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.

Aye.

Commissioner Reese.

Absent.

Vice Chair Krelling.

Aye.

Chair Brightman.

Aye.

I think you skipped Commissioner Patch, right?

Commissioner Patch.

Aye.

Hi.

And Commissioner Ash.

Oh, Commissioner.

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.

That's 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.

Thank you.

Hello everybody.

My name is Mo Nasser, 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, 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 I-680 Treat Boulevard Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan in 2017.

And the Tree Boulevard Corridor Improvement Project really 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.

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.

Thanks 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 a 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.

So as you see in both directions, we are going to construct class four 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 curving 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.

Yeah, in addition to the in addition to the separated bikeways, we will also be channeling 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 ride 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 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 while 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 I-680 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.

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

And so yeah, this 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 BARC 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 it's also different in this segment, 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.

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 2 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.

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 ride turn onto Jones Road, also shown here in a picture.

This is the existing condition.

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

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, parking lane, and the separated bikeway in the eastbound direction.

Now we want I want to 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 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 finally, collision profile number 10, pedestrian involved collisions at signalized urban intersections, and the countermeasures that apply to this project or 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 uh 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, Tree 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.

Uh he's uh the traffic engineer on this project or in the traffic engineering team.

Uh 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 over 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 the 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 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 are 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 120 and 40 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 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 that right-hand approach is a trade-off, but then we're gonna have some safety right there.

So with that, the queuing would 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 is 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 motorists 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 end, 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 201 to 194.

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 full cost priority to the um I-680 off ramp, right?

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

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

But it addresses Carl Trans 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 the final two slides are on the project status and the project funding.

So the total project cost at the moment is currently estimated at $6,220,000.

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

The city's portion of the project is 1.3 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 65% 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 CEQA in April 2025.

Final design specifications and estimate are expected in December 2025.

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

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

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

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

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, um, 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 that just referring to the size or 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 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 680, there would be around like a minute 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 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're 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 costs 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 what where's number one?

Right.

So number one is Bailey Road at Canal Road north.

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

I believe so.

Okay, yes.

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

It's oh we have different hotspots.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was just kind of curious.

Um, so my 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 Street 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 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 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 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?

Cause that will change everything too.

Yeah, I 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, um, sorry, okay.

I'll save the rest for comments probably.

So 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.

Turn 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?

I suppose 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, all right, Commissioner.

Um Pat.

I 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 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 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 the rule itself.

Is it the eastbound right?

Oh, 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 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 onto 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 now?

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 which crosswalk are you looking at?

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

Those making a 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 the same left.

Okay.

So you talk about the northbound left and right, yes.

Northbound left hand from oak.

Yes.

To go west, right?

Yeah.

And then the pedestrians using that crosswalk.

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

Correct.

So they can't 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 late light frequently, right?

And if you are stopping the slip lane at treat and 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 this question.

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 reports gives you or the 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, okay, 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 straight to the truck scales, so that would be the gourd.

Okay, 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 that said 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 works on the off ramp over there.

Treat Noak.

And upper left-hand corner, of course, past North Main and on 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, 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, this page here.

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

Is that completely unfeasible?

Um uh with feasibility, um 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.

Uh 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, uh 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 lane drops anyway.

So from a 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, that 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 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.

Currently, 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.

Uh here uh this uh right free ride turn is also being closed as part of this project.

So yes, uh the answer is a yes to the elimination of this entire lane is going away.

Yep, okay, thank you.

Um and 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 on to treat 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 push 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 going to 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 igniscio valley where it's it's about um like getting that green wave of vehicles to your point, the those 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 because 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.

Uh 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 would like some clarity.

Um, what path are you referring to?

Commissioner Ash that all already exists, and you're free to answer that too.

But clarity on that.

Yeah, just um if you drive down treat, there is the pedestrian bike bridge 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 um 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 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 a 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 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 sixty five percent 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 um and this is ninety five percent planned at this point uh this one is sixty five uh 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 c courtesy reviews um I'm 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.

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.

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 the twenty twenty volume captures is uh what the anticipated growth would be in a 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 have looked at.

Because by the time we're projecting it, it was around twenty fourteen.

So from twenty fourteen 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.

I don't start the comment.

All right.

My name's Mary Lee Martinez.

I live on Cherry Lane Unincorporated.

I live in this neighborhood.

I sent the long email today.

Okay, so I went to Google Maps and I that one mile between the Geary and um uh Iron Horse Trail over to the um Geary and the Canal Trail uh over to the Iron Horse Trail is one mile.

Biking it takes five minutes.

Um I put in Geary, take the canal and take it over to the Iron Horse Trail.

That's one point four miles or eight minutes on a bicycle.

This project went from um four million dollars in twenty fourteen.

And I used to be on the MAC, the municipal advisory committee, but um Kieran Mitchell sunseted it, so this actually came to the MAC in 2014.

At that time, uh the projected cost was four million dollars, and now it's six point two, and the city's um uh projected cost has increased and it will no doubt increase again.

Um let's see here.

The uh the canal trail is missing from all of these diagrams, and that's just crazy.

That's just crazy because this is a terrific, the canal trail is terrific.

Six million dollars on that trail.

Well I mean you could add trees, brand um benches, uh water facilities, all kinds of stuff.

Um let's see, the U-turn.

Okay, so if you um people are coming out of Walgreens on treat, and they go to Maine and they make that U-turn, uh, because they want to get on six eighty southbound.

I mean that's just crazy.

And I know that they're not people aren't gonna stop and wait for bicycle to come across that 680 entrance.

I was all calm before I came here for this meeting started, but now I'm all worked up.

Um let's see here.

Um I live in the neighborhood.

This whole area is bad, even on a good day.

And um so just remember Valencia Street and the San Rafael, Richmond Bridge, they're reconfiguring or removing the bike lanes there.

So I encourage you to not consider this.

Oops.

Thank you very much.

Any other public comment?

Looks like we do have some.

Um good evening.

I'm Larry McEwan.

I'm with the Walden District Improvement Association.

We serve a population of about 10,000 residents in and to the north of Walnut Creek.

When this proposal was pitched to us seven years ago, we registered our vigorous objection to it on the basis of it was a two million dollar project then, and now of course it's six million dollars.

Six million dollars for a three-block long section of bike trails.

These bike trails are gonna be inserted into a section of treat boulevard that handles forty thousand vehicles a day.

It's interesting that a good portion of the funding is coming from the highway safety improvement program, and the and this incorporates several of the highest accident rate uh areas in in this area.

Uh our concern is is that this bike lane will end at at north main street, and there's no place to go north or south from there, to go further west, you have to go on city roads until you reach the canal trail, which again mirrors this trail.

The canal trail, two blocks south of this proposed bike path, is a dedicated pathway for pedestrians and bikes.

Uh I'm curious as to whether or not any bike groups have have pushed for this project.

And if not, I'm curious as to where the where the emphasis for this project originated.

When we held our meeting, some bike groups approached us and said they're not going to use this.

This is a terrible plan.

And we would like to echo that uh that sentiment to this group.

I appreciate the chance to address this group.

Again, we cut we contacted our supervisor seven years ago, and we have not received any feedback from Supervisor Mitchell or Carson in that term.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the city.

Thank you for being here.

Any other public comment?

Do you speak or do you speak?

Oh, thank you.

Okay, I can do that.

Hi, my name is uh Kathy McKillen McKewin.

And uh I live in the area right off of all this stuff.

We have a lot of people that have in the neighborhood that have bicycles.

Nobody thinks this is worthwhile.

Nobody needs to get from here to there and have all of this happen.

They just use the canal path.

I don't know why that hasn't been a huge thing.

I'm very curious as to what group is pushing for this, because no one that would be affected by it seems interested.

They don't even want it.

So is there I don't know if you have that who brought this up?

Who started this whole thing?

Who said we need a bike thing for that?

Who needs it?

Because everyone else around is saying, what the heck are we doing this for?

It's gonna ruin the whole area.

Anyway, that's it.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Any other public comment?

Okay, we're gonna take it to Commissioner Comments.

Um I can I'll go in the opposite direction this time.

Can I ask a clarification question to something we heard?

Do we have numbers on how many cars, how many pedestrians, and how many bikes cross through this?

I don't know if I saw that.

It's 48,000 a day, that's like the uh sorry.

Yes.

So the average daily traffic on this uh corridor is 48,000.

Um as for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Um I think I'm I'm not sure about those figures, but I believe also that if we construct bicycle improvements on this corridor, it would invite more bicyclists to use it because it will be safer than the current or the existing condition.

So maybe that count might be misleading if we have a count right now.

Okay, thank you.

In the old study, there are three bikes in the morning and three bikes in the evening rush hour.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry.

Any other comments from the commissioners?

Or comments.

I just want to ask Matt, do we need to let I think you say something about the student commissioner going first?

The student commissioner's not quite home.

Oh okay, okay.

Student commissioner, please first for your comments.

No comments.

Okay.

So you want to go this way.

Yeah, we'll go up to give you guys a break.

Okay.

You could yes, I have comments.

