Items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act, the Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may respond briefly to statements, made or questions posed, request clarification or refer the item to staff.

At this time, I will open this item up for public comment.

Do we have any members of the public wishing to comment on items not on the agenda?

We have no members of the public wanting to provide public comment not on the agenda.

Okay.

We will move on to item number three, the consent calendar, approval of the minutes from the May 15th, 2025 meeting.

Do I have a motion for the approval of the minutes from the May 15th, 2025 Commission meeting?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

The Secretary can please call roll.

Student Commissioner Kirsch.

Hi.

Commissioner Reese, absent.

Vice Chair Crowling.

Aye.

Chair Brightman.

Aye.

I think you skipped Commissioner Patch, right?

Commissioner Patch.

Aye.

I should and Commissioner Ash.

Oh, sir.

I'm sorry.

Great.

All right.

We're both on board.

Okay.

Now on to uh some of the meat of the meeting here.

Items for consideration.

A is the Treat Boulevard bicycle project.

At this time, I would like to invite staff to uh provide their presentation.

Sounds good.

So evening commissioners.

Uh my name is Brianna Byrne.

I'm an associate traffic engineer here at the city of Walnut Creek.

And presenting on the Tree Boulevard Corridor Improvements is Mo Nasser with the County.

And to help with the presentation, he has brought a consultant as well, David.

All right.

Just getting situated.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Mousser, and I'm the project engineer on this project, and I work with Contra Costa County Public Works, Transportation Engineering Division.

I hope everybody can hear me.

Well, okay.

Awesome.

So yes, today we'll be presenting the Treat Boulevard Corridor Improvements Project.

We'll start with project background.

So as you can see here, um the absence of bicycle facilities along Treat Boulevard between North Main Street and the city of Walnut Creek and Jones Road and unincorporated Contra Costa County presents barriers for access to and from the Contra Costa Center Transit Village, particularly for bicyclists and pedestrians.

To address these barriers, the Contra Costa County Department of Conservation and Development developed the I680 Treat Boulevard Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan in 2017.

And the Tree Boulevard Corridor Improvement Project really implement implements the feasibility study by constructing context appropriate class four separated bikeways along Treat Boulevard between Jones Road and North Main Street in both directions, as well as improving pedestrian refuge islands, crosswalks, traffic signal timing, and signage.

The project is on Contra Costa County's list of approved projects and is in the city's 10-year capital improvement program.

Approximately 20% of the improvements are within the city's jurisdiction, and we will start looking at these proposed improvements in the next slide.

So this is really the section of the project that is within the city's jurisdiction, and that is between North Main Street.

Um I wonder if this is a laser pointer.

Oh, perfect.

Or doesn't work.

Yeah, I guess I'll just uh do you know if we can point any anything on the oh yeah the mouse, perfect.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, so I'll use this laser pointer.

Perfect.

That's cool.

Jinx.

Um, so yes, uh, the proposed improvements shown here, you see the plan here.

Um, so with the proposed improvements based on 65% design plans, and they are superimposed on an aerial view to see how these improvements fit the aerial and the existing conditions.

Uh so as you see in both directions, we are going to construct class 4 bike lanes, which means that they are bike lanes that are separated from the travel lanes with vertical delineators, and also a tough curb XLP, which is a low profile curbing system.

And you see this in the cross section right here.

So this is section A, where the red line is drawn.

So this is looking in this direction.

So this is the westbound direction, and this is the eastbound direction.

North is looking up, westbound this way, eastbound is this way.

So we'll start maybe the best way to go over the improvements is starting with the westbound lane.

Um, yeah, in addition to the in addition to the separated bikeways, we will also be channeling channelizing the bicyclists onto a new bike crossing, as well as signalizing this right turn lane.

So eliminating free right turn lanes is a major aspect of this project because free right turn lanes are just not helpful or less safe for pedestrians and bicyclists to maneuver.

So for this free right turn lane that we see here in the picture, this is the existing condition.

We will be signalizing the right turn lane for pets and bicyclists to cross at on the red arrow, right arrow.

Also, you see here the pedestrian refuge island being modified to accommodate both bicyclists and pedestrians, as well as we see here darker colored crosswalks, meaning that these crosswalks will be improved with higher high visibility striping, as well as the bike crossings here shown in the green thermoplastic with the ladder um pavement marking.

Also, you notice that there are bike boxes here for the bicyclists traveling in the westbound direction, so bicyclists wanting to go to the southbound north main street bike lane, they can wait here for the traffic signal to go green.

So these are mainly the improvements in the westbound direction.

Also, I want to note that another element of this project is narrowing the travel lanes from 12 feet to a mix of 11 feet and 12 feet.

So a lot of studies show that narrowing down travel lanes also slow down vehicle or drivers, and that is a major problem on Tree Boulevard that is the higher speeds.

So with narrowing down travel lanes, adding these vertical delineators will create some visual barriers for drivers, so in hopes that they will be driving slower.

