Sorry, it was for him, not you.
It was for him.
All right.
Welcome to the Thursday, March 19, 2026,
regular meeting of the Walnut Creek Transportation Commission.
Will the secretary please take a roll call?
Student Commissioner Kirsch absent.
Commissioner Ash.
Here.
Commissioner Guerrero.
Present.
Commissioner McMahan.
McMahan here.
Commissioner Patch.
Vice Chair Krelling.
Present.
All right, thank you.
OK, next item is public communications.
And this is for items that are not on the agenda.
And so I'll just read a little bit of official verbiage.
The portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items
not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the commission cannot act on items
raised during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made
for questions posed requested clarifications or refer the item to our
esteemed staff so I'm opening up is there anyone in the room who would like
to address the Transportation Commission we have no members of the public waiting
to provide comments how did you know everyone here was not in the public I
didn't know that okay thank you very much all right we will close public
communications then all right consent calendar the only consent item we have
is approving the minutes of the January 15th meeting before we do that does
anybody on the Commission or the audience wish to pull the meetings off a consent
as a discussion item. Seeing none, does anybody on the Commission have any edits or corrections
to the minutes, Commissioner Ash? I am good, thanks. Okay, motion to approve.
Don't want to hear if the rest of the Commissioners have any edits or corrections?
I'm good with my motion. I'd like to ask to delay the motion. I'd like to ask Commissioner Patch
if she has any corrections or edits to the meeting minutes. I do not. Okay, we'd like to make your
motion again. I'd like to move to approve the minutes. We have a second. All right, motion made
and seconded. You can do a roll call vote please. Commissioner Ash? Aye. Commissioner Guerrero? Aye.
Commissioner McMahon? Aye. Vice Chair uh Commissioner Patch? Aye. You stole my microphone.
Commissioner Crowley? Aye. All right consent items are approved and accepted including the
minutes of the January 15th meeting. Thank you very much. All right on to business considerations
election of the chair and vice chair so do we have any nominations for chair I
would like to nominate Charles for chair and can I make the motion for both Matt
or do I make them separate you can do both and Laura patch for a vice chair we
have a motion made we have a second second thank you
Secretary take a roll call vote please. Commissioner Ash. Aye. Commissioner Guerrero. Aye.
Commissioner McMahon. Aye. Vice Chair Patch. Aye. Chair Krelling. Aye. You could have said not
yet twice. Opportunity missed. Okay. All right so we have duly accepted our
duties whoo-hoo okay so moving on to item B or are we doing where is the I know we
have committee appointments that's at the end thank you so many colors on this
alright so transportation capital project update discussion several
transportation related projects in the capital improvement program and Walnut
Creek. So does staff have a report? Or distinguished guests have a report.
Good evening commissioners. My name is Alex Wong. I'm the senior engineer with the capital
improvement program. I'm here with five of our CIP engineers and I'll let them introduce
themselves when they come out. Tonight we're here to provide the commission an update to
to the capital budget, capital related,
the transportation related capital improvement projects.
So just an outline of tonight's presentation.
First, I'm gonna review the transportation projects
that are moving toward construction.
We'll stop there and take questions and comments.
And then we'll move to reviewing
the transportation projects
that are in the design development stage.
And we'll take questions and comments there.
local commissioners. My name is Rashad Culver I'm in social engineer with the
CIP program and the first project we have for update is the Ignacio Valley
Road rehabilitation project and this project is set to repave YVR from Oak
Grove to the city limits with safety improvements at the intersection of
of Ignacio and Oak Grove Road.
This is a federally funded project funded
through Federal Airmark Grant.
And our safety improvements include speed feedback signs,
edge and longitudinal rumble strips,
optical speed bars, reduced travel lane widths,
and slip lane modifications
with speed humps just before the crossings.
And all this is in efforts to slow folks down,
driving in the corridor.
And currently, we are awaiting federal approval.
However, we're scheduled for construction spring of 2027.
Next, I have two projects to present here,
both the un-signalized pedestrian crossing improvements,
as well as the trail crossing improvements project.
And the project scope includes the addition
of rapid flashing beacons at the pedestrian crossings,
as well as passive detection at the trail crossings.
This is funded through traffic impact fees
and supplemented by the TDA grant, which we were awarded.
