Campus & community, Campus news

AC Transit, BART seek campus views on transit

By Cathy Cockrell

As part of their planning for the Bay Area transportation future, both AC Transit and BART are currently doing public outreach, including at UC Berkeley, where some 8,000 people use public transit for their daily commute.

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AC Transit seeks input at an Oct. 30 workshop at Berkeley. The event is part of Plan ACT, a detailed review of AC Transit service, infrastructure and policies.

AC Transit planners will be on campus Thursday, Oct. 30, to gather feedback on its East Bay and transbay bus service, as part of Plan ACT, a detailed review of AC Transit service, infrastructure,and policies to create a near- and long-term vision for investment. Students, faculty, staff and members of the community are invited to share their perspectives on bus routes and schedules, how to allocate future resources and what to do with Measure BB transit funding if the bond measure is approved by voters Nov. 4. The workshop will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. in 172 Wurster Hall (see campus map here).

For those not able to attend the workshop, AC Transit is also soliciting feedback via its online “Plan | ACT” Survey.

BART is also doing public outreach concerning “Future BART” planning project with an online survey.

Campus planner Todd Henry notes that about 20 percent of the campus community uses bus or BART for their commute, thereby reducing congestion around campus, improving pedestrian and bicycle safety, and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and the demand for campus parking.

As an incentive to use transit, the Parking and Transportation offers the ClassPass and BearPass, the discounted AC Transit passes for campus affiliates. But for many, “Discounted bus tickets alone do not make transit an attractive commute option,” says Henry. “That’s why we need to work with AC Transit and BART on improving transit quality and making service efficient, reliable and safe for campus commuters.”

AC Transit and BART are currently working on several major transit projects that affect campus commuters, including:

BART and the City of Berkeley are planning ways to revamp and improve intermodal transit connectivity at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. And the campus’s Physical and Environmental Planning office is working with the City of Berkeley and AC Transit to improve bus stops along Bancroft Way; those improvements are scheduled to coordinate with the redevelopment of Lower Sproul.