As for the eastbound direction, as you see also, there is going to be a separate bikeway with a vertical delineator, a mix of also 11 foot and 12 foot wide bike lanes, until we get to this intersection, which is the Buskirk Avenue and I-680 off ramp.

So I will highlight this here first and then I'll move to the next slide.

So here we are closing the free right turn lane coming from the I-680 off-ramp, the northbound, and replacing it with two dedicated right turn lanes, one through lane and one left turn lane.

And David in a little bit will be discussing the traffic operations analysis and what how this will impact uh traffic, especially the concern is the I680 northbound main line.

So the closure of right turn lanes will be very helpful for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross in a more safe manner.

I'll talk about this corner in the next slide.

Sorry.

And this is also a 3D rendition of how this street section looks like in 3D.

So this is just before turning right onto the north main street, the northbound North Main Street.

You see the separated bikeways in both directions.

And this is the right turn lane that is signalized.

And yeah, the through lane, the two left turn lanes, and also the separated bikeway on the uh the eastbound side.

This is the second segment of the project.

So this is between Buskirk Avenue and Oak Road.

Also, we'll start with the westbound direction.

Here there are some distinctions from the previous slide, where you'll notice that here there is a bike lane that is going around the BART column.

If you're familiar with this area, of course.

So yeah, this will provide a more protected class four bike lane around the BART column and before rejoining the class 4 bike lane in the westbound direction and channelizing bicyclists onto the pedestrian refuge island at this corner.

And yeah, here we are modifying this free ride turn.

We are removing it, and we are closing it with this nicely designed uh pedestrian refuge island, which will also incorporate a new crosswalk, a bike crossing, and also a modified curb ramp.

Then bicyclists will be able to continue on to the bike lane, the westbound bike lane that I showed earlier.

Another distinction here on along the westbound lane is that we will be closing this slip lane that is shown here at the right corner, upper corner.

Um so yeah, this uh slip lane will be converted to a dedicated bike lane that will later on be converted to a shared use path for pedestrians and bicyclists to use.

And yeah, this shared use path will continue and connect to what is now the sidewalk that is 10 foot wide, so all of this will turn into a shared use path.

The goal of this, again, we are implementing that 2017 feasibility study, and this is more for the casual bicyclists who want to stay within the Contra Costa Center.

So this is the westbound lane, and as for the eastbound lane, the vehicular lane that goes around the bark column on this side will be converted to a bike lane, dedicated bike lane, and then over here there will be a like two left turn lanes, two through lanes, and one through right.

And also bike boxes are incorporated into the oak road intersection in both directions.

And this is also a road section in 3D just before the intersection with Oak Road, or sorry, with the Buskirk Avenue.

So here we see the separated bikeway, the class four, the vertical delineators, the travel lanes, same on the eastbound side.

What this 3D does not capture is the off-street shared use path because we're quite limited with street mix, the software that creates this.

And finally, this is the Oak Road to Jones Road segment, also an incorporated Contra Costa County.

So here uh it's also different in this segment uh with the with a couple of constraints.

One of them is the parallel parking that is along the westbound lane.

So in the feasibility study, after, of course, it was vetted for a couple of years by county, city, and Caltrans.

Um, there was a demand to keep this parallel parking.

So we were quite restricted with what we can do curb to curb.

So as a result, it's going to be a class two bike lane here, just in this segment, as shown here.

So this cross section shows the parking lane, the right turn lane, the bike lane, the travel lanes, the turn lanes, and the westbound direction.

Um, as for the eastbound direction, here we are also incorporating class four separated from travel lanes with vertical delineators, and also finally closing the free right turn onto Jones Road, also shown here in a picture.

This is the existing condition.

So we are closing this free ride turn lane for again, safe, more safe, and uh crossing movement for both bicyclists and pedestrians.

And finally, this bike box for those who want to turn left onto northbound Jones Road.

And this is also a 3D rendition just before turning right onto Oak Road or just east of Oak Road intersection, where this is shown.

This is the class two bike lane, uh parking lane, and the separated bikeway in the eastbound direction.

And now we want, I want to uh talk about collision profiles.

So Contra Costa County developed Vision Zero.

It's a plan that aims to eliminate fatal collisions and collisions with high severity.

So that's KSI.

So there are a few uh collision profiles in Vision Zero.

So the three collision profiles that this project addresses are collision profile number five, and that is collisions at signalized intersections of major five-plus lanes.

And I have the countermeasures in the vision zero that apply to this project, and they are reconfiguring or removing the slip lanes, uh permissive turns to be protected, and that is at the north main street intersection that I just described, and signal timing improvements because we are improving the signal timing for all intersections to incorporate and accommodate all movements, both vehicular and pedestrian and bicyclists.

The second profile that this project addresses is collision profile number seven, and that is bicycle-involved broadside collisions at urban intersections.

