 to 2026.

This whole area was developed, and the commercial and the and the residential areas were built and then occupied.

All of those properties as they were sold, all of the transactions included documentation of this fee requirement for being a part of this TMA, and so that was in all of the disclosures and for all of these purchases that were made.

In 2013, Wattma was established again as Alameda's first TMA.

And so the entity was created, and the fees that are required with that started to get collected.

And that again is part of the development agreements.

The intention with this the development of WattMA, and this is in the TDM program, is that all additional development that happened afterwards in Alameda would actually become also part of this TMA, and that the city would have one TMA and that it would just keep growing as development occurred.

That was that is referenced in some of the documentation, and that was the intention.

Also, as I've said, the approach to trip product their trip production requirements and fees, and how those were established and what those fees are really formed the basis for subsequent development agreements that happened throughout Alameda and sort of how those fees were established and how that and how the trip reduction requirements were met.

So it really was kind of our foundational TMA that was established.

So this TDM program for Alameda Landing, the overarching goal is that is to implement on a permanently funded basis programs and measures that will reduce weekday peak hour single occupancy vehicle or SOV trips, weekday total trips and total emissions, and also to increase awareness and use of alternative modes of transportation.

Today, WattMA has several programs, as of right now.

One is a AC Transit Easy Pass program, which is a free bus pass program for members.

They're also a significant water shuttle funding partner.

Bay 37, which is part of Alameda Landing, is um sits right in front of Bullhole Circle Park, which is where the water shuttle is.

So this is definitely the development that is closest to the water shuttle.

And then they also do some marketing of what the just different transportation options are and the incentives that are out there and programs such as there's a countywide guaranteed write home program run by Alameda CTC that's available for free to anybody who works in Alameda County.

So as part of that TDM program, an annual report is required, and it's required to there's a requirement for an annual survey, and there's some and it's that uh the TDM program describes what needs to be in this annual report, and that annual report is supposed to come to the Transportation Commission and the City Council each year.

I will step back and say this is the second time, only the second time we've brought this report to this commission.

The last time is in 2022.

I think several of you were on the commission.

I don't know how much you remember that, but um that was the last one.

They there have been ones done, I think for like seven or eight years.

Um but this is this is only the second time we've we've brought this to the to the transportation commission.

Um, and just highlights of what's in this 2025 annual report, our program updates, including the Alameda Landing Express um land shuttle that used to run between Alameda Landing and Oakland and downtown Oakland and BART.

Um that was terminated last year, and as a replacement, the AC Transit Easy Pass program was established in May of last year, so it's just a year old at this point for this community.

Um, and there's an update on the water shuttle contributions.

You can also see the results of the survey, the current um WATMA membership, and the approved budget and goals for 2026.

It also includes an update on the status of the merger of WATMA and the Alameda TMA.

So I wanted to use this opportunity just to provide the background on that merger history and the status because it's it's kind of got a long history here, and as described in the staff report, and as I've said today, that TDM program really did envision that WATMA would be created so that it could expand to include future development.

In 2016, as the Alameda Point development was coming online, the city initiated discussions with the developer at that time, could tell us to add Alameda Point to WAPMA.

Those were not successful in a timely way.

And so in 2017, the Alameda TMA was created, so our second TMA.

In 2019, the WATMA board voted unanimously to support merging with the Alameda TMA, as many things kind of did during the pandemic.

Kind of that went kind of dark for a few years.

And then in 2022, and this is the last time the report, and the first and the last time that an annual report came to the Transportation Commission, and then the council, there was the recommendation that the Transportation Commission and the Council made to merge these two TMAs.

That there was work that proceeded on that over the past few years.

Consolidation documents were prepared, lawyers were paid, and some of those documents were signed, and then as is referred to as is described in the annual report in 2025.

The WATMA board of directors, the composition was updated and changed to actually remove the developer who the developer was done developing, and so that that person that entity had had a um was a director on the WATMA board, and that was removed, and a new board was was constituted, and that board had some concerns about the merger, and so that did not get executed the final merger documents.

Um where the city staff is now is we continue to believe that that merger should happen, and we'll be encouraging, encouraging that process to move forward.

So with that, I and Brian are happy to answer any questions, and um, yeah, and we're available for questions or comments.

Thank you, Michelle.

Any questions, any clarifying questions first from the commissioners?

Please clarifying questions.

Yeah.

Thank you, Rachel.

Are there any numbers that do you can?

I mean, I see that there is a table of you know how many members, how many commercial members, how many residential members, and how many actually use the ACPS and things like that.

You know, that's the real utilization of the TMA program.

I would say what what you see in the annual report is what we have available as of right now about how the programs are being used, and that's based on the survey results, and obviously with the easy pass through AC Transit, you are able to get data based on your particular the easy passes that you distribute to your community.

So that's what those tables in the annual report are generated from data that comes from AC Transit.

Does that answer the question?

I mean, there are so many members have it, right?

800 members have something.

But how many actually used it?

So that's what I mean.

How many use the easy pass?

So about, I think it's about a third.

Yeah, it says here 33% of pass holders use their pass at least once a month.

Right.

And so not all, well, you know, all so all residential members are eligible for a pass, only two commercial developments are eligible for Michaels and Safeway.

Only the employees from those um locations are eligible for the pass.

So of the 646 units, yeah, they've um distributed this was as of um last October.

215 passes were distributed.

Um I don't have that data for today.

I know that there was another push done because this is a new program, it's only a year old, and um it does it does in here reference that in February there was another push to get more people to sign up, and that did see a bump in the number of people signed up.

So, yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any additional clarifying questions from commissioners?

Commissioner Ken.

Um, yeah, just one quick one.

Um does the Alameda TMA have a similar annual report that comes out, and has that ever come to this committee?

Okay.

I'm gonna let um Brian answer that.

Um I will say that um I I as of February is am a um uh on the Watma Board of Directors as one of as the city representative.

Um, and Brian is one of the directors on the Alameda TMA board along with our um interim director Abby Thorn Lyman.

So, thank you, Brian McGuire uh planner three with planning building transportation department.

The ATMA at Alameda TMA has submitted, I think there was a consolidated report um starting up maybe it was almost three years ago when it was sort of a transition phase um with the ATMA with sort of a lot of the projects were coming online and the budget and the number of members sort of reached a critical mass and and this we sort of that organization staffed up a little and during that time uh the West Alameda TMA that we're talking about tonight actually um had Alameda TMA staff.

They basically contracted with the Alameda TMA to administer the West Alameda TMA.

Previously it had been done by the developer Catellus for the first 10 years or so of that development, but then as sort of part of the, you know, getting to know you phase uh in anticipation of a potential call consolidation or merger.

Um ATMA took over management for a couple of years, and the current uh the staff at the time of Alameda TMA put out, I believe it was the 2023 annual report that came out in around March of 2024, and that report I don't believe was brought to this body.

I think um it's they have to report to the city in the the way that Alameda TMA um requirements are set up, but I don't know if it's specifically says um that it has to come to this body, but I think we're in this process of sort of um engaging at a different level with these TMAs over the last couple of years, and sort of they've matured and are starting to do a little bit better job of tracking that information.

Hopefully, we'll be bringing these on a more regular basis going forward.

Thank you.

Any additional clarifying questions from commissioners?

Seeing none, we will go to public comment on this agenda item.

So far, we have one speaker in house.

Uh Jim Straylo.

Good evening, average Joe citizen here, not understanding a lot of all of this uh uh Alphabet soup stuff.

How successful is trip reduction west of Webster, is how most citizens, you know, look at you know projects such as this.

And I'm not getting a lot of numbers that make a lot of sense.

You know, the the uh numbers are important, how many businesses are west of Webster, how many employees are out there.

You said that a third of uh the the express passes are used a month, but how many is that?

You know, uh you know that how successful is the information getting out uh to the businesses that are out there.

Um as I luckily live on the east end of Alameda and ride my bike to the west end of Alameda maybe a couple of times a week.

And all I see is uh you know, lots of traffic in the morning and the evening, um Buena Vista Avenue, Ralph Opposado, Central Avenue, West Riskany, um, you know, it's just you know the average citizen wants to know what is being done to get the you know get the word out to get uh more people involved in it.

Uh, you know, that I hear numbers, but I don't yes, and not enough numbers, uh, but uh what's the effort to get out there and get more people to participate?

Um it's it's you know, I like to see my money spent.

I like the citizens like to see, you know, um, you know, effective programs.

Um, so you know how much you know money is charged to businesses, how much what are the annual expenses, how much is in the TMA fund.

You know, these things the average citizen at least is casually interested in.

I didn't kind of see those numbers.

So uh, you know, for a good report, I'd like to see more information.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Any additional comments?

