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Bus Rapid Transit route approved through San Leandro
5.19.10
By By Jason Sweeney - The Oakland Tribune
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_15112040
A Bus Rapid Transit system that would quickly and conveniently shuttle commuters through a 17-mile Berkeley-Oakland-San Leandro corridor has been in the planning and debate stages for a decade.
However, residents in all three cities have voiced opposition to the AC Transit project — called BRT — fearing negative effects caused by closing center lanes to car traffic along the route.
But on Monday night, the plan got one step closer to reality after the San Leandro City Council voted 6-1 to approve a bus route through town that would terminate at the downtown San Leandro BART station, with dedicated bus-only lanes from the north city limit down the center of East 14th Street to Georgia Way.
The council reserved the right to reject the dedicated lanes in September if new information suggests that the negative effects of the lanes would be too great.
The council also approved a study by AC Transit on extending the BRT to the Bay Fair BART station, with dedicated bus-only lanes extending down East 14th Street from Blossom Way to Bancroft Avenue.
AC Transit wants to extend the lanes to Bay Fair, but the council previously had rejected that option after determining the negative effects to the city outweighed the positive.
Echoing a March 25 Planning Commission meeting, opposition to the dedicated bus lanes was voiced by several speakers during Monday's council meeting. Residents cited loss of parking, difficulty exiting their neighborhoods and increased traffic through their neighborhoods as motorists bypass congestion caused by the bus-only lanes. They also argued that the $234 million project would shave only a few minutes from commute times.
The only "no" vote came from Councilman Bill Stephens, whose district is the only one to contain the lanes in the current plan. He repeated several times that he was against dedicated lanes through the city, although not necessarily opposed to the BRT.
AC Transit hopes to begin construction of the BRT in 2012, with a completion date of 2015.
