Here's another public comment regarding Otis Drive. This letter is from a former member of Alameda City Council (who before that served on both the city's Planning Board and Transportation Commission):

TC Members,

At your next meeting you’ll be receiving a report on Caltrans’ Otis Drive long-haul-trucking-over-safety design plan. While the item is not an action item, I want to encourage the Transportation Commission to not quietly accept or approve the proposed design.

Street design plans represent a series of choices that reflect the values and priorities of the designers. When done in accordance with local planning efforts and long-term visions, they align to support the community they are supposed to be designed to support.

Unfortunately, Caltrans has decided to ignore the will of the California State legislature, Local leaders and our community in order to bulldoze a plan that was outright rejected by Alameda Staff and leaders the last time they presented it.

To be clear, the City of Alameda, its elected officials, appointed transportation advisory commission and city staff have worked diligently over the past 15 years to identify the local transportation priorities and street use guidance for our city. These include:

▪️ Making our neighborhoods safe for families to walk to school

▪️ Focusing [t]ruck traffic on key streets while maintaining a local, residential focus on non-commerical corridors

▪️ Reducing the incidence of high-speed, overbuilt traffic sewers and increasing the quality of life of households that live on streets that are identified to carry higher volumes of Traffic

Caltrans’ proposed design achieves none of these adopted goals and goes so far as to proposed prioritizing sending 65’ tractor-trailers down streets like Versailles, which are not identified as official truck routes in Alameda, over bare-bones pedestrian safety upgrades.

Caltrans staff is choosing to prioritize trucks on small local streets over the livability and safety of the people who live there. These are the choices the designers have made.

Sure, they promise to come back in 10 years and listen to the community at that time. But there is zero reason to believe them. They choose to not listen this time, why would they the next? We’ve seen this cartoon before, they’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

While you are not an official approval for this project, you are not powerless. You do not have to quietly accept and add your passive stamp of approval to this project. I encourage you to direct staff to agendize an item at the next City Council meeting recommending that the City Council formally send a letter objecting to this project’s design, outlining (as staff as done so effectively) all the points in the process that the city asked Caltrans Staff to collaborate with the community, providing benefits instead of choosing to further engrain harm.

The people who live on Otis have been asking the City for help for decades, the families who attend Otis have highlighted safety concerns for decades. This was an opportunity for Caltrans staff to choose to hear them and design streets that met the need for the people who travel on them, as well as the people who live by them and those who need to cross them.

Tomorrow night, you can be the voice of all those people and make it clear that the City does not agree with Caltrans staff’s choosing to deprioritize community safety in Alameda. Ask the council to join you. Make it clear that these designs are out of sync with our city and our priorities for safe neighborhoods and safe streets.

Best,
John Knox White
Former city councilmember

To share your own support for an Otis Drive that's safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and even drivers:

1. Send an email for inclusion in the May 28 Transportation Commission Meeting by emailing tc@alamedaca.gov and CC'ing CITYCOUNCIL-List@alamedaca.gov, manager@alamedaca.gov, and Dina.El-Tawansy@dot.ca.gov* by noon tomorrow
2. Join by Zoom or in person for the meeting. This will be the only agenda item, so it will likely happen promptly at 6:30 p.m. at Alameda City Hall.

* I previously shared an incorrectly spelled email address for CC'ing the Caltrans District 4 director. My apologies to Director El-Tawansy, and thanks also to an eagle-eyed reader for noticing!