Yes, we have one now on Zoom, Mitch Ball.

Hi, Mitch.

Hello, can you hear me?

We can.

Awesome.

Hi.

Well, I work right in between the Webster and Posey tube, uh, which is where I'm working late right now.

And it's not technically uh Alameda Landing, but it is certainly close enough that myself and my co-workers have benefited from the Alameda Landing TDM programs.

Back when we had the Alameda Landing Express, it was how I used to arrive through Berkeley, and it was so popular amongst my coworkers that the bus driver would often kindly take an unofficial stop on the east side of Target so we could have a shorter walk to work.

Since then, many have transitioned to other options.

Cyclists often use the water taxi and occasionally the pay ferry.

Whilst those on foot uh often use AC Transit as well as the research park shuttle.

My workplace is not technically part of the research park, but no one asks for employee IDs on the shuttle, so people do what's convenient for them.

I talked with HR about signing us up for the Bay Pass so we could get free bus service back, plus more of it, but they haven't agreed to pay for this benefit yet.

I noticed that the Easy Pass use has not been as significant as we had hoped, which I suspect might be due to Easy Pass only serving AC Transit.

Many people have further destinations that require multiple agencies if choosing to rely in transit.

So I imagine that with the combination of our two TMAs, we could change those easy passes to Bay Passes, which serve all transit agencies, which could encourage much more transit use.

On recommendation three, two, I can say that a seaplane to landing uh bus shuttle would be enormously popular amongst my co-workers.

Some already cycled from the sleep lane terminal, but I've heard many without bikes talk about how they'd love to use it, but don't know what to do about the last mile.

My previous supervisor said that he looked around the point for a place that he could park his car indefinitely near the seaplane terminal because he has no use for his car in San Francisco except to drive over the Bay Bridge every weekday for work.

I know that this has been framed as a program for residents, but I can tell you that many reverse commuters would also love to use this service as well.

On recommendation 3-3, I think unfortunately I have to disagree with the premise that there is an easy and direct bike path route from seaplane terminal to Alameda Landing.

I recently volunteered at Bikewalk Alameda to help update Alameda's famous bike map, which meant charting out Alameda street by street on bike.

I was responsible for West Alameda, so I can confidently say that going west of Alameda Landing is Alameda's fourth largest bike infrastructure gap.

If you look at Alameda's active transportation plan, you might propose a cyclist view Singleton Avenue's bike lane, but this bike lane simply doesn't exist for most of Singleton Avenue.

While it's still my preferred route to bike to Almanac to meet my coworkers for the occasional happy hour, it does not have continuous bike infrastructure.

Another option includes Fifth Street, which includes a bike lane, but it is one of our city's most dangerous as it directs right train cars to drive through the bike lane to enter the right turn lane.

And lastly, there is Coral Sea Street, which does not officially include bike infrastructure, but is a very low stress and direct street.

Unfortunately, getting to the street includes a short but very hectic journey through Willie Stargirl Avenue.

So this is all to say that when Willie Stargle bike lane does get built, this gap will be eliminated.

So the city should definitely stay on schedule and strongly commit to this project.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you for your comment.

Any additional public comments.

Yes, uh, next we have one moment.

Hi, Slobby.

Hello.

Hope everybody can hear me.

We can.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak, Honorable Commission.

My name is Arch Singhofi.

I am the general manager of the Alameda Transportation Management Association.

The uh the topic of conversation tonight.

Um, just wanted to offer this council an introduction and maybe some answers to some questions.

So I joined uh recently in November of 2025, and I joined from San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, where I was the data lead for transit operations performance.

Um as I've joined, my main priority has been sort of getting everything in order and setting up uh great IT infrastructure and data collection infrastructure so that I can uh put together a well-encompassing report for the end of 2026.

Um, and I'm glad that it was brought up today because I have been now trying to go back and see what I can find for 2025.

Now that is a bit difficult, but I will try to put together whatever I can, and I would like to offer um a presentation to this body of that report if the commission deem uh that would be helpful.

Um uh as far as some rapid fire answers to some questions that were brought up in other public comment, um, I can say that our our pool governing body or our membership body is uh nearing the 3000 mark, and most of those folks are either in the northern waterfront or the Alameda Point.

Um, and that is a mix of residents and uh employers that are moved in.

And yeah, we're hoping to get that number up and up every year.

And we have seen a steady increase in that pool number.

And um, yeah.

If there are any other questions, I will be happy to answer.

Um feel free to reach out to me, GM at Alameda TMA.org.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you for your comments.

Any additional comments?

There are no other speakers on Zoom and no speakers in-house.

Okay, seeing no additional public comments.

Let's move on to commission discussion and questions.

Who of my fellow commissioners has some comments or questions?

Judy R.

Abrams, take it away.

Okay, Chair.

Um, I guess since I'm going first, I'll be the one to say TDM as an acronym sounds a lot like Jimmy Carter sitting in a sweater saying, turn down the thermostat, put on a sweater.

Um, but behind the acronym is actually, and I think I liked Rochelle had a good line I might borrow there too.

Like the cost of removing one solo occupancy vehicle from the tube at peak hours, that is worth a lot of money there because at that certain time of day, um, you can imagine there's a Caltrans staffer saying, if only we could add another tube here.

And so in contrast, sorry, you asked me to go first, so I get to do it.

Um, so in contrast, the cost to get one person to ride AC Transit for one time at 8 30 a.m.

on a Tuesday morning when they have their return to work email.

Um, like that's that's valuable.

Um the actual delivery, the marketing, the convincing people to do this, doing it at scale, like, that takes real effort, but um I just wanted to momentarily speak to in uh to the value of this because you know we have the number of tubes we have, but this type of uh of incentivizing and making these services accessible um is really valuable.

Um I did want to flag um Clipper Bay Pass, and I was a little curious to hear because I think is it right that the Alameda TMA has rolled that out?

Um, yes, I think we're um I can't remember if we're in year two or year three of the Clipper Bay Pass for Alameda TMA right now.

And um, so that's we were one of the Alameda TMA is one of the initial participants in the Clipper Bay Pass pilot, and um that's been super popular, obviously, going from just AC transit to available on something like 25 agencies, basically everything in the Bay Area short of a cable car, CowTrain, BART, etc.

So that has really grown the sort of demand and the effectiveness of those programs.

Obviously, the it increases the cost of that program and and what that looks like going forward and and and what's affordable for these TD TMAs is an ongoing uh budget discussion for for all of these organizations in terms of you know how much should we spend on this pass versus how effective are we doing with the water shuttle, which has been very successful and and putting together the best package we can and encouraging other agencies to give us the best deal we can on these passes so that we can we we don't have to make as many um of those hard choices.

But yeah, they've they've been running for for a little over two years, I think at this point, and very successful.

Okay.

Can I actually ask a follow-up question to that?

I think it's good for the public to understand how that money gets spent on it.

Is it on a per-ride basis?

Is it on a blanket use basis just for people to understand?

Yeah, so the AC Transit Easy Passes, AC Transit has their own method for those contracts, and that was what both TMAs were well, what Alameda TMA has been operating on for a long time and WATMA has transitioned to last year.

Um they have a certain pricing model based on what the level of bus service in that neighborhood might be versus what the potential ridership and and they sort of price, you know, have some value built in the the broader Bay Pass pilot being run by MTC.

Technically, what they do is they project their the goal of that program is to recover the full fair value of the trips taken, but they sort of have to speculate because they quote the Alameda TMA a price.

They say for your mix of 300, you know, residential units and 500 employees at Alameda Point, you know, and the Northern Waterfront, we're gonna charge you first year a hundred and ninety-seven dollars total between the uh for the Bay Pass, which includes AC Transit, and then it was really popular and really successful, and the next year they said, Whoa, we need to charge you $400 a year.

And then we were like, hey, can we talk about this?

And they were able to institute some of the early other programs they were working on, like their transfer free transfers pilot early for the TMA in order to meet us in the middle and keep that program sustained.

So that's where one a big part of the discussion is in terms of what the other transit agencies are willing to accept to get these presumably more customers than they otherwise would have.

And so there has to be value for both the agencies and for the users in order to participate in that program long term, I think.

That's super helpful, Brian.

Thank you.

Any additional questions or comments?

I do, but if others want to piggyback on the big question, we can move around.

Any other comments any other comments piggybacking off his comments?

Mr.

Kim.

Sure.

Um, I guess kind of along those lines because uh so it sounds like um, sorry, Wadma, is that the okay um is just has the the AC transit program, the other ones on the Bay Pass program.

Are we seeing um varying or significantly different uses in transit use from the two TMAs?

Uh, good question.

Um I'll start off just with a little more background.