And this project implements uh prohibiting write turns on red, bike box, bike boxes, two-stage turn queue bike boxes, green bike lane conflict zone markings, and protected facility on intersection approaches.

And finally, collision profile number 10, pedestrian involved collisions at signalized urban intersections, and the countermeasures that apply to this project or that that this project implements are installing high visibility crosswalks, curb extensions, leading pedestrian intervals, reconfiguring or removing slip lanes, and finally pedestrian refuge islands.

And this is the one the city of Walnut Creek's local roadway safety plan, a path to vision zero.

Also, the city has a vision zero plan, of course.

And the North Main Street, Geary Road Street Boulevard intersection, has the second highest number of injury and fatal collisions within the city of Walnut Creek.

Actually, similarly, I have also a table with me that has also the intersections at Buskirk, Oak Road, and Jones Road, ranking at numbers two, four, and seven at in the county too.

So also these intersections rank high in the high collision list at in the county.

The city-specific collision trends that are representative of the project corridor include profile two large intersections with slip lanes, profile three, speeding along large roadways, and profile nine bicycles along wide roadways.

For the next two slides, I have David Mahama with me from DKS.

He's the traffic engineer on this project or in the traffic engineering team.

So David, would you please?

Thank you, Mo.

So DKS has been involved in this project right from the beginning.

So I'm happy that we were I'm happy that we had the chance to continue with the project.

But I must say that the plan that we have right now is a significant improvement about the preferred alternatives that was looked at.

And the plan that we have, as Mo has said, uh has a lot of uh safety features incorporated in the plan.

So what we did was uh to analyze the preferred alternative that we were looking at before and the refined plan that uh Mo has showed you.

So we'll be looking at some numbers here.

So what we did was um we use the synchro software to do the level of service analysis, which looks at the performance of the intersections themselves, and then also use a same traffic tool to analyze uh queuing at speci uh you know, interest movements of interest, which I'm gonna point out to you.

So if you look at this table here, we have the level of service analysis results.

Uh, the no-build um we used a 2020 2040 horizon volumes uh to do the analysis, so that's what we we did.

So, as you can see, we have the no-build uh scenario that is.

That is if you don't do the project, what would the level of service look like?

And then if you do the project, what would it look like?

So as you can see, there'll be some, you know, marginal deterioration of level of service, and of course, you're improving the facility, making it safe for bicyclists and pedestrians.

So there will be some trade-offs, but these are not significant um you know trade-offs that we need to make with the safety uh and you know, providing the pet and bike facility that this project will offer.

So next, so the next one is um a direct comparison of the uh preferred alternate the alternate what we call the preferred alternatives and what we are looking at now.

So what we're looking at now is what we say we have mitigation measures.

Um as you can see, without the uh mitigation measures, uh looking at, for example, the treat boulevard and I-680 uh basket uh intersection, we're going to have queuing on the northbound approach for like 1240 feet, but you know, the length of the ramp itself is about 1000 feet.

So that would uh, you know, bring traffic to the freeway, which Caltrans doesn't want to see.

So we had to come up with measures to address this specific issue.

And what we did was um we recommended eliminating the um east crosswalk because with the reconfiguration of the lanes, you now have a double right-hand lane, which would help with the operation of uh the ramps, particularly during the AM peak.

So eliminating that crosswalk, yes, there's gonna be a trade-off, but we looked at the volume of pedestrians, right, that are using that particular crosswalk is very uh minimal.

And then you also have the oak road um crossing, which is about 640 feet away from that.

So we we think that would provide um an alternative for people who would otherwise have used the crosswalk at the ramp.

So eliminating that crosswalk provided some opportunities, so that uh helped reduce the queuing from 1240 to 529, which will be contained in the ramp.

So that addressed our uh Caltrans concern.

And then um, if you look at the treat boulevard and the Gary Road, for example, uh, with the Westbound right as it is today, it's a free ride.

There is no queuing, right?

But we want to make it safe for pedestrians, we want to make it safe for pedestrians and also for uh bicyclists.

So putting the bike lane on the right side of the right-hand lane and then signalizing the right-hand approach is a trade-off, but then we're gonna have some safety right there.

So with that, the queuing will increase for that right turn traffic to about 29 feet, which is about less than two vehicles.

But I might add that um with the signalization, what we're going to do is we would have the right 10 go on red when there's no pedestrians, but when there's when the pedestrian or cyclist push the button, then we have a no right turn on uh blank out sign that's gonna come on to prevent the to one motorist not to make that right hand.

So that's the feature that you're going to have over there.

So we think it's a win-win situation in that front.

And then um, let's look at which other intersection uh treat and oak road, right?

So we have a doing the PM peak, we have a relatively heavy right-hand uh southbound right hand.

But even with the recommended improvements and optimizing the signal, we will be able to uh improve the queuing from reduce the queue length from two hundred and one to one ninety-four.

So that's about it.

Uh at Jones in particular, we're going to have a reduction at deterioration in the level of service.