And improvements, pedestrian improvements
at roughly 13 crossings including Civic Drive, Tice Valley Boulevard, Bancoff Road, North
Main Street, and Mount Diablo as well. And trail crossings include the Contra Costa Canal
Trail at Jones Road, as well as the Briones to Mount Diablo Trail at crossings at Larky,
Buena Vista, and San Luis Road. And this is an effort to increase visibility of pedestrians
and trail users at crossings and lower vehicular speeds. And we are
currently in construction for this project. Thank you. Good evening
commissioners. I'm Yriel Dominguez. I am with the CIP Division. Today I'll be
going over the project that I'm managing this year which is the 2026 slurry
project. This is funded through Measure J and the gas tax. This year we'll be
slurry ceiling, approximately 43 streets in the Tampico, Diablo Shadows and the
Valle Vista area. As part of this project we are enhancing bicycle and pedestrian
facilities. A good example of that is on Montego Road. If you can look at the
illustration at the bottom there, that is ranging from Montego from
Ignacio Valley Road to Tampico. What will be changing right now is existing
bike lanes and two travel lanes so we'll be changing that to two travel lanes and
a center turn lane and also narrowing down those lanes to reduce speed as well
as adding a buffer lane between the travel lane and the bike lane.
Additionally another improvement we're making is adding flashing stop signs on
Oak at the on Oak Grove at intersections at Deer Park and Vela Vista and on the
image on the bottom right you'll see what the stop sign would look like and
And this is scheduled for construction in the spring and summer of this year or summer
of this year.
Good evening commissioners.
My name is Andrew McDade.
I'm also an engineer with the CIP division.
The project I'm managing, which actually was just awarded for contract this past Tuesday
night is the Walker Avenue pedestrian improvement project.
This will install sidewalk extensions just east of the Iron Horse Trail crossing on Mount
Diablo across Walker Avenue.
We'll also reconstruct the curb cuts here, improve the landing, as well as ADA accessibility.
This will improve pedestrian visibility, it'll work crossing distance obviously.
Also with this one, we will raise the crosswalk a bit to create an undulation that will slow
motorists down, especially coming around Walker from the east, around that curve there.
In addition to these improvements, we're also installing some reflective curb paint and
upgrading the striping and signage as well as installing an additional street light at
this location.
And this is funded in large part by Measure J, Transportation for Livable Communities grant.
And this is expected to start in a few months, late spring, early summer.
Thank you.
Good evening, commissioners.
My name is Austin Potto.
I am also an engineer for the CIP Division.
The project that I'll be presenting on today is actually split up into four different locations.
The first three locations I'll talk about right now, the fourth location I'll talk about
when we get to the next section. So this project, is the Safe Russell School
project, is going to be on Walnut Boulevard, Cedro Lane and Parkside Drive,
where we are going to be increasing pedestrian and bicycle safety for
students walking or biking to school. And so by doing this, we'll mainly be
closing sidewalk gaps, so about approximately 1,500 foot gap on Walnut
Boulevard, 200 foot gap on Cedro Lane, and 170 foot gap on Parkside Drive.
We'll also be installing all three of these locations of bull bouts to increase the service
area of our sidewalk, as well as reduce the crossing distances at each intersection.
We'll also be installing on Walnut Boulevard specifically, a street light at Bellows Court
to increase visibility, as well as a rectangular rapid flashing beacon on the Fraser Drive
intersection to, again, increase visibility for students walking.
This project is funded through the One Bay Area grant.
We're currently in the process of going through Caltrans federal approval, and we are awaiting
that set approval to begin construction anticipated in summer of 2027.
And so with that, we kind of talked about our projects that are near construction, and
we have a little map here to kind of show the various locations.
You know, I'll open up to any questions or comments before we move on to the next section.
Okay, great.
Thanks.
So we will open up for questions from the commissioners,
and I know Commissioner Ash is dying to ask some questions.
Actually, I don't have that many.
You guys did great.
First question on the bulb outs,
you're talking concrete like rays,
sort of sidewalk islands, correct?
Yeah, so like look at the bottom picture,
that's all concrete right there.
Okay.
So it's hard improvements that are physically reducing
lanes. Okay and then on the Ignacio intersection, that was like the
first slide, just curious, do we have updated counts of how many vehicles and
pedestrians are going through that? Our counts are not very updated I think
maybe 2019. Oh yeah well the world has changed a lot since then. What do we have
to do to get updated counts at least at a couple of any of these intersections?
the major ones in the city? That's something we can consider. Okay. Yeah, I
mean it we have to hire our account company and so it's just you know
operating budget that we have to use to get some data. Okay. We also have other
means to look into this sort of thing with big data you know so we have
platforms like Streetlight where we can get estimates on the general
number of vehicles there and even cyclists. But when the volume is low, not
in this case, but when the streets are low,
like residential streets, the data is not as accurate.