Um, so I am in my relatively new tenure on this board.

Um, I will say that the WATMA is in a period of transition right now with a newly constituted board as of last year.

Um, you know, last year is when the Alameda Landing, the land shuttle ended, the Easy Pass program was started.

Um, and there is um a sense among some of the uh well, a lot of the board members that this is not a very robust program, it's not really meeting the needs of the residents.

Um there would love to have the Bay Pass program, as you've just heard, it's very expensive.

Um, and so um one of the goals that you may maybe saw in the annual report is to look at expanding transit options and whether that's a transit pass option, some different kind of a transit pass, something beyond just the easy pass or building on the easy pass.

Um I think there's generally a feeling that the Bay Pass for this population is probably gonna be more than than this, the revenues that this this TMA collects could afford.

Um, and um there's interest in something called a mobility wallet, which is just like a cash program where you get money that can be spent specifically on specific transit entities, um, and you maybe just get you know a certain amount per month.

Um, so that is one of the goals for this year is to be working to explore those different options.

There's some money set aside in the budget, which you might have seen in the budget for a future new transit program.

Again, to try to address like this feeling that maybe the easy pass program is not really meeting the needs of this community from the city perspective, it's also quite a new program, and perhaps it's just like needs uh you know more time for for uptake as well, but certainly doesn't have to be the only program available.

Um I don't know that we've done anything to compare transit usage in these two TMAs, so but perhaps Brian has something to add.

Yeah, I think I would just add to your question, Commissioner.

Um, the Easy Pass program for Watma is brand new, right?

For 10 years, the only thing the West Alameda TMA was doing was paying for a ground peak hour commute hour ground shuttle from Target to downtown Oakland.

And so the Alameda TMA's Easy Pass program had been in place for six or seven years before the uh Clipper Bay Pass program was implemented a couple years ago.

So that market penetration, the relationships had built up.

So it's hard to do an apples to apples comparison to to the limited data we have on you know monthly boardings that's in the report, and I think there's some detail, a little bit more detail on the October, maybe daily ridership uh in there.

So I we we haven't really done that comparison because it would be really hard to do, especially when it's just ramping up, those residents are just getting the word out.

We've had a transition in staff at the TMAs.

Um that impacts the ability to communicate with those member organizations, and it it's it's not just like kind of constructing a new road, it takes time to build up the the sort of culture and the penetration of communication within these communities to get them on board and using these passes a little more frequently, but easy to predict if they have the Bay Pass.

A lot of these folks in Alameda Landing are coming or using the shuttle, or as the commenter said, maybe reverse commuting, uh using the ferry and the shuttle, but you know, using the ferry to get to San Francisco.

And obviously, that's a big hit for Alanida residents when they upgrade to the Bay Pass.

So it'd be easy to make that prediction of how popular it would be if they were able to do it.

Thank you.

Commissioner Steph Susan Theory, you've been quiet.

Please take it away.

I'm you know, having done this in the past, um, I know how difficult the numbers are and how focus um it can get, and the the usage will look very little.

I mean, just like uh how uh Commissioner Dare Abrams mentioned, you know, it's like you have one person and so much um, you know, the how much money you spend on, but at the end of the day, still people want to see the numbers, right?

So uh perhaps uh moving forward in the future presentations uh with for both the TMAs, because I um I hear that Alameda TMA uh report is coming up to uh it'll be good to present it in the context, you know, the number of EC BAS users.

Um I mean, and I know it has the percentage and then um and and then how it in increased and all that is there, so a little more succinctly, and uh um and also the how much uh money is used, so a little more number breakdown in terms of uh the outcome will be helpful in the presentation itself.

So if I could just add on to that and your your earlier question too, um yeah, we certainly could, and if I think that if Lucy is usually the executive director had been here, she would have done a more of a deep dive on the annual report itself as well.

Um but um for the easy pass, it does say in the report that of those 215 passes that have been distributed, about 33% of those holders are using their pass at least once per month.

And then also from the annual survey results, um, there were questions about the water shuttle usage.

And of the respondents, um, 33% of residents responded that they use the water shuttle as part of their commute.

Um, so 33% is quite high.

And then also 82% of those respondents use the water shuttle uh recreationally on the weekends, and only 10% say they never use the water shuttle.

So that's just numbers.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, this is this is good information.

I'm hearing it from you for others as well.

So, um, and then when we go through the 18-page staff report, sometimes we miss the numbers.

So it's the highlight helps.

So Commissioner Johnson, how about you?

Good?

No, I'm good.

Okay.

Let's go back over here.

Commissioner Darry Abrams.

Thank you.

Um, well, I'll I'll just echo what Richel just brought up with this uh water shuttle usage numbers are great, and um on the one hand, uh so I think we we all should you know thank this TMA and the residents for participating in the funding of that program.

I've enjoyed riding it myself, and I'm glad all those uh the uh members have come together to work together and fund it.

Um I also but one other point of comparison I I wanted to offer was when the city switched from running its own paratrans well, contracting out its own paratransit system to buying AC transit passes for seniors.

I I think that may have taken a little bit of transition, but it's resulted in my understanding is much more efficient use of funds, um, and like uh and so it seems like this TMA is maybe at the start of that journey as well, but um just the the cost of even if they're not yet able to provide the Bay pass providing the AC Easy pass is probably a much more effective use of funding than operating that shuttle.

So in the steps of this journey it's it's it's great to see different bodies kind of paying AC for the corridors served by AC working together to fund the water shuttle for a corridor that did not exist.

And so I I just want to share those thoughts and then finally I'm gonna say my understanding is we're here to just consider this from a programmatic perspective.

I did read the appendix on the merger of the two entities I would imagine that's um you know for those two boards to put uh to agree on but um it's good to see the city uh helping to encourage this because um just towards the programmatic goals um uh if these can be one entity or they can leverage each other's resources more efficiently it looks like both the members and this and the city as a whole will benefit so that's it for me thank you well said commissionter uh just a quick question so you mentioned um probably to Rochelle um you mentioned in your uh presentation two uh business members are uh like the big businesses and uh in the landing area Safeway and uh micos are the members but what about target?

I mean there are so many other small businesses but you know the right the big one yeah this is something I'm definitely getting up to speed on now I had I had not realized that it's the the transit pass benefit that was only offered to those two commercial um properties and their employees um and the reason that I understand and it's in the annual report is that um it can be very administratively time consuming and just challenging to work with um lots of small um employers and um and also employers that have a whole lot of turnover so um what has historically been found um in the work that has been done for this TMA is that those were the most responsive employers and easiest to work with unfortunately I then heard that Michael's is closing I don't know if that's already been done or is public.

So then you're just down to Safeway that has has access to this.

What I also understand is that Target is um as a national company um does not want to encourage or promote this benefit because they have a policy of looking at what I've been told is that their policy is that they have to offer the same benefits across the whole country and so if they're offering this offering it even just promoting it I guess here in Alameda then someone in Tulsa Oklahoma they have to offer a transit benefit program too as well so um I would I would hope that maybe with some more resources we can find if there's ways to get around that issue and still serve those employees but um target is certainly paying into the program um whether or not their employees are you know getting these passes so interesting okay thank you.

Commissioner Kim one more comment and uh I don't need a response to this one.

Just kind of noting I the I kind of I think I understand why the data's like this but some of the data statistics are a little um confusing like for example it says 55% frequently drive alone next lines is very remain steady at 4749% you know that's 100 whatever percent already then line after that AC transit increasingly affiliated 39%.

So it's probably the way you define frequent or different things but um when the future iterations of this part having maybe some of those numbers a little more clear would be useful to get a give a better sense of actual usage, right?

Or just clearly more clearly define some of those things.

I have only I have only a few comments.

Um first there was there was a comment from the public about trying to better understand the budget for this program.

It's actually a reasonably good breakdown of the budget on page seven or sorry, page six of the resources provided for this meeting, so definitely would recommend looking at those.

Uh nice chart about 2025 and 2026 projected budget budget if you are interested.

Um I wanted to understand a little bit about um the power of the WATMA board, which I think is in the scope of this meeting.

So these groups all contribute money, but do the boards essentially have veto power over how it's spent?

It sounds like there's there was a merger on, and then the merger is probably not on, presumably because the current board decided they were against this.

I wanted to understand does any project that WAPMA that money is spent on, any sort of transit thing, does that have to go through whatever board currently exists essentially then there is veto power if you have enough members on the board, or is this something that the city itself manages what is most spent on in those recommendations?

They just help just help us understand if you would.

Yeah, so um, sure.

Um so WATMA um is is a nonprofit, so it has a governing board, and it hires a general manager to implement things and um write this report, do this survey, administer the transit pass program and all of that.