This is because that intersection is a split operation for north and south.

So that's a trade-off that we would have to live with.

Uh you if you look at the numbers closely, you will see that there's probably some slight increase in the level of service at the intersections, but this is due to the fact that when we optimize the corridor, we're giving priority to uh full cost priority to the um I six eighty off ramp, right?

So what what it means is that you're now pumping more traffic on um treat boulevard, right?

So that's why you're seeing the numbers on treat boulevard.

But it addresses Caltrans concern and uh it's not too bad, as I would put it.

So that's the result that we got from the project.

Thank you.

All right.

Thanks, David.

And uh yeah, final two slides are on the project status and the project funding.

Uh so the total project cost at the moment is currently estimated at six million two hundred twenty thousand dollars.

The county is funding this project with grant funding and namely the state transportation improvement program, step funds, uh, the highway safety improvement program, HCP, Central County Area of Benefit funds, and local road funds.

Uh the city's portion of the project is one point three million dollars and is expected to be funded by transportation fund for clean air grants, TFCA, traffic impact fees, TIF, and Measure J.

And finally on the project status, um sixty-five percent design plans, specifications and estimate have been completed.

And the project right now is at 95% stage, which is considered the final design stage.

The project has acquired environmental clearance, NEPA and SIQA in April 2025.

Final design specifications and estimate are expected in December 2025.

And Caltrans has been coordinating uh this project with us and they reviewed the 65% design plans.

And also we have been uh of course coordinating this project with the city's design team as well.

Uh County is currently coordinating the underground utility relocation process, which is a very lengthy process.

Um construction is currently expected to be in the fall of 2026, barring any utility location um delays.

Uh, the project is seeking additional funds due to the increased estimated construction costs.

And with this, yeah, thank you for listening and uh yeah, we're here for the questions and the comments really.

Okay, thank you very much for the presentation.

Um I'd like to open it up to the commissioners for any questions.

This is a complicated project, so I'm sure there are some.

Absolutely.

Um we'll we'll start at the end.

Student commissioner, if you have any any questions.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation.

Uh, I was just wondering if you could explain the difference between the different classes of bike lanes.

Um is is it just referring to the size or um yeah?

Absolutely.

So yes, uh the classes of the bike lanes here and this project uh are class one, which is a completely like the off-street path that is not related to or it's on a different level to the travel lanes.

So um we'll you see them here.

Um so this one, for example, is considered off street path.

So this one is a class one, so completely separated from traffic, right?

Class four are considered or are called separated bikeways, and they can be separated from the travel lane at the level of the road.

Uh for this project, the separation is using the buffer lane and also vertical delineators.

Um class two is the one that we see between uh Oak Road and Jones Road.

This one is a class two just because of those geometric constraints I was talking about.

And class three are the ones that we would definitely not use on tree boulevard, and that is the shared roadway.

Like you see those tra uh bike markings on the road, uh asking cars and bicyclists to share the road.

So that would be a class three.

And then um I had another question because I was noticing that um on Main Street and then I six eighty, there would be around like a minute uh to almost two minutes of delays.

So I was wondering how that would affect um first responders or emergency services and if you had a plan for that.

Right.

So we have sent the 65% uh design plans and uh the traffic impact analysis to uh CHP and the fire district.

Also, they were part of the 2017 plan.

Um, like uh they were one of the many stakeholders involved.

Um, I believe that the choice of the vertical delineators uh part of it was their involvement as well.

Um but as far as delays, uh David, do you have any question?

Like uh the main uh thought is the trade-off idea that David was mentioning that because we are accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians, then there's a um an impact on the traffic delays.

Um, but yeah, it's it's it's a matter of prioritizing pets and bicyclists on a street that is very close to a BART station, knowing that it will have an impact on the traffic.

Uh we received um no comments from CHP and no comments from fire district, and we're still waiting for comments from the other two uh agencies.

But we we are in coordination with them, and uh if they have any concerns, they would definitely let us know.

Thank you.

And then I had uh one final question.

Uh, because you said the project required additional funding.

So I was wondering if that was included in the total cost or if that was um something extra.

That is more for like uh we are ex we are expecting that these costs may uh may uh get higher for 95% design after because of a lot of comments from Caltrans, Caltrans has been reviewing the plans.

So those modifications may cause higher costs, but at the moment we don't have a value uh in particular, so there's a probably or may increase cost further, but we will know more uh by December 2025.

Thank you.

Of course, thank you for your questions.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Ash, do you have questions?

Yeah, okay.

First, you have me curious who's number one?

What's like the worst intersection?

The priority.

Oh, for the because you said this is like two, four, and seven, I think.

So where where's number one?

Right.

So number one is Bailey Road at Canal Road, north.

So that's another in Pittsburgh, Bay Point area, right?

I believe so.

Okay.

Yes.

That's the county vision zero plan for Walnut Creek.

It's over different hotspots, yeah.

