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UID:Indybay-18594326
SEQUENCE:18643096
CREATED:20090512T183400Z
DESCRIPTION:Join us in telling  BART and MTC:\n"Study TransForm's proposal for a fast, 
 free airport connection -- analysis shows higher ridership at 1/10 the 
 cost!"\n\nDespite huge costs, questionable benefits, and risks to all BART 
 riders, the BART Board of Directors may vote on May 14 move ahead with the 
 Oakland Airport Connector project.\n\nThe Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) 
 is a $500 million, 3.2-mile rail replacement for the current AirBART bus 
 connecting Coliseum BART and the Oakland Airport. BART, facing a long-term 
 deficit of over $7 billion, will vote to borrow up to $150 million for this 
 project. To cover the costs they are proposing a $12 round trip fare on the 
 connector on top of the BART fare!\n\nIn a new report, TransForm is 
 proposing a fast, free airport connection that will save over $400 million 
 and help the community. We call it RapidBART. BART has never studied a true 
 Bus Rapid Transit option like this, one that can bypass 
 traffic.\n\nRapidBART would cost dramatically less, provide job access for 
 the community and be free to riders in perpetuity. It would have higher 
 ridership than the Connector, TransForm estimates a ridership benefit of 
 over 2000 passengers per day, largely due to the free fare and the 
 additional station on Hagenberger. Finally it would allow BART and agencies 
 across the region to use Recovery Act funds to save jobs and service this 
 year. BART would be able to use other savings to improve seismic safety or 
 fill other critical needs.\n\n\nJoin us in urging the BART Board to take 
 the time they have to study ALL the options, including an improved 
 "RapidBART" BRT system as proposed by TransForm! For more info, please 
 visit www.TransForm.org\n\nProject Details follow:\n\nThe Oakland Airport 
 Connector (OAC) is a half-billion dollar. 3.2-mile replacement for the 
 current AirBART bus which in 2008 carried 9% of all Airport passengers 
 between the Oakland Coliseum BART station and Oakland International 
 Airport. The system will have a travel time of approximately 12-minutes 
 (similar to the current AirBART) and will not stop between BART and 
 OAK.\n\nHow did we get here?\n\nSince the 1970’s, planners and 
 policymakers have discussed the creation of a connection from BART to the 
 Oakland Airport. Throughout most of these discussions, this connection has 
 focused on the goal of moving people efficiently and cost-effectively to 
 the airport in a seamless ride without regards to a specific transportation 
 mode or technology. Throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, 
 planning discussions looked at Bus Rapid Transit service. It wasn’t until 
 the end of the 1990’s that the project became a rail-only project.\n\nIn 
 the November 2000 election, Alameda County voters approved Measure B, which 
 included a two-stop Oakland Airport Connector that would be built for $130 
 million.\n\nImmediately after its passage, the City of Oakland insisted on 
 adding two additional stations according to the San Francisco 
 Chronicle:\n\n    The city is insisting on two stops along the system's 
 route between the Coliseum station and the airport -- one at Hegenberger 
 and 98th Avenue and one at the northwest corner of the Hegenberger-I-880 
 exit. [Oakland Councilmember] Spees allowed that the stops would increase 
 the cost, but he believes they are mandatory given business expansion in 
 the airport neighborhood.\n\nThis proposal would ensure that the Connector 
 served the neighborhoods it went through. Having intermediate stops served 
 East Oakland too.\n\nIn April 2001, the Metropolitan Transporation 
 Commission (MTC) adopted the Regional Transporation Enhancement Policy 
 (RTEP) (MTC Resolution #3357) with a four-station $232 million dollar OAC 
 project.\n\nThis was confirmed by BART Spokesman Healy:\n\n    The monorail 
 "will be a shuttle service that will go back and forth between the airport 
 and the BART station, and it could have two stations in 
 between,"\n\nEnvironmental Review and looking at alternatives\n\nIn 2002, 
 BART adopted an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project. The EIR 
 looked at a Quality Bus Service (BRT) but selected the $232 million, 
 4-stop, Automated People Mover based on the following criteria:\n\n    * 
 Cost Effectiveness\n    * Maximizes Transit Ridership\n    * Travel Time 
 Savings\n    * Providing Opportunities for Economic Development on the 
 Hegenberger Corridor\n    * Reliable Scheduled Service\n    * Service 
 Flexibility\n    * Convenient, Safe and Comfortable Connection\n\nIt turns 
 out that the recently revised Connector project no longer performs strongly 
 in the key goals of "Travel Time Savings", "Maximizing Transit Ridership", 
 "Cost Effectiveness" or "Providing Economic Development along 
 Hegenberger".\n\nIt's Not Cost Effectiveness\n\nThe Oakland Airport 
 Connector was approved by Alameda County voters in November 2000 as a $130 
 million project. Six months later (April 2001), two stations were added, 
 nearly doubling the cost to $232 Million. In April 2009, both of the new 
 stations have been removed and the cost is now over four times the 
 original! $522-552!\n\nA 10-year history of the price of the OAC. OAC 
 Budget Graph\n\nBy comparison, AC Transit’s 14-mile 
 International/Telegraph BRT line is estimated at $238 million (compared to 
 the Connector at $552 million for 3.2 miles).\nMaximizing Transit 
 Ridership...are the numbers justified?\n\nCurrently, the AirBART bus 
 shuttle carries 9% of all Oakland Airport passengers. The AirBART charges 
 $3.00 and makes the trip from Coliseum BART to Oakland International in 12 
 minutes (up to 30 if congestion is terrible) and carries approximately 
 3,000 people per weekday.\n\nBART continues to evaluate the Oakland Airport 
 Connector bsed on ridership estimates developed in 2001 for the EIR based 
 on a fare of $2.00. This ridership estimate (13,540 riders per day) is 23% 
 higher than BART to SFO’s peak weekday ridership of 11,000 in July 2008. 