But the board of which there are currently five directors, and I am one of those, they make decisions on the budget, what programs to fund.

Um, the board currently has five members, it has two directors that are supposed to represent the HOAs, and two directors and the residences, the residential community, and two directors that represent the commercial side, and then it has one that's appointed by the city.

So those are the five board members.

Okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted it's barely in scope, but there was a public comment on it in this, and I just wanted to highlight something that I 100% agreed with a public comment.

They were talking about the bike lane infrastructure on fifth, where it meets opposado, which is the most crazily designed bike lane I have ever seen in my life.

And if anyone in this room has not looked at it, please take your car, not your bike, and go see it.

I would it would be great if the city would look at fixing this because I have never seen something that sets that much potential danger up for bike riders in that lane.

So let's look at it if we could.

With that, what more questions do we have?

See what I did there?

Go ahead, Commissioner Johnson.

Uh Michelle, um follow-up question.

So are you saying to the target, are you saying that their employees are eligible, but they can't, they can't.

I was trying to follow you what you were saying because of they would have to sort of market it to employees throughout the United States.

They can't really tell the employees about the passes.

That's yeah, it's a little murky to me too.

So sorry I wasn't clear, but as as I understand it, they're not willing to promote the program, they're not willing to um say, you know, have their employees like, here's how you sign up for this transit pass, and there's this option, there's this opportunity you have, and contact the the WattMA TMA to sign up to get one of these passes.

Um, you know, could a WattMA board member stand out front and look at people who have name tags on them and say you're eligible for this benefit?

I mean, they might get kicked off the property, I don't know.

But um that's that's what that I think the understanding is that Target, you know, typically when you offer these kinds of benefits, you want to work with a cooperative employer so that you have a way to feed information down to employees and um get distribute that information, and I get Target is just not not willing to do that.

Okay, and you were kind of going, because you know I think about all the you go everywhere and everyone's trying to get you to sign some.

So I'm trying to figure out like if they're eligible, and I you know I'll go to Target.

There's a lot of people that could probably benefit.

Why could someone a volunteer organization or someone like sort of tell the target employees about this program?

Because I don't think that's fair.

Well, they don't know.

Yeah, I think it's a good thing that I I mean it's something that I'm interested in working looking at more because if we're gonna try to reduce trips and we have a program that most of the commercial employees are not even eligible for, then how do we reduce those, you know, trips that are generated by the employees that work at those commercial properties?

Um right now, currently, be this the structure of the Easy Pass program is that those target employees are not in that program right now.

So even if they were wanting to not deal with their employer and come in, only Safeway and Michael's employees are actually currently eligible because when you work on setting up the contract with AC Transit, you have to say this is the pool of people that are eligible, and this is the number, the total number.

So WATMA had to make a decision of who is going to be in that pool, and at that point it was only those two commercial property owners, Safeway and Michaels that were um easier to work with, and so they were included.

Okay.

But going, you know, in future iterations, maybe maybe that could be changed.

Yeah, certainly something I'm interested in looking into.

Sounds interesting.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Can I ask a related question?

I can just add to that.

One can hope some of them are taking the water shuttle.

Um and then also it does seem seems like you need some participation from the company because you need to confirm that they're employees and that their employment has continued.

I don't see how you could do it without their participation.

That's right.

And you need to know when they leave because then the benefit ends, right?

And if there's a lot of turnover, that can be a cumbersome administrative process.

You can see a lot of fake target t-shirts.

Commissioner Kim.

Yeah, well, a side note and comment.

I d I have worked with a corporation before that had similar policy, um, basically because whatever they do with one store they have to do nationally, right?

And that's the the trick where they found it infeasible to offer transit passes nationally, so they've been then restricted to every store, right?

Which seems kind of backwards, but that's just kind of how they did it.

Um but I have another question where um there's a lot of small stores in there.

Um has there been any work done in trying to offer them transit passes, things like that?

Is it not make sense because they're I don't know if they're franchised or individually owned or whatever, but I'm curious about that.

Yeah, and again, um just I'm coming in new to this, but my understanding and what I've heard and and read is that um the previous general managers and um they did do try to do a lot of outreach to employers and walk into businesses and talk to people and found that for those really small businesses um, you know, that are maybe two or three people and it's like the owner is like working the front counter and in the back.

Like it just was something that they just felt like they just could not take on, and so it was hard to um get them to engage.

Any additional comments?

Commissioner isn't there?

Sorry, just following up on that.

I think it's given the number of small businesses out there, um, I think it's worth exploring given the changing scenario um in terms of you know economy and then the cost of living going so high.

And um, I think it'll be attractive for the employees over there.

I know I understand maybe we could you could, you know, the TMA could explore um reducing the administrative burden.

Uh I mean, there are I mean, what is the real um block, right?

Or roadblock over there, you know.

So make it simpler for the recipient on that side, make it easier for them.

So that should be our um uh goal, right?

So to be able to reach more people.

And especially if they are paying into it, might as well, you know, make it really convenient for them to be able to use it.

So um something to when what's well to explore.

Are the AC transit passes that come with this program issued on a monthly basis or a yearly basis?

When does this actually go out to employees?

And is because it could the reason I ask that question is it to support Commissioner Susan Sarah's point is if the small businesses feel that they have too much employee turnover and the other groups feel that way as well, but if that pass expires every month, that problem kind of takes care of itself because you can only issue it to those employers that are employees that are employed the next month.

Yeah, it's a good question, and it it gets to the administrative burden of managing the the the any entity, especially any employer, especially.

Um so the the way I understand the transit easy pass setup is you define the eligible pool.

So, so you know, Safeway has a hundred and twenty employees, and so the pool, the TMA is gonna purchase a hundred and twenty passes for the year that are eligible from that employer, and then you know, each of those employees gets a clipper card if they sign up for the program, and the TMA manages and AC Transit manage that list of clipper card numbers associated with the user, and so theoretically on a monthly or at least a quarterly basis, the sort of TMA liaisons in each business need to validate.

Like, is this list still right so that the new employees can get it?

So they can come in and drop off, but you have to manage that list, and so if it's a very small entity and not a lot of, you know, institutional support or in case of target, um, the ability to validate the the accuracy of that list would have a big impact on whether you can offer the new current employees and whether you have your eligibility pool right or you're still paying for passes for people who have moved to Topeka by now, right?

Any additional comments.

With that, I'm going to make a motion to accept the West Alameda Transportation Demand Management Association Annual Report for 2025.

Do I have a second?

Okay.

Uh Commission seconded by Commissioner, or sorry, Vice Chair, I apologize.

Vice Chair Susan Thiera.

All in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstain?

Motion carries unanimously.

Let's move on to item 6b review and discuss program concepts for a three-year bike share pilot in West Alameda, and this is a discussion item, not a votable item.

We will be getting a presentation.

Go ahead.

Hi, Susie.

Good evening, Chair Whitesy and uh Commissioners.

My name is Susie Hufstadter, Senior Transportation Coordinator, presenting on the bike share pilot program.

Uh, I need to kind of preface this by explaining that this item actually already went to City Council.

We're doing things out of order here.

Uh, in the time since the last commission meeting, there was a lot of activity with the development of the Oakland Alameda Access Project Transportation Management Plan.

The opportunity to pilot bike share came up in that work, and we needed to have an endorsement from city council to kind of keep moving forward with that funding agreement.

So that meeting actually went really, really long because of a previous item, and so we only had three minutes to discuss this at council.

So uh this is really like the opportunity to have an actual public uh meeting and discussion about this.

So you have four minutes, go ahead.

With that, so um today we'll just be reviewing the bike share pilot program concept and hearing your feedback and feedback from the public.

Uh we in particular are hoping to have a good discussion on the community engagement plan since that's our next step.

Uh, and uh there's a lot to discuss there.

So, as I mentioned just in my preamble, the Oakland Alameda Access Project is really the primary context for this.

Uh the we've heard all of this before, it's gonna have an extended um posey tube closure starting in early 2027, um, or early spring is what we've been hearing.

So, uh the water shuttle already has some additional funding through this transportation management plan, and uh the bike share program was kind of the next step in that discussion.

So, yeah, this map kind of illustrates the first and last mile connection issue.

Uh, the posey and Webster tubes are obviously the primary land crossing, and then we have our three water crossings of the two ferry terminals and the water shuttle.

Uh, and as we've discussed before and heard from the public commenters on the last item, the first and last mile can be a barrier for folks to actually get to their homes and jobs and destinations after taking a boat.

So the bike share program is an effort to offer one option for closing that gap.

Uh the pilot would use is planned to use the Bay Wheels system, which is the regional bike share system.

