As mentioned a little while back, the Alameda Transportation Commission (TC) has disappeared. Not even next month’s impending major AC Transit service changes appear to have warranted a TC meeting once AC Transit developed a proposal for actual service changes (not just a list of possibilties for discussion). Nor did possible changes to bus stop locations (because buses will be running completely new routes, especially on the West End.) [slideboom id=141139&w=425&h=370]
As I mentioned back in September:
The school district was out in force, and was able to hook up with the planners of the school routes to make sure that everything works to the benefit of the students. One of the concerns that came up was regarding Island High and its non-standard school hours
And indeed it was. AC Transit’s school buses will run to Main and Singleton during “normal” school hours AND planners moved their proposed Line 31 to run on Midway (from Main street) in stead of Atlantic, so that it could stop and pick up students from Island High School at non-standard times. And beyond serving the schools, this would benefit the Northwest side of Bayport as well.
There’s only one problem. There’s no stop on Main Street at Midway (see map for location…hint: it’s where the bullseye is). It turns out that after the community and schools came out and asked for the bus to run on Midway, AC Transit made the change and requested that the stops be put in. So far, so good. But it turns out that the City (Public Works in this case) refused. Apparently the stop location needed to be upgraded and there was a cost to do that work, so they just said “no.”
Had there been a TC meeting, there could have been a public discussion about how transit lines need stops in order to be useful to riders. I mean if you think about it, this isn’t just putting in a single stop-something that always gets sent to the TC anyway. but planning the entire infrastructure for new routes.
The result? West End transit riders, students at that, are getting the shaft and yet again, Alameda’s transit ends up running past, instead of stopping and serving a whole mess of households.