Many of us drive in downtown San Rafael and recognize that the traffic situation has become sequentially worse over the years - today traffic flow is so poor that it is graded level "E" which has an official designation as being unacceptable.
With SMART's extension to Larkspur San Rafael's traffic situation is set to worsen - by how much? This has not been analyzed and understood.
Work
on the SMART Larkspur extension is scheduled to commence this summer.
The impositions on San Rafael and residents of San Anselmo, Fairfax and
Ross who are dependent on this corridor and on 101 are likely to be
significant:
-
the Bettini Transit Center has to be moved, this will likely take 6+
years and there is no funding for a temporary or permanent new location
estimated to cost in excess of $29m
-
the interim plan means that buses will be routinely parking, loading
and unloading on city streets; passengers will be scrambling across busy
city streets and intersections
-
only a partial analysis of the traffic impacts has been performed by
the city and this has already identified that the traffic impacts are
very significant
-
the additional traffic signal crossings at 2nd and 3rd and the parked
buses will push stationary traffic back onto highway 101; a complete
evaluation of the impact on 101 and San Rafael's intersections is not
yet planned or funded. This could cause much more significant 101
congestion during peak hours when the train and transit center are most
active.
-
today, the traffic affected includes 25,000 daily vehicle trips on 2nd
street, 25,000 on 3rd street, 5,000 on 4th street and 9,000 on 5th (E.g.
up to 64,000 trips are likely to be delayed); by comparison SMART is
projected to carry 231 daily trips to Larkspur (SMART EIR figure), but
this figure is not until the year 2035
The
good news is that our city council has pledged to hold hearings similar
to the Quiet Zone hearings. They are working hard to listen to staff
and residents and represent us. They can only do so much though and
residents will need to attend, engage and share their concerns to
protect quality of life. I'd personally like to thank our council for
setting up these hearings.
SMART's
General Manager and Sonoma County officials are pressuring the San
Rafael City Council to allow SMART to be extended to Larkspur without
delay - without spending the necessary time to analyze the impact and
collect public input. Unfortunately SMART conducted no analysis to
understand the impact of moving the Bettini Transit Center in any of
it's Environmental Impact Reports, and city staff and the Transportation
Authority of Marin did nothing to question this impact.
If you know folks in San Anselmo, Fairfax and Ross please have them share this on their Nextdoor.com so that they can understand what is occurring as this will directly impact them.
PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH RESIDENTS OF SAN ANSELMO, FAIRFAX AND ROSS
This is certain to affect these residents - please do have friends in these cities share this posting on Nextdoor.com.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Watch
the video of the City Council Special Study Session to learn more. This
is lining up to be a significant imposition on traffic and transit
users in our area. Traffic is already at level of service "E" which is
unacceptable. Residents who are concerned about traffic and transit
center impact should look to attend upcoming council meetings.