Uh the funding from Alameda CTC and the local match would be really focused on investing in that infrastructure and planning for that Bay Wheels uh system.

This pilot would include the e-bikes only.

We've heard from uh Lyft, who is the operator and MTC, who is Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which manages the contract regionally, that the new e-bikes are extremely popular, and they just think it's a better investment.

Uh I will add that the bikes can operate as a slower e-bike for the same price as a standard bike.

So that can kind of assuage any concerns people might have about the higher pricing for the e-bike.

And the program would include eight pilot stations, primarily focused on the west end business areas and some residential centers as well.

We do plan to start evaluating a potential expansion pretty soon after launch.

I think we want to start thinking about the future of the program as we're in the pilot period.

But the initial pilot would be three years for that construction period.

Whoop, two.

So yeah, for those who aren't familiar, Bay Wheels is a regional system.

I've cropped out San Jose, but they also participate.

It's fully interoperable.

So in theory, somebody could bike from Alameda into Oakland.

Since it is a West End program and the tubes are so challenging, you know, it would be a pretty long ride to go to Fruitville from the West End, but you could do it and you could bring it on the water shuttle, but you're paying per minute.

So, you know, it's it's probably not super likely that a lot of people would be doing that, but it does have implications for the future expansion into into the rest of Alameda because then it's brings you a lot closer to those bridge crossings.

And it's critical because people only have to really think about one app or one system.

So if you already have Bay Wheels, because you commute in San Francisco or in Oakland or Berkeley, you just you can just pick up a bike on one end and then pick up a new one on the other end, and it's just the same system.

Yeah, I think most people have probably seen the dock, the docking stations in other cities, but they are only for parking in the docks for this expansion.

Uh we don't have a dockless program planned at this time.

Uh we've observed in other cities and heard from other communities that, and also here with our original bike share program, that uh dockless can be a little bit challenging, and the opportunity to join the docked regional system was something we valued for the kind of organization and predictability.

Um, this is an example of how the docking stations can look in a more neighborhood context in Berkeley, and then on the right in a more plaza transit center context in Oakland.

Uh we don't need to go through the entire table, but just want to kind of give the sense that the pricing is variable depending on what type of pass a user purchases.

I live in Oakland, I have Lyft on my phone for when I need to get home from council at 12 30 a.m.

And I also sometimes use it to pick up a single bike, but I don't have a membership.

So that's fine, it's a little expensive.

And then other people who are using it daily for their commutes will find that it's cost-effective to have an annual membership.

And then the bike share for all program is the low-income program.

There's a few different ways to qualify, including having SNAP benefits already, and that has a really really um positive, really, really strong uh discount.

So that's a that's a very good program, and we'll be working hard after launch and before launch to make sure that our uh community is aware of this through partnerships with the affordable housing entities and social service agencies, food bank, and so on.

Uh so yeah, for folks who haven't used this before, just kind of a look.

These are screenshots from my phone.

As I mentioned, I use it through the Lyft app, but there's also a dedicated Bay Wheels app.

Uh, you can see how many bikes are already there available to use, as well as how many open docks are available to drop off a bike.

Hot tip, it's good to check before you go that there's open docks.

They do a good job of rebalancing, and the contract has expectations and performance metrics set for moving the bikes back and forth to make sure that there are space.

Um, but sometimes during rush hour, there can be some times when they do fill up.

So that's how you check.

And then there's also kiosks, and if you have a membership, you can use Clipper.

So we're gonna be as a next step working on a community outreach program to identify the locations for these stations.

The blobs or bubbles around potential station locations are shown in this map.

This is actually 10, and we have funding for eight.

So that's a good note that we really need to try to prioritize where those will be best used and most useful to people.

It's a really high priority to serve Alameda Point businesses, business parks, where there's a lot of offices, and of course the Webster Street uh business district.

So the three water uh water transportation options must have docking stations, and the rest are uh up for discussion in terms of where is a highest priority for people.

So, yeah, as I mentioned, we're gonna be launching community outreach with some online surveys, and there's gonna be some pretty close coordination with uh the Alameda TMA.

You heard from Arsh on the phone just now, he's gonna be involved, as well as our team from Base for Use and Economic Development helping coordinate with uh businesses out at Alameda Point.

Uh we just want to make sure that we're locating them fairly so that it's serving as many businesses as possible and working well with where there's existing parking and bike racks, and it can be a bit of a dance to get it in the right spot.

So we're gonna be working hard on that.

Uh and the community engagement will also be just publicity to make sure people know about it, and uh the the low-income bike share for all program as well as education uh bike East Bay, which has funding through Alameda CTC, who are also funding this program.

They do like rides and workshops with bike share, so that will be an option as well.

Uh there's a technical aspect of the work plan for the next six months leading into the launch.

Uh we have funding in as part of our budget to take on have a consultant come on board to help us with the sighting.

Uh the community outreach is one part of it, but there's also a lot of technical aspects of station sighting.

There need to be adequate clearances from parked vehicles, crosswalks, ADA widths on sidewalks, uh, if there's slopes on the street where they might go in a parking lane.

There's a lot of technical detail there, so we'll be having a consultant help us with some of that sighting and design.

Um this is a table that summarizes our some of our research that we did leading up to the recommendation to city council on the Bay Wheels program.

There are other bike share programs, and uh Bay Wheels is kind of an excellent choice for us because of the regional connectivity, but we did do some pretty extensive research on the alternative.

So, Dockless Mobility Program, and then I'm gonna have to get some water.

Sorry, take your time.

Seem to be uh fighting something today.

Apologize.

So maybe it was a blessing they only let you speak for three minutes at the other at the other meeting.

Yeah, I know, I know.

No, it's good.

Meaty, meaty stuff.

Um, so yeah, basically, a city-led procurement would not be connective with Oakland.

They have Bay Wheels.

Bay wheels would not participate in a city-led procurement, and so that would just lead us down a path of having an island only bike share system.

Uh and then a dockless micromobility permit program is something that we do want to think about in the future, but that's essentially a dockless scooter program, and it's quite different from bike share.

So uh we don't see it exactly as like the same thing, it's more of a potential future expansion of the programs that we need to do quite a bit more research and outreach on before launching that.

So that's that.

Um and then the funding approval is next week at Alameda CTC, and then we'll go into the work plan from there, which I already described.

So I'm gonna stop talking and uh take another drink of water while folks thinking about it.

Wait, wait a way to power through.

Thank you so much.

Does anyone have any very slowly asked clarifying questions?

I have a couple, Susie, but I'm gonna I can wait for a second.

So take your time.

But uh one is just a logistics question.

You mentioned there are limitations on where these can be installed.

Are these grid connected or are these battery powered?

These are batteried.

Um the kiosks are actually solar powered.

Um there is not uh like high power need for them.

It's a pretty like yeah, it's a pretty simple system and they have a solar panel on the top of each kiosk.

Uh there have been questions in the past about having charging integrated into the stations, which is technically possible, but my understanding is that other cities in the region have had a no uptake on connecting these to the grid because it's so complicated to do.

Got it.

And then sorry, a couple more uh questions.

Just to clarify my understanding if I'm right.

Is the lift removes the batteries and charges them off site.

Yeah, got it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Um could we go back to the map of potential sites?

I just wanted I'm not I'm not gonna end up asking where should we put these?

I just want to understand a couple of things about this.

So I believe from the report it was 57 bikes are gonna be the is it is the approximate total for 52, thank you.

And then from the map, I think it's one map back, maybe it's the kind of the regional map or a couple pictures, kind of this one sort of.

I just wanted to understand.

That is nice of you.

Commissioner Jarrett Abrams, good job.

I'm asking questions and he's actually helping.

Sorry.

Um I just want to clarify this map, because the goal here is substantively to get people off the island in a lot of ways because of the limitations on our tunnel.

And I just wanted to understand from this map, it looks like there are essentially three docking stations in Jack London-ish.

And if we don't know the answer to this question, it's perfectly fine.

But I was just I was just curious how what that number is.

We can discuss the good or bad about that later.

But do we have a sense of is that three stations in Jack London?

I think that's about right.

My I my memory serves me correctly.

I think there's one near the Capitol Corridor.

There's one near the ferry terminal at the Marcodero near uh Washington Street, and I think that there's a third one on second and Webster, if folks are familiar with the area.

We are.

Any other clarifying questions?

Commissioner Evans.

Um I was just curious to understand if at an extremely high level what the costing is for the municipalities involved.

Is it like per dock or per bike or what?

Uh yeah, there are annual fees per bike, and they vary depending on usage.

So the more ridership you get, the less you pay per year.

I don't actually have it in front of me, but there's a table that shows kind of like ranges of ridership and then how your cost per bike goes down as ridership goes up.