Yeah, I was just kind of curious.

Um, okay, so my next question is like there is a very nice bike trail and one of the nicest pedestrian and bike bridges right in this spot.

It's it's less than two-tenths of a mile from what we're talking about.

What am I missing?

Why aren't people taking that instead of coming right through this area?

Um unfortunately I wasn't part of the 2017 study.

Um I wonder how much that was discussed at the time.

Um, like the county received this study and we applied for a grant to uh implement what the improvements that were proposed.

Um I personally learned of this path uh further down the line, like in the design process.

I had a similar question to my team, and um it's it's about prioritizing treat boulevard or adding different modes of transportation along Treat Boulevard.

That was the um the main goal of that study.

And um here we are trying to implement it.

Um there were discussions about North Main Street also needing to be striped also because right now it's not striped that one segment that connects you to Lesnik Lane, or close to there.

So um, yes, I mean, maybe it can be uh approached like this.

Maybe it's up to the bicyclists then to choose which path they want.

Is it the faster path, the more direct path, the shorter path along Tree Boulevard, or they want the more casual experience um to just go down to that canal trail?

But yeah, I I did have a similar question to uh the planning team, and uh yeah, we're uh okay.

That's an honest answer.

I appreciate that.

Um and then I like how you and this might be for for you is um I like how you did all this analysis and you're talking to Caltrans and everything.

CCTA has about 200 million dollars in grant funds to improve this section of 680, um, with changing lanes, adding in the um the tolling lane, um, bringing in the 24 crossing and fixing a couple of these interchanges.

And there is in that plans to to adjust this interchange and North Main and what is it, monument that's next, to improve this traffic flow.

How is that incorporated into all of these?

Because that will change everything too.

Yeah, I would think that is a definite question to Caltrans.

Uh and I'm surprised that with all the teams like there are so many teams that reviewed the 65% plans.

Uh none of them actually commented about this.

Maybe they did not know about these future improvements uh or when they're going to be constructed, because sometimes the plans stay in the plan phase for however many years.

Um yeah, that is uh probably a question to ask uh for us to ask Caltrans about the future improvements on I 680 and how they would tie into this project.

Yeah, please, because um, yeah, that is funded.

CCTA does have the 200 million from the feds.

It's definitely here.

So 200 billion you said, or um sorry, okay.

I'll save the rest for comments probably.

Did you say 200 million?

So there's 165.

Yeah, 165 million, and then a second for I want to say 62.

So what is that?

That's actually on your mic.

Oh, it's um I think there's one for 165 million and one for 60.

Do you know it is she coming in?

Hey, Smithar Boardman, City Engineer.

Sorry, I just wanted to help clarify.

So um, Jared, yes, we are aware of the uh grant that was received by CCTA for those improvements.

Um that ramp is still going to remain fundamentally the same.

The change is actually a little bit before that.

Um so I with these changes, if anything, the improvements that they're making with that funding, it would actually make this better than what was actually analyzed.

And so again, Caltrans did review the this information as well.

And they also have been privy to it's part of the Innovate 680 project, but doing that braided, it's called a braided ramp um at treat.

Awesome.

That was the answer I was looking for.

Thank you for coming up.

Thanks.

All right, that's it.

All right, Commissioner.

Um Pat.

That actually answered one of my questions.

Okay.

Um can you go to slide six, please?

Absolutely.

Yes.

Okay.

Um on this slide, you have the one through and one right turn on oak from treat?

No.

Um other the that one.

Yeah.

So one through one right.

Um just curious when you did the traffic analysis for making that a through and right and having eliminated the lane that goes around the BART pillar, whatever that is called.

Um, because there's significantly more housing now on Jones Road, um, with future plans to continue to build housing in that direction.

And so I think that right turn, like do we have an when you looked at it for 2040?

Did you anticipate an increase in right turns because of the increase in housing that direction?

Yes.

So you're talking about Oak Road itself.

Is it the right?

From eastbound right or the southbound.

Eastbound right, yeah.

Eastbound right.

Eastbound right, yeah.

Yes.

So that that was uh the 2040 model took into consideration that uh project that you're talking about.

Okay, great.

Um, sorry.

So I said um the 2040 volume, the 2040 volumes that we uh projected took into consideration that project.

Great.

Um, can you move forward to slides 10, please?

Okay.

Um, so you did say on this slide that you're you looked at some of the signalized timing.

Um did you a lot of what you displayed is the um west-east bound lanes and not north-south.

Are you looking at the signalized timing for those especially left turns on to treat boulevard?

So, what we try to do is um given the um uh you know the roadway that we have, right?

We we were trying to get the best operating condition that we can have.

So, what we try to do was to optimize the intersection.

So, this reports shows the optimized operating conditions that serves all movements, okay, pretty much.

That's what we try to do.

Okay.

Um, sorry, and can you go back to slide?

I think it's six again, might be slide seven, six.

Okay, I I just have a lot of concerns about this treat oak uh intersection.