Yeah, I know you do.

And your notes.

You know, one one comment just for the benefit of the public.

I think, you know, and anyone from staff please chime in.

I mean, I think we're an advisory commission, so we're gonna give input and uh hopefully some of our input makes its way into the final project, but we're not we're not actually here voting whether or not this project is completed or not.

So I'm just want to say that for transparency uh to set expectations.

Um I do have mixed feelings, you know.

You know, as a pedestrian for the most part, I love the project.

As a driver and thinking about traffic, I've got some really heavy concerns about this project.

Uh so that's really really mixed feelings, but I guess I have to balance that or tip the scale, you know, our our our mission in the city is, you know, vision zero and reducing and eliminating pedestrian bicycle injuries and deaths.

That's that's what we're striving for.

So, you know, I don't know how many people will use this, but I certainly hope there's less injuries for whoever uses it.

Um, and where I one of the places I feel the most exposed, and all the times I've walked up along this corridor, is on that bridge.

I am always worried about cars going to jump off the curb and hurt me.

So I think now there's gonna be a little more buffer area for the pedestrians.

So I think that's really good.

Um we're gonna narrow lanes.

I have again, I have mixed feelings on that.

Um, I know the data shows people slow down, but I don't know.

We have some crazy drivers around here, and then I get a little nervous with narrower lanes and crazy drivers.

Um, I think again losing that slip lane from 680 to treat.

I can see both sides of that.

Um I see a lot of danger with the slip lane because the cars come off the freeway, then they slam on the brakes because they realize I would get over all three or four lanes to BART no matter what, and then they stop everybody on the freeway.

So putting these signals would probably stop that behavior, I would hope it would.

Um at least on the diagrams, the Oak Road to Jones Westbound bike lane, that looks kind of dangerous because it does not gonna have the vertical separation, right?

At least from what I saw in the growth.

Yeah, so that that one looks kind of dangerous for the cyclists, just to be honest.

Um I don't know if you want to consider the the plastic bullards to give a little more incentive for drivers not to get into that bike lane, um.

You know, in terms of traffic studies, you know, having observed a number of projects in the city, even long before I was a commissioner, the traffic studies have generally said, and the data is generally said, you know, things won't back up onto this or that.

So, two classic examples, the Chick-fil-A on North Main, you know, the study said, yeah, that won't back up onto North Main, but it does.

It's it's sort of a traffic nightmare.

When we had uh Bank of the West leave at Cherry and Treat and let John Muir get there, but we didn't expand the length of the left turn lane there.

I almost got hit three times just the other day by people.

It backs up into the main traffic lane and then everyone juts out.

If you're in the if you're in the middle lane, you might have to slam on your brakes.

So I would just say whatever you think your traffic study says, I would double it.

And that's probably what you'll really see.

That's just Charles's you know, uh empirical feelings.

Um, so when you do in a few any future presentations, this is just a recommendation.

When when we do like the the before and after queuing or things like that, it I think it would be a lot easier to understand if you could take a diagram like this and then superimpose the numbers where it sits.

I get a little confused looking at the tables.

So it's just a little uh request.

And I think those are my comments.

Thank you.

Okay, Commissioner Patch.

Okay.

Um so you might have picked up on this when I was asking questions, but I live on Jones Road.

So this is actually what I use every day.

Um, and I am one of those people that will not go and use the canal trail because it's actually significantly out of my way because it's the opposite direction of where I need to go.

Um and I also won't use the bridge because again, it's it takes me out of my way to go to it.

I use the uh Oak Road Street Boulevard intersection all the time.

Um people on this commission know that I've had a couple of near accidents with my scooter.

Most of them have happened in the slip lanes that we're talking about.

Um, so I I understand the importance of the safety for pedestrians and bikers and scooters that we are talking about because I am one of those users.

Um, so I'm thrilled that we are taking this seriously.

The fact that these intersections are what you said, two, five, and seven of the county, like that says a lot about how dangerous they are.

Um so very excited to see this.

I have a couple of suggestions, I think, that could mitigate some of the concerns we're hearing from vehicle traffic.

Um first one is if we're eliminating the crosswalk where that 680 off ramp is um from the northbound direction, if there's gonna be no crosswalk there, I'm I am I guess I'm a little confused as to just if we can do a better job than just completely eliminating the slip lane into a road there, right?

Because that suction and the way to exit there, you have the on ramp coming from behind you for people who are getting on and then to merge left quickly to get onto the freeway because it comes into a turn-only lane, and then you have people on 680 who have to get into that lane to make the right turn, and when traffic stops or gets backed up right now, you have a lot of traffic on 680.

And so I understand that you've been talking to Caltrans and they say they aren't worried, and your diagram says that the backup won't go past where the split is for the truck off ramp, but in my experience, that's not true as the traffic is currently.

So I am pretty nervous about what that is gonna do to traffic on 680.

Um I used to live in the apartments across from BART, and so I was one of those people that had to make the far over to left to make that left turn.

Um, and my roommate complained frequently about how dangerous that was as a vehicle, and so if you're adding more signals and stoppage to that, um I want that to also be part of it, right?

If you were not worried about pedestrians and it's just the bikers, maybe instead of putting a bike lane on each side of the road, there is a bike lane going both directions on one side of the road on the opposite from that 680 off ramp.

Um, I've seen cities that do that really well.

Um, it does mean that you have to move the bicycles over for that portion, which can be a little irritating.

But if you're already doing that for pedestrians, you already have to put up signage, et cetera, to direct people.

So for that overpass section to eliminate the confusion around the slip lane from 680, that could be a way to work this.

Um the other thing that I am really concerned about is uh what is showing or was showing.

Um, sorry, can you go back to where the parallel parking diagram is um it's one more, I think.

Yeah, yeah, I mean this works.

So in this section on treat, you have the sidewalk, the parking, the right turn, bike lane, which we which uh commissioner uh has already identified as going to be a little dangerous.

Um I'm wondering if we can flip this around a little bit, and I understand you're 65% into this project, so this might be too late in the game, but I have seen cities where they have a sidewalk, then they have protected bike lane, and then they allow for parallel parking of cars, and that creates safety for those on bicycles.

Um, since there is behavior here of people who are not gonna go over multiple blocks to get to canal to go up, you're gonna have people using bikes, especially as more and more multifamily housing goes in this area.

And so I think that's a way we can address keeping the bike safe, but also keeping that parallel parking.

Um and then I just I I have to address the the like behavior of humans is that they don't want to go out of their way, right?

So we have just finished building lots of multifamily on Jones Road.

There's another plot that is uh has been allowed to build once uh something comes that way.

There's additional housing going in near BART, right?

Like that is a very housing-dense area now because it is BART.

Um, and so you're going to have an increase in pedestrians and bikers.

Um I think that it's great that we're prioritizing them.

I'm very happy to see that.

I do think we need to acknowledge that people don't go out of their way.

So that's the behavior that we're trying to accommodate for.

And since that was brought up, I just wanted to acknowledge that human behavior shows people won't go eight minutes out of their way, they want to go the fastest, especially actually if they're walking or biking, because that takes more energy than driving does.

Um I think those are all of my comments.

Appreciate you coming for this presentation.

Thank you.

Commissioner Ash.

Yeah, thanks.

So I want to echo what um the vice chair said that we are not a decision-making body here.

We just get to give comments and receive information.

Um all for more bicycle lanes and safety.

Um I think it was a good question to ask because there is a trail that some of our audience has also brought up very close by.

I'd love to even see the numbers on that, maybe as a future presentation from East Bay Parks, like how for all the trails that go through like Walnut Creek, like what's the bicycle pedestrian count and how it helps people get to BART, would be interesting to learn.

Um I wonder what we can do here in the meantime, because this project seems several years off still.

If there's something we could do with the signal timing that you're talking about, um sooner than later that we could start implementing here.

I think that if we can get that done in the next six to twelve months, that becomes a win.

Um, and I'd like to point out that we built 1800 miles of the transcontinental railroad in six years, and this is taking 10 to 12.

Not that that has to do with the two of you, but government efficiency here.

Um, and so if we could do that signal timing, you know, something in the next year that can help with that vision zero goal of saving one person's life in the meantime while we're going to those bigger projects.

Is that possible?

I would just suggest to look at that.

So thanks.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

Sorry, I didn't think of one more comment.

Uh, for the beautification thing that you mentioned, which I thought was a great question.

Um, if you do close slip lanes, it's a great opportunity to put trees or plants or something and increase sustainability.

Because you have to build a sidewalk anyways.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes.

Right.

Vice Chair.

Can I add one more?

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, just building on commissioner patches uh on the same slide.

The other bad traffic behavior I forgot to mention here is that when treat backs up with the red light going this way, many times I've seen drivers then quickly cut over into that right turn lane.

Right.

And so now they're gonna cut across the bike lane and might hit a bicycle because they're like, ah, I'm not gonna wait here, I'll go this way and zip around.

I've just seen that over and over.

So I'm thinking about I think on Wiggit, we've done um the uh sidewalk bicycle lane, parking roadway configuration.

That was the word I was struggling for.