That's not just the operating cost, there's the capital costs as well.

Okay, okay.

I guess okay, yeah, thinking of it sort of as a concession overall.

Okay.

Yeah, it's it's because the it's partially subsidized, right?

So the the rider fees help to pay for the operation and they get the more returns they get, the less they have to ask cities to subsidize.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um and this might be jumping ahead a little bit.

So if not you, um I was just curious to know if city staff know how other the other deployments are subsidized.

Like is it all each city or county covering it themselves or in in like the Oakland or San Francisco situations?

I think the metropolitan I think MTC at the regional level is is paying for quite a bit.

And uh we're an expansion city, and so we have kind of a special thing where we pay together with Alameda CTC to expand.

Uh I I don't think that MTC is a hundred percent paying for the system elsewhere, but uh we're uh it's not uh not every city has the same funding configuration.

It varies.

Uh I don't know the details of the proportion of which agencies are paying across the system, but it does vary.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, that's uh have some more questions, but just for clarification, that's very helpful.

Thank you.

Yeah, good question.

Any other clarifying questions from commissioners?

Seeing none, let's move to public comment on this agenda item.

Do we have any in-person or online public comments?

So far, none online yet, but in person we have Jim Strelo.

Good to see you, Jim.

Is there a minimum age?

Uh how you how well will it be verified?

Uh are there gonna be helmets uh provided or how do you ensure that there are helmets for those that need to have a helmet uh you know, the for a bike.

Uh I'm glad to see that there is education in the program itself, because so many other programs you hear me come here and say we need more education, so glad to see that.

Uh are there any uh police concerns about you know the the e-bikes uh because I hear a lot of things in the news.

Um past behavior of uh bike rental programs, that I've seen bikes left off in the middle of a bridge or in the middle of the posey tube walkway.

Um people are encouraged or they're supposed to dock these things at the dock stations, but you know, they want to stop off at the stores.

So are they gonna park their bike to that uh rental bike temporarily at a bike stall, or is it gonna be in a parking space stopping a vehicle from parking?

Um, you know, it's it's the past behavior that I've uh that uh gets me concerned about.

Um of course you know that there's a truck that goes around at night that has to service these uh bikes and uh you know that uh now they'll have to maybe recharge the batteries of things uh you know so that there's extra duties for those the trucks that have to go around and service uh these uh rental bike type of things.

But I as a bicyclist uh find that 15 miles per hour is very fast for the existing bike lanes because I only go at about 11 miles an hour and I see things people just zooming right past me, and the bike lanes are not as wide as you'd want when things go zooming past you.

Of course, there are the expert bicyclists anyway that go by at 20 miles an hour, but to see more of these you know vehicles going past, and I'm not sure that they'll be educated people because there's no you know requirement for a license to have to ride these bikes so that I don't know how well the the they understand the bike laws and stuff.

Um and of course the at 15 miles an hour it is kind of too slow for riding in the city streets, so they're gonna more or less ride more often in the bike lanes.

So I'm concerned for me using the bike lanes to see the see more of them zooming past me.

Thank you.

Mr.

Struel at 11 miles an hour, you are faster than me on a bike, I can tell you right now.

Any additional public comments?

Yes.

Uh on uh on Zoom we have Ars Hoti.

Honorable Commission Arching Hofi, General Manager of the Alameda TMA.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak again.

Um I just wanted to bring to your attention that the Alameda TMA did submit a letter of support that made the uh last week's or sorry, two weeks ago's uh city council agenda, as well as a letter from a loose coalition of hospitality businesses on the west end, um Alameda Point in particular.

And uh I guess my final thing I would say is uh the proposed expenditure for this program is uh really overshadowed by the amount of public good we'll create.

Uh I have been I'm I sit on the other side of this table for my home city, the city of Berkeley, and I will say that um through my commission work, I have seen um bike share and other modes of share, ride share um uh increase our intermodality, and that's sort of the seamless experience that I think transportation in the Bay Area should be going for.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time, yes.

Thank you for your comments.

Any additional public comments?

There are no more public speakers.

See no additional public comments.

Let's move to Commissioner questions and comments.

Commissioner Dare Abrams, you gave her a cough drop.

You were very helpful.

Please go first, I insist.

Two in a row.

Um this is great.

This is great.

I um it is okay.

Just I'm just just to use the term seamlessness, the experience of like I think we either have probably heard second hand or maybe even seen folks who you know they want to try the water shuttle, or they want to take a ferry ride here.

They get to Alameda, and then they're like, oh, wait, hmm.

Oh, here I am.

Um and having a regional docked bike share right there, it adds another option.

Um, this looks like the perfect um uh mix to the complement of um the regional ferry, the water shuttle, um, and really helpful for those local businesses.

Um I did want to fly.

Oh, if I may, I, Mr.

Straylo, I had one of the same questions you had.

Um I checked, and you have to be 18 to ride.

If maybe staff could confirm what I you can just nod, CZ if you want.

Yeah, that's correct.

You have to be 18.

Because I was I was wondering from the perspective of if the uh if they had different ages for the um the e-bikes versus unpowered, and I guess it's 18 for all, which for better or worse also gets at the helmet concern because state law is helmets are optional.

Is that okay?

Sorry, go ahead.

Yeah, technically e-bikes are legal for use at 16, but the bay wheel system is limited at 18.

So adults are legally not required to wear helmets.

We of course encourage it, it's part of the education programs.

Uh, but that's at the user's discretion.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that's a little in the broad scheme of things, it's a little unfortunate that a 16-year-old can drive their parents' SUV, but they can't rent a Bay Wheels bike.

But I understand that's beyond the purposes of this contract.

So um, oh, and also just if Susie, just to if you could confirm, these are class one bikes that are pedal assist, right?

Like to get up to that 15 miles per hour takes a choice, right?

Yeah, and a class one e-bike technically can go to 20, and these are limited lower at 15.

So it's a pretty moderate speed.

The e-bikes are also single speed, like they don't have gears, which I don't know.

It just it they don't accelerate quite like they do accelerate well if you're in traffic and stuff, but it's not like super fast.

It's not a class one and it doesn't have a throttle.

It's it's not even as fast as a class one or a class three, and it doesn't have a throttle.

Okay.

Um yeah, so the the only other um comment I I bet others will have thoughts on too.

I like to one of the email public commenters really just kind of brought up the question of you know what should be the catchment area, and I think you know, the chair was getting at that too.

Like, it seems like a lot of the success of the program is going to rely on hitting enough hot spots, and I don't know, it eight is gonna be a challenge there, but um so um I don't know.

I'm curious to hear what other people want to ask on that regard, and what commissioner Kim.

Uh yeah, I kind of had similar thoughts.

Um, I kind of agree with everything, Commissioner Derry, everyone's saying this is fantastic.

Um I think the hardest part is gonna be limiting it to eight sites and figuring out those eight sites.

Um I would recommend uh in the contract or whatever we have with Lyft slash baby wheels, like if um provisions to move a site if needed.

Um, right, like for example, if one of the sites just gets a lot less ridership than we expect.

Can we move it to a different site?

Um, I think other agencies have done things like that.

Um the other thing, um, I don't know if this is a question or a comment, but uh the you kind of alluded to that the whole point of this program is to support the access project, right?

And so it ha the three ferry terminals have to be included.

But and what we're trying to do is connect people to those ferry terminals, but at the same time, the beauty of like kind of bike share is to use it for to do your errands and different things on the island.

So it's kind of like weighing those two things is gonna be very difficult, and I don't know how that's gonna work because like if I'll say like if you weren't limited to having to serve the ferry terminals, like I don't even know if they would make the top eight sites in just like a typical kind of process, right?

So I am just kind of like curious how this is gonna work.

Um I love the fact that you've already thought about the potential for this to expand not just the east end, but probably more sites on the west end as well.

Um, would be curious to know like uh is that after the three-year period, is that during the three-year period?

You know, just kind of curious like what if this is super successful, what the timeline for expansion is, or um yeah, so the timeline on I just on on your comment on the space, this locations and spacing.

Totally agree, it's definitely gonna be a challenge uh because in order to have the system work super well for just all kinds of local trips, the density needs to be pretty high, and so uh the pilot is really focused on the first and last mile.

So we're gonna be really focused on kind of figuring out which employers and businesses and destinations have the highest likelihood of really just having commuters who need it to get on and off the island.

It's a little bit different from a traditional bike share system establishment.

Uh, but I think that be because this is kind of a a leverage moment and kind of getting the this here in the first place.

Uh we don't have a specific timeline on a citywide expansion.

There have been some discussions with uh MTC and the Alameda and Alameda CTC about potentially providing like one more station near Fruitvale because it would sort of technically be within the radius of Oakland's system.

