The latest news for you from Alameda CTC

January 2024

Transportation Safety

Happy New Years from all of us here at Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC)! We are extremely proud to celebrate the significant accomplishments that are improving transportation safety for communities of all ages and abilities in Alameda County. Read on to learn more about our safety-related work from last year. Safety is a top concern for all of our projects and programs and we look forward to continuing to advance safety priorities throughout 2024.

Elected officials, public agency leaders and stakeholders listen in on Alameda CTC Chair

John J. Bauters’ opening remarks.

Alameda CTC Hosts Workshops on Active Transportation Safety

In October 2023, Alameda CTC gathered elected officials, public agency leaders and stakeholders to discuss policies and strategies to support the implementation of high-quality bicycling networks throughout Alameda County. The workshop sought to reaffirm and deepen understanding about the importance of safety and connected active transportation options in all communities to meet policy goals and commitments to safety, climate and equity.

The event included dynamic discussions with national leaders, panel presentations, and success stories from around Alameda County, all highlighting policies and strategies that attendees could take back to their communities to deliver the highest quality bikeway projects. Reflecting on the event, Alameda CTC Chair John J. Bauters shared, “Today’s workshop was a great opportunity to grow our capacity as a community of elected officials, staff, and community stakeholders to build a countywide bikeway network that is safe and serves people of all backgrounds."

RSEP improvements are proposed along the Union Pacific tracks throughout Alameda County.

Update on Alameda CTC's Rail Safety Enhancement Program

Since 2019, 51 people have died at grade crossings or between crossings along the rail corridors in Alameda County. In response to this urgent need for safety around rail infrastructure, Alameda CTC developed the Alameda County Rail Safety Enhancement Program (RSEP) to provide safe at-grade crossings for all users, reduce the fatalities or severe injuries at the at-grade crossings, increase freight service reliability along rail corridors and reduce greenhouse gasses.

To achieve project goals and construct improvements in three to five-year timeframes, Alameda CTC split RSEP into three phases, RSEP-A, RSEP-B and RSEP-C. The effort is currently in RSEP-A phase, which proposes safety improvements to 28 at-grade rail crossings and two trespassing sites along Union Pacific Railroad tracks. This safety project received national attention with a $25 million award from the Federal Railroad Administration to help fund construction.

RSEP-A is currently in Final Design, with work anticipated to be completed by Spring 2025. Project partners include Alameda County and the Cities of Berkeley, Hayward, Livermore, Oakland and San Leandro, the California Public Utilities Commission, Union Pacific Railroad and Caltrans.

Caregiver champions lead students in a bike parade to commute to school during International Walk and Roll to School Day on October 4, 2023.

Highlighting the Exciting Efforts from the Safe Routes to Schools Program

The final quarter of 2023 was exciting for Alameda CTC’s Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Program, which promotes active and shared commutes to school. On October 4th, the SR2S Program supported over 11,000 students walking, 4,700 rolling (biking and scootering), 3,000 carpooling, and 900 students taking buses or transit to school during International Walk and Roll to School Day. This past November 14th, students walked and rolled to school to honor Ruby Bridges’ bravery in pioneering equal educational opportunities for all children since her first walk to William Frantz Elementary School in 1960. Age 6 at the time, Ruby was the first black student to enroll in a formerly all-white school, and has been championing civil rights ever since.

The SR2S Program is excited to host the following events planned for early 2024:

Reboot Your Commute (January 29-March 29): Reboot Your Commute events encourage high school students to use active and shared transportation options. Students then share their transportation preferences by writing on large display boards the reasons why they walk, bike, carpool, or take transit.
Golden Sneaker Contest (March 4-15): Alameda County students, classrooms, and schools encourage one another to walk, roll, carpool, and/or use public transit by working as a class to increase participation. One winning classroom per school will receive a coveted Golden Sneaker trophy.

State Capitol Building in Sacramento, California. Credit: Sundry Photography.

Alameda CTC Celebrates Passage of Two New Laws Advancing Transportation Safety

Because safety is also one of Alameda CTC’s legislative priorities, we are committed to advocating for laws and policies that enable us to deliver safe, multimodal infrastructure, advance Vision Zero efforts, and support safety opportunities for local jurisdictions. Alameda CTC supported two bills during the 2023 legislative session that were signed into law by Governor Newsom. These legislative victories mark important advancements for safety and include:

AB 413 (Lee) amended the Vehicle Code to require “daylighting” at all intersections. The new law will prohibit a person from stopping, parking or leave standing any vehicle within 20 feet of the vehicle approach side of a marked or unmarked crosswalk. Daylighting is considered a low-cost intervention that improves visibility for both drivers and pedestrians by clearing intersections of obstructions like parked cars, especially around corners where many crashes occur. This bill will go into effect in 2025.
AB 645 (Friedman) creates a Speed Safety System Pilot Program using an automated system to detect and issue citations for speeding in five California cities: Oakland, Los Angeles, San Jose, Glendale, Long Beach and San Francisco. Public agencies can utilize speed safety cameras, an effective and reliable technology to supplement more traditional methods of enforcement, engineering measures and education to reduce speeding. AB 645 also included provisions specifying the steps each city must comply with, reporting requirements, limits to the number of automated systems and specific placement locations to address certain racial profiling and privacy concerns.

AlamedaCTC.org

About us