So I have more questions about it.

Sorry.

Um because to your point, um, while oak or treat and Jones intersects elsewhere, a lot of traffic uses this oak to Jones to get to where those the housing on Jones is.

Um so on this particular intersection on oak to treat from the northbound turning on to left on to treat, right?

That's also where you have people turning right from oak on to treat, so then go up to the buskirk, is that how you say that name?

Yeah, that which is leads to an on-ramp to 680.

So there's consistently issues with traffic with people trying to get over as far as they need to, um, and those people turning left from oak on to treat frequently are still turning while pedestrians are crossing the crosswalk.

Um, and since that is coming from BART to where housing is, I'm did you do a specific analysis on the impact on that particular danger?

So what which crosswalk are you looking at?

So the treat boulevard at the oak intersection that's going north-south.

Those making the right and then the pedestrians also crossing right, yes.

So people from Oak turning left on to treat where pedestrians are walking across treatment along oak.

So it's not okay.

So you talk about the northbound left line, right?

Yes, northbound left hand from oak.

Yes to go west, right?

Yeah.

And then the pedestrians using that crosswalk.

So that is the thing is that left hand is a protected left, right?

Correct.

They can technically go with the pedestrian crossing.

So the pedestrian crossing goes with the true movement.

So those going left, um once the left-hand signal comes on, nobody can cross.

So, right.

I guess my question is when you did an analysis of like the timing and the delays and such for that.

Because that's a protected left lane, but it's short right now, people make the left, they run a red light or really run a yellow light light frequently, right?

And if you are stopping the slip lane at treat in Buskirk, the delay, like the line of that as people shuffle to try and make that turn for the on-ramp, I suspect there'll be even less people for that left lane.

So was there an analysis done just on like traffic pattern there?

Yeah, so I'm glad you asked these questions.

So what we did was uh when we are optimizing signals, we look at um every movement, right?

And then we also look at the approach.

So this level of service results that we provide we presented to you was just for the overall intersection.

But um if you look at our model, or the if you look at the report itself, the report gives you or the measures for every movement.

Perfect.

So what we try to do is um side by side, we try to see okay, this is the existing condition.

We want to provide enough time so that we don't get complaints from other people, right?

So we provide uh enough time within the cycle length to meet the needs of all the movements.

So those are part of the decision making in selecting the cycle length for the corridor because we have to select appropriate uh timing for all the movements that you're talking about.

Okay, thank you.

That's that's what I was looking to confirm.

Um okay, on slide 13.

Um, you here, what is ramp gore mean?

What is what?

Ramp gore.

You have it in the sentence.

I don't know what that means.

It's where that uh oh, yeah, go ahead.

So it's kind of like um how would I without a drawing.

If I can you get to the area, oh I don't oh yes, the area, yes, like uh oh, so it's not shown here.

It's not shown, yeah.

But it's where the the trucks uh decide to go to and uh straight to the truck scales, so that would be the gourd.

Gotcha.

Right, okay.

Um because I know right now when people use the slip lane and they stop instead of continuing to go the traffic.

Um so cool.

And um, then on all of these that you're eliminating the slip lane for, are you planning on there being no right on red?

Or are cars still gonna be able to make those right turns on red?

Yeah, so they would be able to make the right ends on red, but then we're also going to put uh there's a design feature where when the bicycle uh and the bicyclist is detected in the eastbound direction, the no right hand on red sign will come on.

So if there's no bicyclist, people can make a right turn on red.

So that helps with the operation of the ramp.

And is that for all three slip lanes that you're removing, or just the one shown on this slide?

So it will be I think two the two locations.

That would be the northbound ramp and then the um one, the westbound right at north main.

So those are the two places that I know.

Great.

Okay, and then on the two charts that you had, you had letters that were like F through something.

Are those letter grades?

Or because F seems to be failing failing, and you said F or better.

Yeah, well, confused by that.

It's a ranking from A, B, C D to F.

Okay, right.

So F is the West operating condition.

But you can see, right?

Even with the no-build condition, it's already there.

So it's not lowering the grades, it's just keep maintaining.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, vice chair.

All right, thanks.

Can we go back to maybe the earliest diagram?

Kind of showed the whole scale.

This one.

Okay, so I'm just gonna preface my questions with lower right hand corner is where I've worked for 10 years.

The off-ramp.

Uh yeah, right.

I've worked at the off-ramp.

No, the Pacific Plaza building in there.

Uh kind of.

Sorry, my question was.

So it still works on the off-rap.

Over there.

Treat and oak.

And upper left-hand corner, of course, past North Main and our North Main.

Restaurants, shopping.

So over the last 10 years, I've become, I will say, an expert user of this stretch of road, both as a driver and a pedestrian.

So that's why I may have a lot more questions or comments.

So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna skip my comments.

I I delineated them because sometimes I get in trouble going into the comments.

So can you show which I thought some crosswalks were getting eliminated?