There's some kind of maybe technicalities there that we can use to get one on our side uh without it being its own area, but uh beyond that, I think we would like to start thinking about what's our plan for funding relatively soon.

Uh but we're focused right now on just getting this pilot launched, and I don't think we necessarily need to wait until the end of the pilot to expand, but we do need enough time to get our ducks in the roll on the funding and outreach.

So uh don't have a specific timeline right now, but we we do plan to begin discussing it and and making a bit of a plan relatively soon.

Yeah.

Could I ask a follow-up question of that?

I I thought I heard or I understood because this is essentially launching a new area, we are paying a bit of a premium on this.

Did I understand that comment?

Uh the c the cost is not different from other places, but the fact that we're paying for it locally is different.

Like when the when the MTC system launched like long time ago now, almost 10 years ago, they that was kind of a regional thing, and MTC was leading it, and cities have not traditionally funded expansions themselves.

So that that's a new thing.

Um and so that would be a regional, that would be a local and regional discussion to identify funding if we were to expand the party line from the region.

Has been that there's not funding right now, but there might be in the future.

So I I don't know if there's other kind of if Lisa wants to weigh in on the funding aspect but yeah I just to your good comments wanted to clarify that we are paying a um matching fund but we are looking at getting funding from Alameda CTC which is different than MTC yes um for this program yeah yeah Alameda CTC funding I'm considering local in the sense that it's our county as opposed to the regional funds.

That's helpful thank you.

Yeah.

Additional Commission Susan Ther sorry vice chair Susan Tera.

Thank you Susie for the presentation.

This is uh you know having a companion um project um to facilitate the moment when the construction is going on is an amazing idea and uh and uh there are so many benefits I see and then people have talked about and I agree with the you know second the commissioners both uh both of them in terms of how exciting this is and uh various uses um uh that um the residents will also see I know it's kind of focused on businesses helping businesses here um the one question I'm not still clear is that um how is it really addressing the the commute effectively right you know so can you can you explain on that the people coming people normally coming through the tube what will they do because this is this is a companion project I can see it's like okay there is a con huge construction and then it's going to be um um you know closed for certain time and also you know partially open for certain time so it's uh um and there is a huge impact and so at least this can alleviate some of the pressure at the same time this is a great um asset actually temporarily um but still the main issue is the commuters you know it's like especially coming to the businesses so how how is that being addressed because fruitville is part you yourself said and then you there is a potential in between location you're trying we mean MTCA CTC might help with or we don't know.

So can you explain on that?

Yeah I think so for the commuters it would be for people for whom it works right so uh we heard a public commenter earlier who works some somewhere along the waterfront area kind of near that area and you know though he mentioned that he has colleagues who come from San Francisco on the ferry um but don't know how to who would come to on the ferry but don't know how to get to their office and so uh we do plan to have a station somewhere around that marina village area or uh you know bohole circle so somebody could could ride to seaplane on the ferry and then take a bike share to the commercial areas if that's their commute or if somebody lives in Oakland within walking distance of the water shuttle and they work somewhere at Alameda Point they could do a bike share from the water shuttle to Alameda Point or if they had a bike share membership they could do bike share on both ends of the water shuttle trip.

So yeah that's kind of the idea is that there would be a mixture of modes of access as we say to the ferry and water shuttle but that it would provide that gap closure for or the Webster Street district if there's people who are working at a restaurant there and they they can get to Jack London on 12 bus maybe in Oakland but the the bus service from the whole circle is a little bit too difficult for them they could have a bike share something like that.

Yeah, Rochel has a has a use case.

Well, yes, just kind of a bridge to our last item, which is um for the so there are folks living in Alameda Landing who you know the sh the the ferries leave from seaplane lagoon during the week to commute and that you might have noticed was one of the goals is like they want a shuttle to get from Alameda Landing to the seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal.

Obviously, they if they had a bike and they were comfortable, they could be biking now, but this would just be it's not a shuttle, but it would be an option for because there would be bikes there because of the water shuttle stop there in that area.

So those people could take a bike and then park it at the so people could also be using it that way to leave Alameda, like they want to get to the ferry terminals.

They either have a maybe they have a really large cargo bike that you know costs eight thousand dollars and they don't want to park it at the ferry terminal, and they don't need it on the other end, so they're just want to bike so they can just get to the ferry terminal.

But it also is a way for I think residents to um commute out as well, or they need to get to the water shuttle, and then it's like get 20 or 15-minute walk, but if they could hop on the on a bike, then it would only be five minutes.

So I think it does work both ways for commuting.

So it's so it's basically going to address um the trips that are made by transit, um, and uh you know, mostly water waste, and also of course, you know, if they if you can get to the bus, um you can get to Jack London and then connect.

Okay, so I I'm I was also thinking about okay, people who commute by cars.

You know, it's like is there any option for them to right now the so those people in Alameda Landing could be driving right to the ferry terminal and then they're taking up a parking space and um and it's a car trip on the road, right?

So people who are driving to the ferry terminal will be doing that.

People who are coming from San Francisco to come to a job here might drive because they could take the terminal the ferry the ferry, but then it's a 30-minute walk, right, to their employers.

So they're just not gonna do that.

They'd rather just drive.

And you know, parking is pretty cheap in Alameda.

The reverse is not true, but it's pretty cheap here, so they might just do that.

So I think that it's um it's filling that like last mile or first mile gap and could be used in conjunction with transit that crosses the water and crosses the estuary.

Yeah, okay.

Great project.

Can I just add one more thing?

Is just that um I guess on the topic of what it does for the driver is similar to what Commissioner Dara Abrams mentioned earlier.

Is kind of if there's a few people or a handful of people each day who during the rush hour period, if they're going to downtown Oakland, if they can take a bike share from their residence to Woodstock and then the semi-two bus to downtown Oakland instead of driving, these queues will be alleviated from those vehicles moving, and it will help the people who need to still drive.

Yeah, I'd like to add, you know, we've been talking a lot about commuters, but I also see this program as supporting our businesses.

Um, you know, the ferry only runs to Main Street on the weekends, so if we want somebody to be able to either take the SF Bay ferry or the water shuttle and then get over to Alameda Point to have a beer, um, then and hopefully just one as an adult.

Um, an hour, they would have an uh a way to get Main Street's pretty isolated, the whole circle is not right near there, so the bike share would provide a way for people to have a pretty fun outing.

Um going to uh Alameda businesses.

I realize there's no plan from what I understand ever or in the near future to ever activate seaplane on the weekends, but this just seems like an obvious yet another push towards get people used to using seaplane, especially in this perilous time when the tunnels are gonna be hard, and that's an obvious future for Alameda to get rid of this weekend cut to Oakland, which does take actually a pretty long period of time and makes it that much less convenient to get to San Francisco.

It seems very obvious that that should be the future for Alameda and one of the or for seaplane, and this is the kind of program that can actually support that even more because they can take that from a bike.

So sorry, parenthetical.

Other comments, other questions are yours.

Um Lisa Clane is at capacity for auto parking, right?

No.

Not on weekends on certain days of the week, right?

On certain days, um, I think it has improved a bit based on my going out and counting.

We're collecting some more formal data right now.

We'll find out.

But yes, we've been hearing a lot of reports of full parking lots there.

Okay.

Actually, now that I say that, I remember I'm driving some kids on a field trip there tomorrow morning.

So I'll find out.

Um, I yeah, I just wanted to underscore also um the um so I was about to when Rochelle was saying, and you know, someone's e-bike, you know, e-cargo bike.

I was about to raise my hand and say that's me until she said eight thousand dollars and mine is not worth that.

But the thing that's come up I've found so I do have uh a cargo bike.

Um when the the um the bike valet at Fruitvale said, you know, you're welcome to come one time, but this won't be an ongoing relationship.

Those are his words, because um they don't like they have size limitations and they don't want to take bikes with uh um the sidebars and kids' seats and back.

Um the same thing comes up with some folks at like if you want to ride your bike to see plane or main street and go to the ferry building.

Well, once you're in San Francisco, what are you gonna do with your bike?

And unfortunately, there isn't a bike valet at the ferry building, might actually be relevant.

But the anyway, the reason I'm sharing these stories is I have found a lot of people make their decision for the entire day's journey based on the worst leg.

And the advantage of of the on-demand bike share is it could be used for one leg, you could maybe come back another way.

You could ride somewhere, you could even go outbound from Clane and come back main street, and you haven't left your car at one of them.

So anyway, I'm just I just wanted to share some of these stories because it it having more options will unlock some journeys that people might uh not otherwise take just because they have one more option in the mix, and um but um so I'm glad to see this coming as an option, and I'll if I could just echo the point of like um I think Commissioner Kim made of like if the city can be ready to change, I don't know if the contract can support it, but to you know, literally moving stations, but learn from what's working and optimize as best.