So I've seen that on Wiggit, and maybe as Commissioner Patch mentioned, that might be better here for the safety of the cyclist.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um this is a very complicated project, and there are so many factors.

So thank you for your work up to this point, and thank you for this presentation and for your patience with us as we try to digest it.

Um I'm all for trying to make this corridor safer.

My husband actually works in this neighborhood, and we walked to lunch just the other day, and I had this feeling of this doesn't feel that safe like walking this area right here.

Um, and so I'm really happy to see the um the efforts to improve safety and to improve comfort for pedestrians and cyclists.

Um I I'm a big fan of narrowing lanes.

I do think that helps a lot.

I've seen it done in a lot of communities around the East Bay, and that helps slow down traffic, and I think it it naturally slows down traffic and will naturally help some of these issues.

So I I'm a big fan of seeing that.

Um I like the idea of having the bike lane next to the sidewalk and then the parking.

Um, I think they've done this in Sacramento, and I'm curious to see as they've done this in more communities, how successful that's been.

Just to make sure that we're covering all our bases.

Um, I hear all the concerns from the community.

I can just imagine unintended consequences from this project, um, the backups on the freeway, etc.

Um, I just um bless you.

This is a complicated project, and I'm glad I'm not the one figuring out all the pieces, but um, but I I just hope that as we move forward, we're we're being really mindful of all the stakeholders and all the pieces that are at play.

Um, so at that, um, thank you for your work.

And if there's nothing else, I think we can move on.

All right, great.

Thank you.

Whew, all right.

I feel like we need a break after that.

I want to take a five-minute because.

Do you guys want a five minute?

Yeah.

Okay, the next one's fixed, so we'll take a quick five-minute break.

Thank you, everyone.

Okay, that's just how we do exactly what I was talking about.

Um, I'm not gonna go.

All right, everyone.

We are back.

Um, hope you've recovered.

I'm just teasing.

Uh, next on the agenda is an item for commission consideration, the downtown curbside management plan draft recommendations update.

Um, please proceed with your presentation.

Okay.

Yeah, so evening commissioners.

Again, my name is Brianna Byrne.

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

Um, tonight bringing forward to you guys again this curbside management project.

This is our third presentation to date.

Um, and as Commissioner Brightman mentioned, this is the one where we're bringing the recommendations to you all.

So tonight's discussion, um, very, very brief background and then an overview of the data and the outreach findings.

Again, these were brought to you in presentation one and presentation two, and the bulk of this, um, this evening's presentation will be about our draft recommendations and kind of where we are in the project timeline.

And then for any new viewers, so this curb management plan, we're looking to set data-driven standards to optimize the curb by balancing parking, loading, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, placemaking accessibility, safety, and equity in our downtown Walnut Creek area.

And again, for any new viewers, uh curb space and curb management, what does that really even mean?

So from curb space, this is the area where you know maybe you think parking, a parking lane would be, but it could also be bus stops, loading zones, space for bike lanes, curb extensions, parklets.

So in this lower photos, these are in downtown Walnut Creek.

On the lower left there, this is at the intersection of Maine and Bonanza.

This is actually a bull bow within the intersection, and it's kind of a beautifying place making way to enhance our curb, our curb, our curb space, and then the middle we have some bike parking, and then we have a bus stop.

So when we talk about curb management, it's about organizing all of these uses.

The sometimes competing, sometimes they work together, but there's a lot of demand for the curb space, and it's about managing that and balancing amongst all those users.

So background, this um this effort that we're in the middle of right now is grant funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, MTC, and it builds on a previous study that the city had done called rethinking mobility plan.

From that plan, there are three strategies that we're I guess adding to.

So the first one, improve parking and curb management signage, evaluate zone and demand-based pricing, and then consider municipal garage pricing and demand.

And then on the slower section here, just to remind everyone, the city of Walnut Creek, we do have an 85% utilization for on-street and garage parking.

And so what this does is it um it balances the asset.

So the curb, we have a lot of attraction in the downtown area, and so this curb as an asset.

Uh, we're managing it so that people can get to these destinations.

So with this 85%, um, if we're imagining a block face as 10 spaces, two or one of those spaces are open.

This allows for someone that maybe wants to pay a little extra to park next to the curb.

They can easily get a spot.

There's no need to be rotating around the block to try to find that one space.

So 85% is really this industry sweet spot for utilizing the curb, it's uh most efficient, but also leaving space for those that need it.

So our study area that we looked at as part of this project, we went really as far north as parkside, uh as far south as uh think Las Lomas.

There's some meters in that area a little bit past Kaiser, and then east and west kind of extending into our west downtown specific plan, and then Broadway Civic along the east side.

So on-street uh spaces in this area, we have about 1500, um, just a little bit more than what we have in our city-owned and operated garages for a total of 3,000 spaces.

So again, these are the 3,000 city managed spaces.

Within the study, we included um non-city operated lots and garages.

So this is really just to kind of get a big picture of what's happening outside of what the city operates.

This is not by any means all of the private lots.

These are just the ones that we reached out to and were able to get some type of data for during our collection period.

So for the analysis that we're going to talk about tonight, again, that's just a partial private lots and garages, and that is similarly around 3100.

So we're talking about maybe 6,000 spaces as part of this plan.

So when we did our data collection in October, um the top line, we have our weekday.

So this was a Thursday in October.

There's no events, so it was good weather.

We saw 88% parking utilization on streets.

So again, this is above our goal of 85, and we're kind of this is where we're going to start to see people getting frustrated and circling the block trying to find a space.

But at that same time, our garages were only at 57% full.

If we put that into actual space numbers, those on street, there's only 117 spaces, but our garages we saw 1700.

So it's just one of those like how do we get these people to the garage?

And then on the Saturday, again, typical Saturday in October.

The on-street dropped a little bit, and this does reflect kind of how we drew our area A.

The area near Kaiser is really popular on the weekday, but not so much on a Saturday.

But again, on same time, same peak, but in the garages, there's still plenty of space available.

With the slight caveat that you know some of these garages are being used a lot more than um than others.

So there's a lot of numbers here, but the one to point out is our South Locust Garage.

So this is the one that's really kind of in the heart of everything.

It's just north of Mount Diablo, bounded by main and locust, and it is also one of the cities, it's the city's smallest gate-operated garage.

So again, high-level the data takeaway.

So where we saw over this 85% occupancy was on street in area A, where area A is the screen.

Think about that core downtown area.

And then we also saw over 85% in the Broadway Plaza garages, and those that's one of our private partners that we that we worked with, and then the city's South Locust Garage.

Staff also did additional data collection during the holiday peak, and this was really to understand what happens to our downtown at the peak of the peak.

So when looking at that over 85%, we saw the same thing under the typical conditions, but we now also added the Lusher Garage, and this is one of our larger garages, but it also facilitates the demand for our Lusher Performing Arts Center, and we have the nutcracker performances over there.

So that garage did reach 100% during the holiday season.

Looking at parking duration, area A, we do have three-hour meters.

Generally, people stayed one to two hours within that core area, area A, if they were in the garage, people stayed closer to three.

B and C, so B would be the orange on the north side, and then C is west downtown.

People, if you're parking on street at the purple meters, which allow for up to 10, 10 hours, people were staying around three.

During the holiday season, area A, that parking duration shifted closer to three.

People were staying a little bit longer to do their shopping.

And the other note here is uh while the city does have a monthly parking pass program, it's in in very high demand, and there's a wait list of six months to a year.

So taking this information to our stakeholders, some internal, some external, we wanted to see if this data matched their friction points, what they were maybe having problems with that could um that we could see in the data.

So we spoke with the parking enterprise fund.

This is the staff, it's internal and external stakeholders where they manage the the fund from like parking revenue.

So this includes public work staff both in traffic engineering, transportation planning, traffic maintenance, um, we have our garage operators, we have our enforcement officers, we have economic development, it's a multidisciplinary team.

So we spoke with them, we spoke with our parking enforcement officers several times, our economic development team, external stakeholders, included Walnut Creek Downtown, County Connection, bicycle and Pedestrian advocacy Groups, our Youth Commission, Transportation Commission, and the general public.

This is for both visitors, residents.

Are you a business owner?

Are you employee downtown?

So we are really really still pushing to get input from our walnut creek downtown and the public, especially on the recommendations you're about to see tonight.

So if there's any interest from those viewing, or for the commissioners to pass this on, the QR code will send you to this link, or you can type in the web address there.

So what we really became clear from the stakeholder outreach was there, there's actually a lot of common friction points for our stakeholders.

The first one street parking.

There, there really is people want to park on the street.

And so it did match our data.

There was mostly just anecdotes about why that preference is around, but generally speaking, it matched the data that we were seeing.

So in this photo, it's the yellow loading zone.

So this is I think commercial commercial loading.

But a lot of these say are in very popular areas and are maybe used by people picking up and dropping off or just stopping real quick to run inside, which then blocks the actual commercial vehicles from using it, and then now they're blocking traffic.

So that was one friction point, and then also we have 15-minute curbside loading spaces in the downtown, and these were first installed a little after COVID to help the restaurants bounce back.

