PAR Urges City To Take It Slow with Geary BRT Proposal

By Paul Kozakiewicz

The Planning Association for the Richmond (PAR) has proposed implementing a controversial Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in two phases so potentially negative impacts to the neighborhood, and local merchants, can be mitigated.

The SF County Transportation Authority, which is comprised of the members of the SF Board of Supervisors, has released its final report and commissioned an Environmental Impact Report for several BRT alternatives. Two plans would put dedicated bus lanes in the center of the boulevard, two plans would use the outside lanes and one plan makes improvements to the current Muni Geary 38 bus line. All of the new plans, except for the one calling for improving the current #38 service, would take a traffic lane on Geary for dedicated bus use.

The goal of the TA is to improve transit service in an important transportation corridor, one that moves some 50,000 people a day. The TA wants to shave travel time off commuters' rides and offer riders a better, more stable trip. The plan is a part of the TA's strategy is to lure people out of their cars for trips around the neighborhood and downtown.

But some neighborhood residents are concerned over the amount of traffic that would be diverted to other Richmond roads after traffic lanes are taken away for general use on Geary. According to the TA's preliminary estimates, about 126 more vehicles an hour would be on California Street during peak times. All of the district's streets would see an increase.

According to the city's General Plan, Geary is intended to be used as a traffic spine so there are less vehicles on other district roads to improve pedestrian and bicyclists' safety.

Additionally, the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association is concerned about the loss of parking and the impacts of the transit plan on businesses. The merchants have been calling for an economic impact study to determine potential effects, but none has been commissioned. As one option for the various BRT plans, bus stops could be consolidated, moving them farther apart. According to some studies, businesses near the boarding stations do well, and usually attract larger, chain-store-like business, while other businesses, usually smaller mom-and-pop stores, lose customers.

The Planning Association for the Richmond is the largest community group in the City. Its members follow various issues of concern to the district. After researching the issue, PAR issued its position paper and concerns about the proposed $200 million project. (Most of the $200 million would be used to reconfigure and reconstruct the intersections at Geary and Masonic Avenue and Geary and Fillmore Street.)

"To assure that public transit on Geary is improved before incurring the significant and unknown costs and disruptions from constructing the proposed BRT system based on inadequate data, PAR urges a two-phase approach," the position paper says.

The first phase is the one supported by the merchants' association. It calls for installing transit priority signals at key intersections so buses can control the traffic lights, installing bus bulb-outs at some stops, real-time information at bus stops, low floor buses for level boarding, and designating the right-side lanes of Geary in each direction as bus-only lanes during the morning and evening commutes.

After successfully implementing these changes and researching all of its effects, a second phase, if desired, can be looked at, according to PAR's position, adopted by the board of directors at its September meeting. A second phase could include redesigning the intersections at Masonic and Fillmore and studying more in-depth the effect the BRT is having on local merchants.

The position paper said: "Muni, as currently operated, is unreliable; concerns about the negative impacts of a prolonged construction period on Geary businesses are valid and have not been addressed; and the spill-over of traffic from Geary to neighboring residential streets, both during construction and after one traffic lane is dedicated to buses, are serious issues for many residents.

"Further, we are concerned about the more than 100 trees along the Geary median that will be removed to construct new BRT lanes and bus stops, and doubt they can be replaced successfully."

A voter mandate to implement the Geary BRT line was granted when transit proponents inserted a paragraph of text into Proposition K in 2003. The leader of the effort to pass the transit measure was BART director Tom Radulovich, who urged members of the committee working on the measure to stay silent about the BRT measure.

Because the proposition needed a two-thirds approval, Radulovich did not want to create opposition by publicizing the Geary BRT aspect of the 10-page proposition. Almost no one in the Richmond knew about the Geary BRT provision, including the Clement, Sacramento and Geary Boulevard merchants' associations.

The creation of a BRT line on Geary could increase the housing density along the busy thoroughfare because the federal government has shifted most of its housing grants to projects that are located in transit corridors.