So other questions or comments.

I have a couple very brief ones.

Um there was a public comment about bikes being left in inconvenient or annoying places being left in the tunnel.

My understanding is this program charges.

I mean, again, you're used you're charging, you're paying for per minute, and so essentially if you are one of those people that leave a bike, you are being charged for it from now to the end of time or until they pick it up, right?

When I was doing counseling a couple weeks ago, I was doing some math on this.

It's not infinite, it's like 48 hours or something, and then they'll just hit you with a big fine instead.

I bought the bike at that point.

Um, but yeah, it goes up really fast.

Like if you just look at the table with the per minute, it's like, yeah, it's so you it's you need to be cautious about like really long trips too, frankly.

But the the benefit of taking something and going crazy with it is low because it's so expensive.

Uh yeah.

Um I just it's been said a couple different ways, but I think it's really important to emphasize the point.

One of the things that is going to make this successful for commuters and honestly for the economy of the West End is actually the Oakland side of things.

And that's why I kind of was harping on the point of how many bikes are near the the ferry dock, be it um the main street one, but also you know, more specifically the water shuttle, because we can all sit here and uh look at this great future where there's a million people taking bikes, taking them in the water shuttle, and then they're out of bikes in Oakland, and that's actually a huge problem, and people will stop doing it.

And so, you know, there's the free B, which I think still exists, and there's options, but I would hope, and I realize that it's a different group and it's different money and it's different infrastructure, it's just all these different things, but like one of the things I guess I would recommend is for the city on our side to be in somewhat constant dialogue with the Oakland side and understand.

Did we are we just constantly titrating out every bike?

I'm such a scientist.

Every bike out there is that gone, like after the first hour of the morning commute away from Jack London, and if so, how do we get more of that kind of station and or at least more repositioning towards Jack London because this will be one of those like demand shocks that we always talk?

Well, hopefully, this will be one of those demand shocks where something really changes really quickly because people try this thing, and you have to have a good experience really early, and you have to keep that experience going.

You kind of like we I actually think we do a pretty good job of responding on things, but this is one of those things where we should expect a problem and probably preemptively fix it, or at least within our within our control.

I realize we don't control what Oakland or the NTC is going to do with this, but at least talk to them about it because we expect our goal is to send you a bunch of bike commuters.

So I think that would be a good thing.

You have a comment, Susie.

Tell me.

Tell me I'm wrong, which would be great.

Um, if I may just um lived at Bay Wheels has open data on their usage and which stations are, you know, where the bikes are going, and they track it themselves very closely for their rebalancing efforts, and um what you're talking about does sometimes occur.

Like when they first launched bike share, there was certain neighborhood stations that would like drain in the morning and then like BART would be slammed.

Uh, but they've done I think a pretty good job over the years of like dialing in their systems around this, and so I actually think that despite our hopes, I think that our pilot probably would not overwhelm the Jack London stations, just because it's like uh in the grand scheme, like proportionally not like that much larger than the people who just like live in Jack London, you know.

It's a lot of apartment buildings, but it's a good point, and I'll ask when we get our agreements um our term sheet happening, what they can do if that if something like that is happening.

Tell them there's money to be made with more bikes and available bikes.

Thank you.

That's a great comment.

Um, sorry, any other follow-up?

I have one more quick comment.

Um, so I was a line bike aficionado back in the day.

It was it was if I remember correctly, a little controversial in Alameda.

Um, so we've talked about like there's things that went wrong went wrong with line bike, like now we have docking, we don't have throw it in someone's front yard.

Great.

Um what else do we learn from the line bike problems?

Like, what it's great to say like docking is gonna fix the one thing people that complained about, but it's also like what else went wrong with line bike, and what else can we do better as a community and is like as a group here to make this work.

Yeah, I'll take a stab and also let Rochelle, who actually worked on that, then um, to be clear, Michelle.

I thought it was good and I liked it and we should have kept it.

I want to actually I actually I actually very much mean that by the way, but keep going.

Yeah, I I guess just at a high level the line bike pilot here or program here in Alameda happened at the time when bike share was quite new and dockless bike share was really new and companies were going a little bit hog wild, and the city of Alameda actually had like way more structure around it than many other places where the bikes just got like dropped.

Um I think that the dockless systems, even though this is not a dockless system, have really evolved in the sense that they've created all these new geofencing systems and whatnot.

Uh, and sit cities have caught up and developed permit programs that set expectations.

So I think like the learnings from line bike have kind of led us down the path of preferring to start this pilot again with a docked system.

Um, but if we do start walking down the path of interest in a dockless system again, we would want to be talking with people about what their expectations are for a system like that.

Um, and if we do start to talk about dockless scooters, we would need to incorporate all those learnings from line bike.

I don't know if you want to add anything.

Yeah, having worked on that program, there was a lot of public discussion and comment and fury, but also uh at the high level, it was also extremely popular and extremely well used in Alameda.

Um, I would say the things that uh we've learned, and that it's not just kind of what we're doing, but like that the industry has matured, right?

Um, is that the docking, you know, the a huge a huge issue was these bikes left everywhere and blocking sidewalks and blocking curb ramps and falling over, and so obviously with the docked system, you don't have that.

Um another huge complaint that we got was very young kids were taking these and riding them, and um kids that were not actually they were too young to be riding them, and then they didn't have helmets on, and there was a lot of a lot of um worry about that.

And um I think that the I don't know exactly how the app works, but you know, there's this eight age 18 limit, um, and I assume there's some sort of verification of that age.

I assume that's gotten more sophisticated, also it's not free.

And so, and asusia said it can get pricey really quickly, and you know, um, and it's not it's not super cheap, and so like there's maybe less incentive for younger people to use it and and kind of abuse it, so um, and then obviously, along with younger people using it, was this concern that they were supposed to wear helmets and they didn't have them and they weren't wearing them, so kind of keeping it at the um not having to you know have anyone who's required to wear a helmet, not allowing them to be eligible to use this, I think addresses that issue as well.

Line bike is probably the reason next door became successful.

If you think about it, but that's any any additional comments or questions, quickly please.

So, what what's the timeline we are looking at for the launch?

Um, so right now we're targeting early 2027.

We're hoping to have everything launched by about February.

Um, okay, yeah.

So we're gonna go as fast as we can, to be honest.

The Oklahoma meet access project is a bit of a moving target, they can change their schedules whenever they want.

So, you know, we are doing our best to just get this going as quickly as we can.

So we're gonna be having community outreach this summer and design happening kind of concurrently, and uh as long as we have like for the ones that we know, we will proceed with the design, and uh yeah, we we want to be moving as quickly as we can.

Okay, the the reason is you know, uh in Sinal High School, some of the seniors um, you know, maybe uh meet the age criteria, so it may be popular among them too.

So any additional comments?

With that, I'm going to close out item six B.

Uh, thank you for the good discussion.

Let's move on to final commission communic commissioner communications on transportation-related topics.

Any commissioners want their three minutes?

Um, can I?

You can, it's three minutes.

Take it away.

On transportation, but uh transportation related stories.

Yes, okay.

Thank you for the you know, for the transportation professionals here are in the city for the bike lanes because you know, I have uh my nephew is visiting me from India, and he's just on the bike everywhere, and he's telling me new new things, and then he kind of biked from Bay Farm to um the pinball museum, and then going to Seaplane Lagoon, taking the ferry, and then it's like it's amazing, it's all on the bike.

You know, he just can't wait to get on the bike every day.

So, um, thanks to all of you.

I have a comment about cars, swerve.

Um, I do want to say that the new setup on Central with all the roundabouts is extraordinarily good for cars getting from the West End to Webster.

If you have not done that yet, it is sorry, I know there's some frowns in the audience.

It's true, it's slow, but it's consistent.

There's no traffic for me, it sounds like.

But um, I actually think the city did a great job with that project and has actually dramatically improved getting to the business district on Webster from residential parts of the West End.

That is my own experience, but I actually recommend trying it because I actually like it quite a bit.

So good job for my in my opinion.

Other comments.

Talking about the roundabouts.

I mean, some education needed.

I think people are learning it.

And I have seen people struggling and then really not yielding and they didn't know what to do.

So it has to be like you know, you keep moving slowly and then kind of let the other person come in.

So it's kind of uh in the learning phase in some places, but I think we are getting there.

So it's uh yeah.

Great.

With that, I am going to call for a vote to adjourn.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Second by Commissioner Kim, all in favor of adjourning.

I.

Any nays?

Everyone have a great night.

Thank you.