There's a lot of to-go orders being put in, and so we had installed at least one on every block face, and just over time it's been increasingly hard to enforce, and it's it's was a feedback that we received from both the business owners and even just the people trying to use them while visiting downtown.

Parking for employees, this is you know, maybe those driving or using bicycles or scooters.

Again, mentioning that monthly parking pass that we have for garages for anyone driving, they're likely not one of those lucky few that have that pass.

So what we heard is there's a lot of maybe moving your car around midshift.

Um the employees know where they can get the longest free parking, and then they'll have to run and move their car if needed.

For those that, you know, bike or scooter, there we heard just of the popularity of that, but there was an inability for say the businesses to store the scooters, so there was no space, a secure space for those employees to then store these as an option.

Uh, wayfinding, um, the city we do have an incredible amount of wayfinding signs, but it's still one of those things where you know, maybe they could something needed to be done where even the stakeholders didn't know we had a library garage.

And then the last one pedestrian and bicycle spaces.

So, regardless of like which group we talked to, the pet, the bike, the business owners, regardless, once you parked and you were walking around, there was a desire to have a very comfortable pedestrian space, a very safe feel.

Yeah, so moving now into the recommendations.

As you can see, we have a part one here.

Um, we broke it up into two parts.

So we'll go through this first section, pause for any questions, give me a chance to drink some water, and then we'll move on to part two.

Okay, so to support our recommendations, we wanted to establish overarching goals.

Um, we have two greens here.

So that light green.

Again, this is a data-driven plan.

So that light green is that data-driven portion of this plan.

So we want to manage the parking demand, reduce the difficulty for finding parking and improving the arrival experience.

This is where we have that data to back up.

Whatever these, whatever the plan lands on for these dark green priorities and goals, we can manage it accordingly with that light green section.

So moving, starting at the upper left, manage commercial loading to make freight and deliveries more orderly, efficient, and produce less conflict.

Enhance downtown's economic vitality as a top retail destination for the region, ensure that pedestrians and bicyclists can get to from and around downtown safely and comfortably, use placemaking to enhance downtown's walkability and charm, advance sustainability through mode shift away from cars, and then the last one consider users of all ages, physical abilities, and economic standing to ensure downtown is conveniently accessible for all.

So these goals they are in line with council priorities, as well as our sustainability action plan or local railway safety plan, a lot of active plans and kind of actions that the city has taken recently.

So now moving into the recommendations.

So for the meters, the first recommendation is to create a new meter zone for those high demand areas.

With the intended outcome, it incentivizes turnover within the high demand areas and encourages drivers to use the garages.

As part of that, extend the meter hours of operation, extending the parking management hours.

Again, we're managing the parking or managing the demand.

We want those hours to reflect the existing land uses.

So we have a lot of restaurants that are open past 8 p.m.

when our meters stop.

So we want to the hours of operation to reflect what's currently happening out there.

And then the last one that I have here, improve instructions on the meters or signage for uniformity and clarity.

And this improves accessibility and the customer experience.

You know, they already found a spot.

Let's make that meter as easy for them as possible.

So digging a little bit into the first two.

So this is the existing data that we collected in October.

Again, this is an average October weekend.

On that sliding scale, we have green, you know, a lot of open spaces, and on the far side, that dark red, closer to 100%.

You can see we have a lot of high demand on average.

Again, this is on average along locust and main streets.

So that high demand warrants higher parking meter rates.

Looking at again those overarching goals, a lot of parking management, alliance of parking management, loading.

I kind of mentioned this as the friction point, but with a well-managed curb space and you know the open open spaces, people aren't gonna elect to wait in a loading zone.

So it actually does improve that commercial loading experience.

They trucks can get into that space.

Traffic safety and sustainability.

I mentioned the circling around the block to try to find your space again.

If you can find that parking space, it does really cut down on that excess vehicles on the road.

So we talked about meters now moving to garages on the recommendation side.

Improve wayfinding directly to the garages on the perimeter of downtown.

Again, the garage that we saw, experience capacity is really in the center.

Echoing again, that's where people want to be.

So trying to get them to, say, the outskirts to our Broadway garage.

So yeah, get the outcome, get drivers to a place with higher parking supply.

The other recommendation here, improve customer experience within the garages by creating an environment that feels safe and comfortable to walk to, from, and in.

It will not only encourage visitors to park within the garage, but that safety feeling that they feel on the street that we want them to feel on the street begins as soon as they park in one of our garages.

The last recommendation here reevaluate the monthly parking program and potentially expand the number of permits.

Really just take a fresh look at this and see if it's still serving the needs of our downtown community.

So the outcome reduced curb demand and improved employee retention where parking isn't a daily headache.

Again, looking at goal alignment.

Each one of these is a great parking management tool.

We can get people off of those on-street spaces and into the garages.

One thing to point out here, placemaking, that improved customer experience within the garage.

There's a lot of opportunities within our garages that we can kind of expand the streetscape into these garage facilities.

Okay, moving on to loading and curbside pickup.

So recommendations, shift loading zones away from the busy spots.

So again, this is, you know, I want to run into Starbucks real quick and grab a cup.

Oh, here's a loading zone.

So pushing those loading zones away from these high highly desired spots.

We're gonna improve the loading spaces and kind of avoid that improperly being being used situation.

Modify the 15-minute loading zones to ease enforcement, possibly meter this.

This one, it's gonna need a lot of coordination with our enforcement officers, but that'd be some the exact wording and how we roll that out would be in partnership with them.

And so that would improve the ability to enforce the curbside pickup spaces and get that desired quick turnover that these were intended for in the first place.

This other one, modify commercial loading time restrictions to end at five and make the spaces available for food delivery drivers for curbside pickup.

So this is think about a flex loading space.

Commercial deliveries, they're very very often in the morning, early afternoon, really at kind of the latest, right around this 4 or 5 p.m.

time.

So opening these up as like a flex loading space.

Maybe they're food pickup, drop off or food pickup drivers, maybe they're dropping people off to go to dinner or picking them up after a night of fun.

So there's a lot of opportunity to use that flex space.

The fourth one on the list, establish a staging zone for the food delivery drivers.

So giving them a legal staging area for them to be.

So we can have better management and avoid this illegal parking issue that we're happening.

And then the last one on this table, study a digital platform for reserving curbside loading spots.

This is that kind of that future focus looking out.

There's a lot of emerging technologies, and this is one of those where it would reduce the incidence of illegally parked delivery vehicles, and again, giving the city a better management tool.

So again, how these fill into that goal alignment, but the um the modify the 15-minute curbside pickup spaces can help with that economic vitality again, helping those restaurants as they were first intended to do.

Relocating the loading zones can can help with placemaking.

If we if we can get those loading zones, say on minor streets or in commercial lane, we can then instead use that space for you know that beautiful tree that was an example in one of the earlier slides.

Okay, and with that, I will pause for any questions.

And I will say with me tonight.

So if I look over, please come help.

Alright, any questions from the commission from part one?

I will start with student commissioner.

If you have any questions.

And then I was just wondering what's your time frame for these different goals?

Oh, thank you.

Um, sorry, each one of these um beautiful tables, there is this um bold um indication at the bottom.

Um, we tried to I guess delineate what we thought was near-term, where staff near near term is around five years or less.

So what we thought was a near-term implementation, and as we get into the next section, what is gonna need a little bit more than that?

So looking further out.

Thank you.

Commissioner Ash question?

Yeah, I wanted to know all of these um actions, the parking funds a number of key essential activities within the city.

Does this increase potential revenue?

Not not accounting for inflation or things, does by like making more of these spaces available and metered, does it what is the impact towards that fund?

So this plan specifically is about the management piece of that.

Um, the actual fund discussion.

Um it's not part of this plan.

Fair enough.

Um and then you talked about a little bit about the holiday impact.

How do you factor that into the decision making process when you're talking right?

330 days is one thing and three and 35 days is another.

Just help me understand your your process in analyzing and accounting for that and what you could do differently, maybe in that short window.

Yeah, and um that sweet spot of 85%.

It's actually uh a design standard across the board.

Um, so shopping centers, they they would never provide as enough parking as a Christmas day as an example, just because the rest of the year would go completely to waste.

So it's about balancing that asset.

Um what we can do with this information right now is you know, we we saw we we based on this data, how busy it gets downtown.

So it's you know, we can take these recommendations, guide people to where there's spaces, where we anticipate and know their spaces.

We can also push, you know, those alternative modes.

We have that free downtown trolley, like we can really push towards those other those other modes.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Petch.

Um just curious how you decided on 5 p.m.

for the loading zone change, and could it be a little earlier, or it's like 5 p.m.

the earliest you could make that change.

So that time actually came from talking with our enforcement officers.

They were the one they're they're the ones that are out there and they see it.

Um at one point we talked about a little bit earlier.

I think five kind of felt like the comfortable time for them because again, as soon as you open it up, it's gonna be filled.

So it's it's again balancing balancing the the needs of the users.

But five is not a hard time, it was just what was recommended to us from our enforcement officers.