Can you show those, please?

Yes, it's this crosswalk right here.

Uh the north or the south-north uh crosswalk.

Okay.

Um, and that's the one that you felt wasn't a lot of demand for.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Yeah.

Uh that one I would say as a pedestrian was always super dangerous because of the slip lane that was really kind of taking your life into your own hands.

So that may not be bad, because generally I hate to see crosswalks go away.

Um, go to this page here.

Um, is there a reason why we never had or can't have especially on the bridge that goes over the freeway eastbound pedestrian walkway?

Is that completely unfeasible?

Um uh with feasibility, um or our assessment of feasibility here is just what the feasibility study explored, and the south or the sidewalk on the south side of the bridge was not one of the elements that were discussed.

And yeah, so because it will also require the widening of the bridge, of course, and that comes with the crazy expenses.

And we actually have a uh good document that documents um that what would be that value of money that would require the widening of the bridge, along with, of course, schedule issues with Caltrans and more coordination.

Okay, yeah, it seems like a lost opportunity because that I think that's a sorely missing pedestrian link.

So we'll we're gonna let bicyclists go down that side of the bridge and be protected, but we're basically still gonna ban pedestrians from going down that side of the bridge.

So it depends on where you're walking, it's a big inconvenience factor to pedestrians to have to go up to the other side of the bridge and over and wait for all those signals to cross.

Yes, I understand.

Um, your very first 3D uh picture might be okay.

Is that missing a lane on the right-hand side there?

Because there should be three there, right?

And the eastbound?

Uh so sorry.

So, and the eastbound here, uh it's showing.

Yeah, it's 11 and 12.

So there are two lanes here.

And the third lane, I believe, is what's being converted to this bike lane and the buffer.

Okay, so we're we're taking a lane of traffic away between North Main all the way through to the bridge to Oak Grove.

Yes, I believe so.

And then are we also taking that lane?

So once you cross the 680 off-ramp, bus kirk intersection.

Are we also getting rid of a lane for the bike lane, the traffic lane?

So um going back to the question about the lane removal.

So eastbound, we're not removing any lanes.

We can actually fit in those two through lanes with just by um two through lanes, the buffer and the bike lane by doing lane narrowing.

So there's no lanes removed there in the westbound direction, though.

We are losing one of the through lanes, but if you think kind of near that sprout shopping center, the the lane drops anyway.

So from like a capacity stance, we're just kind of dropping that lane a little bit earlier in the westbound direction.

Okay, so we're not losing anything eastbound.

Correct.

In this view right here at the intersection.

Okay.

A little further down, we're losing one.

Right after the off ramp.

Okay, so off the off ramp and all the way down.

So once you cross Oak Road, there is sort of a right turn only lane that goes all the way up to Jones, right?

Is that going away?

The one that goes around the BART column.

No, I'm talking eastbound.

Yeah, eastbound.

Yeah, sorry.

Uh so the one that um the eastbound direction.

So this lane right here uh goes around the BART column as well.

Uh so yeah, this lane is being replaced by a b the the bike lane.

How about when you're so if you're on Oak Grove, northbound, Oak Road, sorry, and you turn right on to treat.

Recurrently right now, there's the traffic lanes and then there's like a right turn only lane that goes all the way up to Jones.

Is that going away?

Right, yes.

I hear uh this uh right free right turn is also being closed as part of this project, so yes.

Uh the answer is a yes to the elimination of this.

That entire lane is going away.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

Um then the 680, so we'll have signals now.

So you take the 680 northbound, you come off.

Right now you have the free slip, which by the way, people slam on their brakes there when there's traffic because they want to go all the way over to BART.

So it's a it's really dangerous sometimes the way it's configured right now.

Um so there'll be signals there.

So if people have a green light, they can kind of emulate the slip, but otherwise they'll have a those two lanes that turn right from the off ramp onto treet eastbound, they would have red lights, and then when bikes are detected or someone's pushing the pedestrian button, the no right turn or red light will come on.

Correct.

So then my next question related to that and any of the signal improvements we're doing in this whole section, will those pedestrian buttons take priority over the signal timing?

So in other words, traffic's kind of flowing, you got I'll just say 200 cars coming along during commute hour and one bicyclist pushed the button, and all of a sudden, you know, 100 cars have to stop for that one bike, or because I've seen in various places in the city, whether it's for cars or pedestrians, you can be going down a thoroughfare, and just one car will make everyone else stop with no weight for that one car.

Is that is that what we're gonna see with these pedestrian buttons, bicycle buttons?

So even though these are county intersections, um the city actually maintains them uh from the signal timing perspective.

So operation wise, it's similar to Ignesio Valley where it's it's about um like getting that green wave of vehicles to your point, the 200 plus vehicles going through.

It's about getting them through in the green wave and then accommodating the pedestrians, the side streets, the left turns around that that major that peak direction.

Okay, that's good.

