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Telegraph Avenue neighbors and merchants are wise to oppose AC Transit’s proposals to take over much of Telegraph, Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue, as the Daily Planet reported on Jan. 30 (”Bus Lane Plans Provoke Telegraph Neighborhood”). 

“Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) is great technology if wisely implemented. But AC Transit’s route proposal is absurdly redundant, offering Berkeley little real benefit but many drawbacks. 

Destinations like Berkeley would have benefited had AC Transit proposed a rapid-transit route that favored areas not served by BART (for example, Oakland’s MacArthur/I-580 corridor). Lots of car commuters would have switched to transit, removing cars from our streets. 

Instead, AC Transit proposes a bizarre route that runs just two to six blocks beside the existing BART tracks, all the way from Berkeley to San Leandro. 

Its “stations” would be almost as far apart as BART stations, yet the bus would still be much slower than BART: just 10 minutes faster than existing bus service, on an (unlikely) long trip from Berkeley to downtown Oakland or San Leandro. 

Obviously, most long-distance commuters would stick with BART or their own cars. Yet because AC Transit wants to squeeze those cars into just one lane in each direction on Telegraph, congestion in Berkeley would actually get worse—not better. 

AC Transit has ignored local officials’ pleas to at least extend its route to BART-deprived areas like Berkeley’s University Ave. and Oakland’s burgeoning Jack London Square. 

Furthermore, AC Transit’s proposal to restore two-way traffic on Bancroft and Durant would make the Southside even more hostile for bicyclists, while endangering pedestrians. Still worse is its proposed “pedestrian-transit mall” on Telegraph from Bancroft to Haste, an experiment that’s killed many other cities’ commercial districts. Here, it would extend “campus creep,” flood residential streets with traffic, and inconvenience almost everyone who lives, works, studies, bikes, or shops in the Southside. 

Those who share Southside residents’ and merchants’ dismay at these wasteful, misguided plans should consider doing several things. First, attend the Berkeley Transportation Commission’s hearing on AC Transit’s proposals this Thursday, Feb. 19. It starts at about 7:30 pm, at the North Berkeley Senior Center (on Hearst at MLK). 

Second, visit http://www.petitiononline.com/brtfix/petition.html to sign the online petition. 

Third, tell Berkeley’s Mayor and city councilmembers directly that you oppose AC Transit’s plans. Also send your comments, by March 19, to AC Transit’s Project Manager, Jim Cunradi at planning@actransit.org. 

Finally, on the March 2 ballot, consider voting against Regional Measure 2. AC Transit’s Telegraph Ave. plan depends on getting $65 million in capital, plus $3 million in annual operating subsidies, from this measure. 

Measure 2 is stuffed with plenty of other pork barrel, including $50 million to widen the Caldecott Tunnel, which would dump more cars onto Berkeley streets. It reserves an astounding 21 percent of its funds for five ferry routes—even though diesel ferries carry a small and declining ridership, at high cost and high environmental impact. (One ferry passenger uses about as much energy as a solo driver.) 

Everyone wants more transit. But funding opportunities are rare, and we need to reserve them for needed, sustainable transit that people will actually ride— not for individual agencies’ pet projects. Ask the South Bay’s imploding Valley Transit Authority, which now spends $8.42 per passenger trip to run largely empty streetcars, for a $1.50 fare. 

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