Great.

Um, and you mentioned just staging area for the pickup.

Do you have any ideas of where that would be, or is that still a TBD?

So it's still technically a TBD.

Um, so some of the other loading recommendations, um, so shift the loading zones away from busy spots.

So, and again, once that commercial loading is done, it becomes that flex zone.

So, you know, maybe those side streets um are those staging areas um commercial lane, even though right-of-way is really tight, there are some sections back there that we that we can designate as um as these flex zones or as these delivery driver zones, the exact spots would have to um would come down later once we get kind of direction that this is where we want to go.

Cool.

And then I'm sorry, I did see the note that said bold equals five years, but it looks like everything is bold.

Is that just because we're in part one and part two, things are gonna be unbolded?

Yeah, okay.

Yes, cool.

Thanks.

All right, thank you.

I just have two questions.

And it won't be like for anyone who's seen the movie back to school.

I won't say I have two questions in 39 parts.

Um we talked about new meter zones, and I was really keen on, you know, in the table it showed improving traffic safety and sustainability is that are we basically saying in theory, you know, if we put in new zones and charge you higher prices, you're just gonna go away and all of a sudden we have less cars in that area.

Is that the essential premise?

I wouldn't say go away, but the financial incentive is real, and if there is a cheaper option, and we saw the the garage recommendations, we're not recommending increasing the garages.

So if there's a very real cheap alternative just a couple feet away, that's that's that incentive balance where people are they're gonna you know put their wallet to it.

Have we done or could we do an elasticity of demand study?

So the sliding scale of low to high price, superimposed upon the declining sloping demand based upon price, so yeah, the the way I guess this my understanding the way this plan would roll out, if we do move forward, this plan would not recommend that price change.

There would be additional work that have to be done, and then we would bring that to Transportation Commission.

Okay, thank you.

All right, um a few questions regarding occupancy.

Um, and I'm sorry if you covered this in a previous commission meeting.

Um, do we know the percentage of employees versus visitors for the occupancy?

So um that's something I'm hoping to get at least like a good figure for moving forward, because that is a question that comes up often.

Um in speaking with like our economic um development team, the we do know there's a lot of employees downtown.

Um, and there's there's like a a rough estimate where it's like based on square feet, this is how many retail employees we have, and just for the downtown and the study area, we're looking at like 6700 employees, retail employees.

That's not all at the same time, but it's it's spread out through shifts, and so um it's something we're looking to have information on, but the employee numbers, it's not a small number, yeah.

Yeah, um, are there um you talked about the staging areas, which I would imagine is kind of like a cell phone lot kind of at an airport or whatever where you wait until you get a call or whatever kind of thing, right?

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

And are there um any park and ride lots or anything like that that are on the periphery of downtown that could be used for that?

Have you guys looked into anything like that?

So, not necessarily park and rides.

Um, we as part of um another one of the recommendations coming up, we have thought about you know, other private lots near downtown.

Um, one of the challenges, especially with these food pickup services, um, when an order gets placed and a driver's assigned, it's based on proximity to that restaurant.

And so a lot of what we're hearing is a lot of these drivers, that's one of the reasons why they're taking up these spaces, is to get that proximity and to get that extra little bump.

Interesting.

Um yeah, I was curious about those larger lots because I was also wondering if they were considered for employees as well, who I see a lot of employees who seem willing to drive and scoot to work from the periphery of downtown.

So I was wondering if you were considering lots on the periphery as well for employees.

Part two.

Part two, okay.

It's coming.

Got it, got it.

Getting ahead.

Sorry.

Um digital platform to reserve curbside loading.

Can you elaborate a little bit more on that?

That sounds like a monster to organize and make work.

Yeah, so I mean, there's it it is an emerging space.

Um I believe San Francisco or maybe San Jose, but one of like the curbside loading uh way ways they've rolled this out is there is a physical sign with like a changeable screen.

So it's you know, from this time, the last four digits of this license plate, they're the ones assigned here.

So from an enforcement perspective, they they can match, you got it.

Um, there's other options that are maybe more in a digital space where it's all app-based.

Um we could require delivery like commercial delivery companies to make use of this app, and then the app knows where the drivers are located and assigned spaces and charges potentially.

So there's there's digital space and there's also a physical space.

It is an emerging thing.

It's something that we could explore.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Sorry, I do have another one.

I just thought of this as you were talking about it.

When you talk about the number of spaces that we have, especially on street, have you already subtracted the spaces that we'll have to remove because of the new daylighting law?

Yes, so yeah.

Yeah, the that like data collection was done.

We had already daylighted downtown.

Okay, perfect, thanks.

All right, okay.

Okay, so moving now into pedestrian and transit space.

Um, so peds and transit, bicycles to come.

Uh, so the first recommendation, uh, study a discount or voucher program for businesses to incentivize using rideshare to get to and from downtown, especially to combat DUIs and improve access for seniors and people with mobility challenges.

Um, so thinking back to our local roadway safety plan, DUI, um serious injury collision and fatal collisions with actually a um one of our top 10 collision trends, and so this would be one of the recommendations to combat that.

Um, so outcome reduce overall parking demand in the area.

Um, it can encourage, you know, maybe new users to the downtown, um those that don't want to drive or don't have a car, and it can provide a safe drive driving alternative uh when needed.

So the second recommendation here improve stops, signage, wayfinding, and operations for buses in the downtown outcome uh incentivize that mode shift, adding curb extensions, uh improving the visibility for pedestrians and improved roadway safety for all users.

And then this last one, additional safety improvements for other streets on the edge of downtown.

Um outcome makes corridors more comfortable for non-vehicle modes, improved safety for all visitors, even those that drove.

So on the right here, speaking of our local roadway safety plan, another one of our collision trends was we saw a lot of a lot we saw, um a significant amount of injury collisions and fatalities, and there are large roadways around downtown.

So as part of that plan, we have a countermeasure toolbox.

So really any one of these can be just ways to enhance the safety.

One of them, we have the leading pedestrian interval.

This is that signal timing that we currently have downtown that gives pedestrians an extra three or five seconds to cross before cars start going.

So this is something that we've already done, and there's there's other things within this plan that we can roll out to kind of improve that comfortable feeling that even if you drove here, as soon as you start walking around downtown, you you can feel that safety.

So the curb extensions and that additional safety improvements, you know, maybe a curb extension here or there can be done in the near term, but when it gets into those physical improvements, there is some type of funding and design and extra thought that needs to be put into it.

And then one of these goals that is filled for each one of these recommendations is that sustainability aspect.

So again, improving the environment for pedestrian and transit users, getting them out of the single or out of vehicles and into these other modes.

So moving now into bicycle recommendations.

So this recommendation add low stress, context appropriate bicycle facilities for getting to and from downtown, such as along California Boulevard, North Broadway, Civic Drive, and Newell Avenue, with the outcome more comfortable and viable facilities will induce that mode shift.

So what from the feedback that we heard, it's those larger streets around downtown serve as the barrier.

Maybe once they get within there, the speeds are lower, they do feel safer.

So really creating that comfortable option to get to the downtown area.

And then the example on the right here is from Sanlis Obispo's downtown area, where they do have the sidewalk, the bike lane, an additional curb enhancement, and then just behind that planner box is a green loading zones, like a five 10-minute parking spot.

So, you know, you still get the bike lane, you still get some parking.

It's just about playing with what space is available within within our roads.

So other bicycle experience and again, these are if we do have these high quality facilities with that buffer protecting bicyclists from traffic.

We can we can add in additions on top of that.

So steady the switch to micromobility devices for food deliveries, you know, that could be you know food delivery robots, or that could just be you know, like uh having your food delivered by a bicyclist instead of a vehicle.

Uh so the outcome would be reducing demand for curb space, pairing these new facilities with a micro mobility rollout.

Um, and so Walnut Creek right now, it's very walkable, it's park once and walk, but as we expand into north downtown, west downtown, there is a need to just go a little bit past that walking distance.

So encourage that mode shift, increased accessibility to areas outside of our typical walking radius.

Um, also as part of these high qual high quality facilities, we can do secure bike parking, um, you know, bike parking lockers that are big enough for family cargo bikes, um, e-bike chargers.

This is one that require additional infrastructure to complete, and then possibly and uh a bike repair station, and all of these encourages really that mode shift to to using a bicycle around downtown.

And again, pointing out this bold not bold.

Uh, we we elected to show these as not bold.

Again, there is a lot of physical infrastructure and funds and planning that would have to go into something like this.

But looking at our our goals again, sustainability is well represented as well as traffic safety.

And then the last recommendation section that we have here, placemaking and supportive actions.

So additional outdoor dining and placemaking features.

This improves the visitor experience to Commissioner Brightman's points.

One of the recommendations here is the city help identify privately owned garages and coordinate shared parking arrangements.

And take that information and bring it to our downtown connection and really act as the conduit to make that a feasible option for our employees in the downtown.

So it would reduce the curb demand and improve that employee experience instead of having to try and try to find a parking space every every workday.

This other one, expand street closures to other streets.