Cause I was gonna tie that into sustainability when we give priority to like one pedestrian, one bicycle, one car, and we get 200 cars idling.

I like to call it idling smog we're generating, which doesn't sound very sustainable.

So, okay, I think those are all my questions, thank you.

All right, it's nice being chair because everyone asks such great questions.

Helps me.

Um I I would like some clarity.

Um what path are you referring to, Commissioner Ash, that already exists, and you're free to answer that to us.

But clarity on that.

Yeah, just um if you drive down tree, there is the pedestrian bike bridge.

Yeah.

That connects into both the that's part of the iron horse trail.

Right, okay.

And then it connects just at the bottom of that, like sort of if you look at the map past Jones Road there, it connects in a tenth of a mile to the canal trail, which goes from all the way down to Lime Ridge, under Oak, under all of those things.

I I just wanted to clarify that that was what you're talking about.

Thank you.

Um, are there um plans for um any beautification around this or are are the bike paths going to be painted?

I'm just wondering um, you know, how clear some of this is going to be, and I think that some beautification efforts might help.

Um, so I'm curious if that's part of it.

So the green thermoplastic that we see sometimes uh in the slides are only placed at conflict points where we expect any kind of merging uh between vehicles and bicyclists, or at bike crossings.

But to have this like continuous green uh thermoplastic stripe, uh it proved to be tough on maintenance uh over time and it just wears off.

So these pavement markings are only at the conflict points, other than that there are the vertical delineators that will visually like be like visual barriers of course to drivers and just delineates that those bike lanes.

But other than that, beautification uh I think we were we're thinking more on the practical side and the safety side more than the beauty, but uh yeah, I wonder how or what efforts can be made on that front.

Okay.

Um and then as far as the lane losses are considered, um for instance the the one approaching Main Street, um, are there plans to have early notice down the block for for people so that they can plan where they're going to turn and avoid chaos and switching lanes and that kind of a thing with you know, people are creatures of habit and they're gonna want to do what they've always done forever on their commutes.

Um are there plans to um make sure that that's identified early in the block?

Yeah, yeah, this was a major comment uh during 65%.

So this uh this will be part of the signage refinement as part of the final design for sure.

Like yeah, as you said, people are used to a certain pattern, then things change, then they should be aware of it before approaching the the new configuration.

Okay, great, thank you.

Of course.

Um and this is 95% planned at this point.

Uh this one is sixty-five.

Oh, this whole project?

Uh right now, yeah, 65% was completed, 95% will be completed at in December.

In December, okay, got it.

Um, so it's pretty far along.

Um, and I I'm curious, um, you know, since this is a project that involves the county and other other groups.

I I'm curious what other review this has gone under, what other advisory bodies um you talked about working with stakeholders.

I'm curious what stakeholders you've worked with up to this point.

Yes.

Um I would say Caltrans, uh the city of Walnut Creek.

We have been in constant meetings uh with uh both um the fire district, CHP, uh uh police department.

So those uh did courtesy reviews.

Um I'm trying to think also.

Um the county connection also we sent these plans uh for courtesy review.

Yeah, go ahead, sorry, yes.

And then um, so for the county they have a similar body to Transportation Commission, which is the CB Pack, the county pedestrian, and bicycle pedestrian advisory committee.

So they've been to them as well.

Okay.

I should have answered.

I should have remembered, but I completely forgot.

Has there been any outreach to um the local businesses at this point?

Not at this point.

Uh so when we get to the implementation phase, um, like we just assume that all that outreach and feedback from the community was done at the feasibility study time.

So we just like put the designer hat on and we move forward with the project.

Um yeah.

Okay.

Great, thank you.

Um any other questions before we move on?

Yeah, Chair, I forgot a question if I may.

So in some of the traffic studies, you talked about the 2040 data.

And you know, we're here we are in 2025 data land.

Is there any, do you have any idea what the multiplier is?

So what I mean by that is is the 2040 traffic like one and a half times 2025, one and a quarter times, twice, or is it do you have any feel for that?

David, can you help please?

So um what's what the 2020 volume captures is uh what the anticipated growth would be in uh Warner Creek area, right?

So we looked at the land use projection, and that's what we use for the analysis.

But um I don't have the numbers here with me, so I don't know if it'll be genius for me to tell you a specific number, but it's definitely higher than what we had looked at because by the time we're projecting it, it was around 2014.

So from 2014 to 20 um 30, that's 2040, right?

That's uh some almost what 20 years uh horizon.

So it's definitely higher than what was then the existing condition.

That's helpful, thank you.

Yes, thank you.

All right, that's it.

All right, thank you.

Um at this point we'll open it up to um comments from the public.

Do we have any members of the public wishing to provide public comment on this item?

Looks like we do.

Uh if you're in the audience and you would like to provide comment, please fill out a speaker card and approach the lectern.

Um you'll have two minutes to provide your comment.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Don't start the comment.

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All right.

My name's Mary Lee Martinez