 (The original prediction for the BART-SFO extension was 17,800 daily riders 
 to SFO per the 1998 BART Website). The current proposal is for a $6.00 
 fare. That's an additional $6.00 on top of the normal BART fare!  It would 
 cost more to get from Coliseum BART to the airport than it currently does 
 to ride BART all the way from downtown SF to SFO ($5.35)!\n\nFurther, the 
 travel-time and service-frequency have declined and two of the four planned 
 stops have been removed. Yet BART continues to use its 2001 ridership 
 numbers.\n\nAt the April 23, 2009 BART Board meeting, the board learned 
 that new ridership information that they had been presented with was not 
 finalized or publicly available. Staff stated that the numbers were 
 “draft” and therefore not public, and that staff continues to work with 
 a consultant to fix problems that staff has identified.\n\nTravel Time 
 Savings...or is it?\n\nThe 2001 EIR studied an OAC system that traveled 
 between Coliseum BART and Oakland Airport in 8.2 minutes, including stops 
 at two intermediate stations.\n\nIn 2005, the Oakland Tribune reported that 
 AirBART traveled the same route in an average of “12-15 minutes.”\n\nOn 
 April 24, 2009, one day after the last BART Board meeting, BART’s website 
 was changed to indicate that the current version of the Oakland Airport 
 Connector will have “a travel time of approximately 12 minutes between 
 the Coliseum BART station and the airport.” As the two intermediate stops 
 have been removed, this marks a 50% increase in travel time since the EIR 
 studied the project, and is similar to the travel time of the existing 
 AirBART.\n\nOakland Airport has two terminals and plans to build a third in 
 the future, but the OAC will have only one stop on airport property. While 
 AirBART has the flexibility for stops at each terminal, the Oakland Airport 
 Connector will necessitate people walking between terminals in the 
 future.\n\nWhen BART Directors approved the project in 2002 and again in 
 2007, it was designed so that, “[p]assengers would have to walk 300 feet 
 on a people mover to get to the nearest check-in counter.” However, this 
 part of the design has been removed. OAC passengers will now have to 
 descend to street level and cross multiple lanes of traffic.\n(No Longer) 
 Providing Opportunities for Economic Development on the Hegenberger 
 Corridor\n\nThe most recent project does not have a stop anywhere along 
 Hegenberger. BART’s website describes the project stops as:\n\n    The 
 [OAC] system would include two end terminal stations: one at the Coliseum 
 BART Station and one at the proposed airport terminal.\n\nIn 2007, the BART 
 board adopted a resolution approving the permanent removal of the planned 
 stop at Edgewater and Hegenberger. The second stop, at Doolittle and 
 Hegenberger, remains proposed, but will no longer be included in the 
 current project.\n\nThere will be no stops on the OAC between Coliseum BART 
 and the Oakland Airport. The hoped-for economic development beneifts 
 originally foreseen in the EIR do not exist without intermediate stops. 
 Instead, the current design will create more auto-dependent development and 
 out-of-town OAC riders will soar over the neighborhood without any way to 
 get off. The benefit for East Oakland will be minimal. Riders will instead 
 be whisked away to points further North and South.\n\nThis is too big a 
 risk for very little payoff\n\nIn 2006, David Luberoff, executive director 
 of the Rappaport Institute of Greater Boston at the Harvard University 
 Kennedy School of Government, told the Oakland Tribune that BART’s 
 proposed Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) would shield the agency from 
 risk:\n\n    "One of the neat things about having the private operator do 
 this is that the private folks are going to be really hard-nosed about 
 it,” [said Luberoff]. “It validates the project, it shields BART from 
 the risk if the monorail is not popular"\n\nAnd a year earlier the Oakland 
 Tribune reported that the Port of Oakland agreed:\n\n    "The only way it 
 can be real is if there is private financing for it," said Port Aviation 
 Director Steve Grossman. "BART needs to go out there and find out if this 
 project is feasible."\n\nSince then, the three private firms that BART was 
 working with have walked away from the project and BART has increased the 
 capital costs by $100 million dollars. This risk has become greater and yet 
 BART continues to move forward on its own! BART needs to learn from its 
 private partners: this project as it is designed is not feasible!\nBART has 
 other options!\n\nIn 2001, BART’s own EIR studied a Bus Rapid Transit 
 solution. Such a solution could bring the schedule predictability and 
 travel speed desired by project proponents, needed jobs to East Oakland 
 (including ongoing operations positions), and do so at a much lower cost!\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/12/18594326.php
SUMMARY:Protect BART and Improve Transit Efficiency!
LOCATION:BART Board Room, located in the Kaiser Center 20th Street Mall, Third 
 Floor, 344 20th St., Oakland, CA.
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/12/18594326.php
DTSTART:20090514T160000Z
DTEND:20090514T190000Z
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