So think about our local street fair or our farmers market.

So when we do have street closures, expanding them or adding additional hours to it.

So, you know, by making it larger, we're incentivizing more visitors to the downtown from a safety aspect.

These pedestrian only streets remove that conflict with vehicles.

And then the last one here, again, uh future feature focused looking out preemptively study policies needed to regulate autonomous vehicles.

These autonomous vehicles, it encourages the mode shift or it encourages away from privately owned vehicles.

So there's there's just new challenges that or new puzzles to solve with emerging technology.

So again, where these um recommendations fall into our uh goals getting into timeline.

So we are right here in the middle, the lower middle, so July 17th, bringing the draft recommendations to TC.

We are looking to bring these draft recommendations to council in early September as part of a study session.

Uh I've the tentative date for that is September 2nd.

Um, so again, we are still actively in this outreach portion.

So we're gonna take your recommendations, take their take your feedback, take their feedback, take the feedback from the survey and the businesses, and come back to TC with this draft plan, and then go again to council with that, open it up.

Okay, any questions from part two?

And we'll start with our uh student member Kirsch.

I don't have any questions.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um one thing on the well, are we just on questions or are we on comments?

What are we at here?

Questions.

Okay.

Um questions.

Did you, you're gonna love this one in your future proofing.

Um, have you looked at air mobility as part of your curb management program because Bishop I asked because Bishop Ranch has agreed to build out a hub for Archer Aviation to bring people to Bishop Branch from a couple of other hub locations in the Bay Area.

So, Megan, do you want to step forward and and uh help with this one?

Yeah, so um while she walks up here, Megan Mitman, um with Fair and Pears helping prepare our curb management plan.

Um lots of conversations.

Archer's a Bay Area company, so it's um kind of an exciting jobs growth industry to be thinking about the opportunities for that.

Um there's lots of conversations with the California Forever uh project up in Solano County about so it it is um kind of in in the news and in the conversation, um the chances that it would be as relevant probably in in downtown Walnut Creek um from a kind of way that people would arrive and and depart is maybe less so than a larger kind of employment complex like Bishop Ranch, but um drone delivery could be the the version of it that would be more relevant um in a downtown context.

We talked about sidewalk robots, uh, but there certainly is um you know conversations around whether you'd get Amazon deliveries by drone or maybe food deliveries by drone.

Uh that wasn't though in kind of the purview of of this.

It would provide even more flexibility for the curb use for other things, but yeah, we didn't cover it specifically.

Thanks.

Question Patch.

Can you remind me how long this plan is gonna be for?

Cause you have the priorities for five years and then the unbolded ones would be 10 years, 15 years.

Um so once this plan's adopted, it's it's in place.

Um for so to the like when we could maybe see these low stress bicycle facilities, because so much is driven by funding, you know, it's as grants come available and and really kind of just working them into that pipeline.

Yeah.

I was gonna ask one question, but I have a follow-up question.

Um the way we did the the bike lanes on Wigget, where it's the lane, the plastic bowlards, and then the parking, is that considered comfortable bike access, or is it only when we see like what was in San Luis Obispo with a real physical barrier like that concrete?

Yeah, so in that previous presentation about Street Boulevard, we talked about class four.

So both Wiggit, Lennon, and what's shown here is class four.

What distinguishes a class four bikeway is that vertical separation from the bike lane and the travel lane.

So that vertical could be um, you know, maybe the bike lane is at grade with the sidewalk and vertically separated by a curb and the parking, maybe it's vertically separated by a parking lane.

So as long as there's a vertical separation between those two travel lanes, the bike lane and the vehicle lane, it's a class four.

And that's the most comfortable for high speed high-grain roads.

My other question was about the you talked about the pedestrian leading signal timing.

Do we have any data yet?

Positive, neutral, or negative on its impact.

It uh that we staff has done, no, but like it it's overwhelmingly positive, both anecdotally um and within the industry were implemented.

Great, thanks.

All right, and I don't have any questions for this part.

So if questions are done, yeah.

We will uh move to public comment.

Is there anyone in the audience with public comment?

Okay.

We have no members of the public waiting to provide comments.

Okay, then we'll open it up to comments from the commissioners.

We'll start with uh student member Kirsch.

No comments.

Okay.

Okay.

So on the bike repair um stations, I love the concept.

Um I know in the Orchards shopping center, as part of their plans on day one, there was a lot of nice um, I want to say like four or five like bike parking with like tool like tool kits and everything.

They lasted about a week before they were like destroyed and the screwdriver, even though it was like on an iron chain was gone and everything.

And so I think eventually they it took three years, but they removed all of those because it was just it looked a mess.

So, um I'm not saying don't do it.

Because I do see that there's a use and a need and that encourages people, but just keep in mind what happened over there.

And like that's a very friendly, like neighborhood-esque shopping center.

And I just don't want it to be a blight, and then we're wondering what we're doing with these things, right?

Yeah.

Uh to to further clarify that experience, um, even talking with um bicycle advocacy groups that's happening everywhere.

It's just like giving out free expensive tools for the cost of being stolen, you know, you just gotta do the little extra work.

But, you know, to combat that, there's high-quality bike repair stations.

Um, often they're um to use BART as an example.

There's a lot of staffed bike parking stations that dual as kind of like a repair shop where you can go buy a tube or something really, really um it's not a full bike store, but it's kind of that repair station where while you're at work, you can drop your bike off and have it worked on.

Okay, that's cool.

Um, and then I just love that your future proofing and thinking of autonomous vehicles as part of the equation.

Um, and I like how you don't have all the answers, but you're paying attention and you're just including this into a plan that uh as Commissioner Patch points out, it's there's the five year and then there's the forever part of this component, and as technology is changing rapidly, at least if you're asking those questions and putting it in there, I just commend you for doing that because I know a lot of cities that are like, no, you know, or just ignore it, right?

And so I think that's good.

Um, and I do know drone delivery is already happening in suburban areas in North Carolina, Texas, Florida, and Arizona.

Um, and California is actually behind for regulatory purposes on that.

And I actually could see some air mobility commute options that could be good, but I mean that could be in the next 10 years.

Um I think LA is doing really well with the Olympics.

They're expecting to to for 2028, they're expecting to move 15 to 17% of pe visitors to LA through localized air mobility transit.

And make that permanent infrastructure.

So just sharing random thoughts about future and everything.

That might be useless, but we did say innovation wanted we wanted innovation to be one of the goals on the council priority list.

Um on slide 17, you have the, I mean, you don't have to go to it if you don't want, but it the um customer experience with garages.

I would just encourage you to also consider that an accessibility goal win, um, because if you improve that experience, especially with lights and stuff, it actually improves the accessibility as well for folks.

So uh just want you to get all of your goal credits.

Um and then I'm I guess a little disappointed that some of the biking stuff isn't the priorities.

Um like it just seems like a lot of that was the unbolded items.

I do understand that costs money, um, but in particular, the secure biking bike parking or just bike parking in general, I know is in the sustainability action plan.

Um, so it is also a city council priority.

Um and I don't know, if you don't if you don't have places for people to keep their bikes or scooters, etc.

Then even if you do have lanes, they're not going to use them, right?

There has to it kind of is a chicken egg situation where you need both for it to work.

So I I definitely don't think you can do all of these things, but maybe providing less secure bike party parking, but more of it in areas of garages that are unused or something of that nature, so it's a little bit more secure than just the racks on the street.

Um I really appreciate that you took our comments from last time and prioritize wayfinding signs.

I think that was something that most of us agreed on that would be important.

I just want to make sure you're considering also to point out where those biking bike parking facilities are, um, because those can sometimes be difficult, even the ones that we already do have.

So it's not just about pointing people to the garages, but also if they're using micro mobility where they can park their items.

Otherwise, really feel like this is looking great.

I appreciate you incorporating our feedback.

Um, I guess I'm a little curious where the surve thought about working with downtown businesses or restaurants for them to have it and have their customers fill it out, just like here, here it is by the reception or billing area or something, um, to get people, especially those who aren't in the Walnut Creek area but are coming here to shop or eat.

Um also your side your slides look very pretty.

I just wanted to say that.

Thanks.

All right, thank you.

Um, fascinating topic, and I just wanted to at a high level mention human behavior and human factors and how they factor into all of this.

So you know, we have some people that they just want to park close to where they're going, no matter what.

And it won't matter what we charge, what the hours are, they're gonna do it.

Um as much as we may try to encourage or incent otherwise, no different than the exact opposite.

You know, you go out, you've seen people you go park at the far end of the target parking lot where there's no cars, and someone else is of the same mind as you to get some exercise, and all for whatever reason, they park right next to your car, even though there's 5,000 other spots.

It's and I'm just using these as examples of human factors or behaviors that I think trickle into this kind of analysis.

Um thought, and you kind of hit this in a different area.

What about seeing if the large retailers would um validate or pay for customers using the lots?

I know some restaurants validate, uh, but how about Nordstrom, Macy's, or some of the other stores?

That might be a very interesting way.

Um, especially maybe if there was something on the wayfinding that was like, you know, retailers, pay for your parking lot usage to get you to go to the lots.

Um you know, when we talk about meters, adding new zones, increasing hours, increasing rates, I'll be the contrarian here, and I I would caution strongly against extending hours beyond what we already have and raising rates.

You know, at a certain point, you know, we live in a pretty affluent area, but at a certain point, even though people will be able to afford the higher rate per hour for longer hours.

People will eventually just say, ah, forget it.

Walnut Creek's being greedy.

I'm gonna go shop somewhere else.

I'm gonna go eat somewhere else.

My prime example of that is Danville.

It's a very short drive.

I think somebody mentioned in our last meeting, Danville basically brags, hey, we got free parking, come on down here and eat here.

Um so we want to be careful that we don't drive people away just out of pure principle, again, going back to human factors or human behaviors, uh, because that could really hurt our retailers.

Um, I'm just sort of going in order.

Uh more monthly permits, I think would be a great idea for the parking lots.

I think there's some of us who are residents that actually might take up a monthly permit.

Um, and I'm coming from a perspective of we use the lots, especially the city lots.

We don't like to park on the curb.

We find it too painful, and we love the lots and the rates are very reasonable.

Um I think controlling the loading zones and you know, doing different scenarios with those, I think that's a great idea.

The only idea I thought you had that I would strongly recommend against is putting a meter on a 15-minute loading zone.

Kind of the beauty of that 15-minute loading zone in front of you know Harold's cleaners is I can just drive up there, park, grab my dry cleaning, and hopefully be out of there in five minutes so the next person can get it.

I think if you add a meter, I don't know, because then where do you stop?

Do you start metering the loading zones?

Because that would be the next logical step, right?

Yeah, and um I guess to further clarify where that um specifically came into is from the enforcement piece.

Um the officers right now, you know, you have 15 minutes, so you have to you know stand there and wait.

Um we discuss actively loading, and then again it's just like, oh, I'm you know, I'm waiting for my order, just five more minutes.

As soon as you put that meter there, if it's unpaid and the officers know this person is not gonna pay it, it's it gives them a way to write that ticket and get them out of the space.

And that was really the again the curb management, but point taken.

I want us to think about the messaging though, right?

Kid the mess hang on one sec.

If the messaging is, hey, our doing this makes it much easier for our parking enforcement officers to give you a ticket.

I don't know if that's again that's where we might start driving away, not just out of towners, but our own walnut creek residents are gonna go, go find the dry cleaners up in Concord because I don't get hassled as much.

I just wanted to ask, um, so is like the issue that it's 15 minutes and then people are in there for 20 minutes, 28 minutes, whatever, and then it's the turnover to occupancy.

Uh sorry, can you put their question?

It is I thought it worked.

Okay.

Um is it a is what you're saying is like the 15 minutes is becomes an issue with the turnover because it's not being turned over actually in 15 minutes.

I'm just trying to make sure I understand the.

Yeah, so the what they were intended for is quick run in, run out, grab that to go order that you placed.

Um speaking about like what that time should be, five minutes felt too short.

Um, so we after some back and forth, it was land on 15.

Um, but again, the intention was quick turnover, you're running in, you're running out.

Whether it's 15 or 5, it's a quick turnover.

And really, they're kind of just holding spaces right now with many times people are just sitting in the vehicle, either waiting for that order to get assigned to them, or it's open, it's just an open parking spot for them to be.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Yep.

Um I don't know if there's any way.

I don't know what proportion of on any given day the cars that are parking are walnut creek residents versus non-residents.

If there's any way we can give some kind of discount or allowance, especially in the garages to walnut creek residents, you know, that's probably a huge population of people going downtown.

And that's a could be a great way to incent the residents to use the parking lots rather than the curb.

Um anything you you talked about things to reduce DUI, anything you can do to reduce DUI, whether it's autonomous vehicles or ride share, that's a big thumbs up.

Um I think all the biking improvement goals is a big thumbs up, and all the outdoor dining possibilities also a big thumbs up.

But I think my overall broadest comment would be when you start playing with meters, rates, hours, zones, enforcement, we should be very careful of the messaging we're sending about our city to the public.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Um great work, thank you for this.

Um a priority for me is um thinking about employee parking um and having affordable options for the many employees who work in retail and and um dining spaces.

Um, and like I said, I've I've witnessed um workers park in neighborhoods where it's free and scoot in.

So, you know, I think it's something that they're they're willing to do, and having a space that could be allocated for something like that that's not a neighborhood, because that's not necessarily the best place for them to be for a number of reasons, but um, you know, might be worth looking into.

Um I think looking at expanding the monthly parking program would be a fantastic idea.

Um, and I think I've brought this up before, but um I think it would be good to look at even having specific um types of permits, maybe for day use or even evening use that might cater to different populations, whether it's working populations for businesses that are only open from like you know, nine to five or whatever, or those who work later, or even those who just maybe come into Walnut Creek for Night Life or something like that who want an easy convenient option.

Um I think that that might be something that that could work well.

Um, and then um something that uh I was thinking of as we were going through all of this.

You know, um you say that people like to have convenience and park very close to where they're at, and um maybe people don't prefer to walk, but we have that free downtown trolley and maybe doing a little bit more education around you know, you're stepping out of the parking garage, here's a sign in front of you that says where are you headed today?

The downtown trolley might drop you off there or close by, um, might be an interesting option because that would be nice to see that used a bit more.

Um, and in the summer there's AC in there, there's a lot of good things about that trolley, right?

So I think it'd be good to see that marketed a bit more.

Um, and I thank my colleagues for everything that they said.

I think um I think that's all that I have that's new.

Um, any other comments, Commissioner Ben?

You you sparked an idea.

Um, I know the trolley is a county connection bus, correct?

Yeah.

So maybe there's a way that we can work with the chamber of commerce or something of that nature to get um a smaller but more frequently run like golf cart or something that takes us from takes people from the garages that are on the outskirts into the high priority areas, especially since you have something around like the DUIs and the senior transportation and such, that might be a way to get them to park on the outskirts but not have to walk.

Um that doesn't help with DUIs, but this it was listed with the moving seniors around.

Um, and since they're the businesses that would benefit from it, they might be willing to like co-sponsor it with the city or something of that nature.

Commissioner Ash.

Well, two things one on building on that and what the chair said about employee parking, maybe particularly around that holiday bump.

Maybe we can't offer that golf cart all the time, but maybe like during that holiday bump, there's something where employees need to park a little bit further and it could be free that one month, somebody pays for it somehow, and then we like guide them in via however mini transit or something to help offset all that, and that helps your occupancy goals.

Um, the the other question I thought of that I heard from some of the comments was when you talk about the wayfinding, we talk a lot about the signs, but there's apps, right?

And so like now on my car, it says, like, oh, there's gonna be a fire truck, you know, a mile ahead of you on the highway, right?

And that's tied into Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Where is do you know just where that's going?

Maybe I'm on a future proofing mode, like where that's going though to help tie in my parking to my Google map and everything.

Yeah, so um it's called so as part of this grant, uh, MTC one of the requirements is that when we did this existing data collection, we collect information and input it into uh a program programming language called CDS curb data specification.

Um, so the idea is once this I guess existing conditions is out there, those apps, those new technologies that are looking to improve have this uh like computer language to use.

So this plan is getting us a little bit closer to that.

Awesome, cool.

And uh just one last comment from me um uh regarding you know trying to lessen DUIs and things like that as a person who's been hit by a drunk driver I'm passionate about this as well and um for those who make a responsible decision and might leave their cars downtown do they get towed do they get ticketed what happens and is there a way to do like a sticker that that you know if somebody makes responsible decision that you know they wouldn't be pinged I know that would be really hard to do but that'd be great if if somehow we could come up with something like that that's like don't tell me don't ticket me I made a responsible decision tonight you know what I mean?

So what I will say is uh towing does not happen often so that's it it would likely just be a ticket.

It's it's not anything that our enforcement officers actively pursue is towing yeah okay well anything to help that I'd appreciate okay I think we're all done with that yeah yeah okay lovely we are going to move on to and thank you very much for all that work um we are going to move on to item C.

Uh we have an appointment to make tonight um the commission our commission needs to select a representative to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Citizen Advisory Committee.

I invite staff to please uh present on this item it this was just mentioned uh when we did rotations that uh Jared would reevaluate this chair seat um in at this meeting and so just want to bring it up and see if we're ready for the handing of the baton or if we have other reasons to keep it the way it is.

Uh so I am done with my tenure as chair um thank goodness in some ways uh because I serve multiple terms and it was a privilege uh but I really would like to stay on and at least continue the the rest of the full term here um because I'm enjoying it I'm learning and I feel like I'm contributing and I come back here with knowledge that I gain from there.

Okay.

And and before we move on I want to see if there's any um public comment on this item.

Seeing none.

Alright thank you.

Do um any other commissioners have any comments on this or yes.

Yeah I think what we discussed last time was we wanted Commissioner Ash to finish his chair duties but then we thought we also might want to consider rotation so that other people get an opportunity if they desire to sit on the committee.

Okay.

Any other comments on this or questions?

I have no desire I will let everyone know that.

I don't have the capacity right now I can't give up that evening yeah I I also think it's really important that we rotate these um the duties.

Okay thank you yes um but I do not have the capacity so I'm fine if command commissioner ash continues.

Would you like to make a motion?

Sure.

Uh I have motion that Commissioner Ash continues on the committee.

Can I ask that we modify that motion to for the next year.

I accept that friendly amendment.

I'll second that motion how how long is the term for this typically I think we've been something where you've got if I recall um I think we vote on it every year in March like this committee could reappoint so I think because I think that's when this came up right so we're gonna defer to the next March one okay right keep so do we even need a motion.

Did we need to keep keep it to July though?

Because isn't that when it was like we wanted to line it up with the committee's changing things?

So we don't run into if our person is we could appoint in March and then you can actually switch in July if that's one that rotates there.

They don't rotate as regularly um that most people are appointed for four years.

Yeah.

I think we might be one of the few that do it every year.

I mean maybe others do, and I just don't know, but I know at least the at-large seats in the county do it every for like a a more longer term cycle, so there's not the turnover.

Can I ask how many years you've been on?

Four.

Since 2020, as chair.

So it might be nice to even with that four-year to give someone an opportunity.

Um, but I think everyone's saying they're tapped out, so maybe wait another year before considering another volunteer.

If you want to serve on it, if you are desiring to serve on it yet another year, right?

So I I think the motion basically stands that until March of 2026, Commissioner Ash stays on the committee.

Okay.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Okay, great.

Uh call roll, please.

Uh student commissioner Kirsch.

Aye.

Commissioner Ash.

Aye.

Commissioner Patch.

Aye.

Vice Chair Krelling.

I.

Chair Brightman.

Aye.

Okay.

Alright.

Congratulations.

Thank you for your service.

I'm sure my wife, if she's watching, was like, why do you sign up for something else?

Alright, item number five.

Um at this time I'd like to invite commissioners and staff to provide reports on their activities and or other announcements.

Any reports?

Um, I don't know, I'm tired.

Just a couple suggestions.

Um I may have made this one before.

Um I think it'd be great if the commissioners got like an email notice of events.

There was that uh Larkey Park traffic neighborhood event.

I would have actually enjoyed attending as a commissioner to listen to the public.

Um so if if we can just get heads-ups of those items um that would be awesome.

And the other thing I was thinking about is, and I don't know if we can play a part in this or not as a commission.

Um over the last couple weeks, there's just been really tough traffic around the crossings construction, you know, in Ignatio and Civic.

You know, I don't know if some of that was from the water main break or just um and then there's also been at least on next door.

People were talking about they they were allowed to do loud construction, you know, late at night, but that's I know that's out of our domain.

But what would be interesting is is there any way we can give any input on when lane blocking is allowed for construction projects?

Because what I noticed was one of the left turn lanes from Ignatio Westbound to civic coming towards the southbound, was really right around the morning commute, right?

Like the the absolute worst time, and and it might be nice if the commission could have some kind of input on those types of blockages.

And those were my suggestions.

Thanks.

Didn't we have like a bike safety event?

Yeah, did anybody go to that?

You'll get an update with the staff.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Also, just wondering if staff has an update on the woodlands neighborhood study that you guys had put a lot of time and effort into.

All right.

Any others?

Your updates?

Um, yeah, so since we last met, um the CIP and traffic engineering submitted uh for the state transportation improvement program.

Um, I don't want to say grant, but it is like a list of projects trying to get money allocated towards it.

So we submitted a project on um Oakland Boulevard to basically redesign the street, improve sidewalks.

Um, this project is already approved in our capital investment program, so it's in our CIP list.

Um, it's also mentioned in the West Downtown Pacific plan.

And so here we're just um casting a wider net to try to find funding uh to improve that.

Um we did have a neighborhood meeting in June with the um Larkey neighborhood to hear some concerns and um try to see what we can do to address uh traffic safety.

Um and then uh Brianna and the CIP team have been working on this design on Oakland, which has just been recently installed this this week.

Uh there may still may be some finishing touches out there, but on Trinity, which is just Civic going up the hill, and then on Oakland, uh there's new uh bicycle facilities.

And then my last update to two parts, and I'm gonna have our newest employee Edwin come on up and share about the bike rodeo.

And I'll have him introduce himself.

All right, good evening, commissioners.

Uh, my name is Edward Martinez.

I'm the new traffic engineering uh assistant traffic engineer for here.

Uh I started June 2nd.

Um so far I've had the opportunity to help out for the two outreach events that we did.

Uh, the Larkey Park neighborhood meeting and as well as the bike rodeo that was organized by the police department uh in collaboration with uh traffic engineering.

Uh the event just last weekend on Saturday was uh quite a success.

We had a turnout uh a little bit low just because we had two swim meets at the same time in the general area of the Civic Park area.

Um we did uh well PD got donations from Target that we were able to you know go out and procure two little goodie bags to um what is it to raffle out.

Um since the event was three hours, we did do uh two raffles, one in the morning and one in late, one in the early morning and one the late late morning.

Um so the families did have a good time.

Um traffic engineering assisted uh the police department in creating an obstacle course, which that was really fun for the small youth uh bicycle users to to use.

Um learned a lot from police, um, the park rangers and then us in engineering.

So it was quite quite uh successful.

We do have some pictures, but we didn't um create a presentation, but I know Matt will share it on later time.

There you go.

Congratulations on a successful event.

All right, thank you.

Will it be an annual event?

Uh I believe uh uh in collaborations with uh police, the police department, they're thinking of you know doing some sort of outreach during the school uh sessions, possibly in the fall or in spring, um, just to get more turnaround of um youth riders out there.

Yeah, great, okay.

Thank you.

Just welcome to the team and um to honor your first meeting.

We're we're letting you out here early tonight.

Uh, excellent.

No, there were some really good questions, so thanks.

All right.

With that, uh I hereby adjourned the July 17th, 2025 regular meeting of the Transportation Commission.

Our next regular meeting is September 18th, 2025.

Can't make that.

What?

Hi, this is Cindy Darling, Mayor of Walnut Creek with five things happening in Walnut Creek this month.

It's a new show at the Bedford Gallery called Beyond Color that explores the power of artwork rendered exclusively in black and white.

80 Artists' work is featured in this jury to exhibition that runs through September 14th.

If you want to learn more about how the work was selected, you can join us at Cocktails in Conversation in the Bedford on Thursday, July 24th at 5 30 for the inside scoop.

The city is working hard to educate our young writers on how to operate e-bikes and e-scooters safely.

Many of us have seen young folks taking a bit too much risk on the road, and we want to avoid accidents.

We held a bike rodeo in Civic Park on July 12th and are also sharing tips and tricks on social media.

Parents can help us by working with kids to make sure they're using the right safety gear and are operating the e-bikes and e-scooters safely.

It's an ever-expanding range of e-bikes available, so please make sure the equipment your kids have are the right type for their age and ability.

Did you know that there are now aftermarket devices that can allow speeds greater than 37 miles an hour?

It surprised me.

And all kids should be wearing a helmet.

I was excited to find out that we have flipped the switch on the new lights at Tice Valley Field.

Once we finish some renovation of the playing surface, it will be time for some evening soccer, courtesy of Measure O dollars and a lot of hard work by our public works staff.

If you've driven by Heather Farm lately, you've seen the contractor hard at work with the conversion to all weather turf fields.

This has involved a fair amount of excavation and grading, and so we have a durable, safe playing surface.

We're using organic materials such as cork that are less toxic and can be recycled at the end of their lifespan.

Once complete this fall, the new fields will allow play regardless of the weather.

We're proud to partner with the Walnut Creek Soccer Club to provide this opportunity to our kids.

The other project starting soon at Heather Farm, courtesy of Measure O, is the new community center and aquatic center.

The first phase, which is getting underway, is the restoration and expansion of the natural pond, coupled with some filling of the existing cement pond.

You know, that's the one with the big fountain in it.

The restoration of the natural pond is part of our commitment to environmental sustainability and will benefit the natural environment as we make way for the community center and the aquatic facility.

We'll go out to bid on the next phase this fall and expect construction on the pool and community center, along with some stunning new artwork to start next year.

And remember, toes in the water in 2027.

Lastly, I had an opportunity to tour the Walnut Creek Pediatric Outpatient Center at Shadelitz, operated by UCSF Benny Off Children's Hospital.

This facility is dedicated to providing young patients the care they need in a setting that works for them.

The walls are decorated with whimsical animals of Eric Carl, and the staff are truly dedicated to helping kids and their families through surgery, rehab, physical therapy, infusion therapy, and a host of other medical services.

Kids are not many adults, and I'm glad they can get the support they need to keep healthy.

The city has been working with the Pediatric Outpatient Center and with other health care partners in Shaylands to build the medical infrastructure that can help all ages of patients from throughout the area stay healthy.

So that is your five walnut creek happenings for the month.

See you next time.

And the Algon Stop salt, and then you're not a little bit more symbioti