Right, but this intersection.
Yeah, we could approximate it with the streetlight data.
Yeah, that would be great.
And if not, I recommend Charles to go and count
with a little pad of paper and hash marks.
You will be joining me, of course.
Yes.
OK, so that was helpful.
And then just in general, I kind of
wanted to hear from from you guys and maybe this goes into the next part but
like in an ideal world what do you feel like is missing right now that would
that like if we promote it can help you do your jobs a little better it's like
something that we don't see in these flashy slides or something I don't know
who if anybody wants to be brave enough to answer that in front of a microphone
but I'm just kind of curious in an ideal world is there a technology you've seen
is there something that we could look at?
Is there another intersection that we're not tackling
because we haven't done it?
And I just kind of want you guys to speak freely
and I'm just kind of curious to get people's thoughts.
Well, speaking freely, I feel we receive feedback
from the community and we address things as well as we can.
Not only do we take in feedback,
we take in feedback from the community
as well as our maintenance group.
we are out in the field observing things on a day-to-day basis. Um, personally, I feel supported.
Um, speaking for my colleagues, if you guys have anything to add, please, we feel supported.
Okay, great. Awesome. Usually somebody asked answers that with a billion dollar check, but okay.
Thanks. Commissioner McMahon. Uh, thank you for the presentation. Uh, these all look really good.
I did have a question about this first one
You said there's some speed
Bumps, right
And I was wondering why'd you go with the speed bump or speed humps instead of like a raised crosswalk
Potentially there to get to the little pedestrian islands
Or is there like pros and cons between between those two?
Yeah, there there are pros and cons one being drainage the speed humps
maybe
They may facilitate drainage a little better than say a speed table or a raised crosswalk May
And given the placement of the inlets at this location
We feel that the speed humps may be the best solution
Okay, great. Thank you for that. I can add to that a little bit
I think that's a great point about the drainage.
Those are some real world constraints
that we have to deal with.
But then I think here, what we're trying to do
is place the bump in advance of the crosswalk,
because we don't want people slowing down
at the point of the crosswalk.
We want them slowing down approaching the crosswalk.
And so that's what we're trying to do
at this location is slow those speeds.
Yeah, I like that.
And then so how far in front of the crosswalk
will the speed humps be?
roughly 15 to 20 feet.
Okay, perfect.
And then go to the next slide.
Sorry, I think one more after that.
Let's see.
There was one on Civic Drive.
You said you were gonna add some flashing lights and stuff.
Yes.
Yeah.
I was wondering, are the flashing lights
gonna be on the road as well,
or is it just gonna be the flashing lights on the signs?
just the flashing lights on the signs,
currently we do not have in-ground flashing crossings.
Okay, I can see.
Has that been like considered,
or is that like an option at all?
Yeah, and I think we used to maybe 10 years ago.
And we ripped them out due to maintenance issues,
and we found that compliance and yielding rates
are just as good with just the signs.
Cool.
There's also electricity problems, right, going across, like if a line gets cut or right,
I know...
Yeah, they're all wired up down in the ground.
So the light's solid and that can be run over by cars, but then there's wires between each
of the lights on the ground when the signs are bright enough and can provide that visibility.
I'll just add about the in-ground lights as a pilot, the only thing I miss about the ones
we had is I used to say to my wife, hey, let's turn on the taxiway lights.
Yeah, I just, I used to cross Civic a lot.
I used to live over there.
So it was just, I feel like coming like down that hill,
it was kind of hard to see some of those lights sometimes,
especially like at night with the cars coming the other way.
So I was like, maybe there could be a little bit more
visibility within in road lights,
but it sounds like those aren't perfect either.
And then the last slide, you go to that one.
Let's see, is there gonna be a raised crosswalk
here as well?
No, there's not gonna be any raised crosswalks here.
Okay.
Is that like an option?
We considered a raised crosswalk for C. Joe and Abano,
but, you know, you would have to raise
that entire crosswalk, which again, like Rashad mentioned,
has some drainage concerns,
and as well as its price concerns, right?
We're limited to the budget we get from the grant on this,
and we're spreading it between four different locations.
So we considered it for this intersection,
But ultimately, due to drainage and cost,
we went with a more, you know,
bulbing out and constraining it that way.
Okay, that makes sense.
And sorry, I got one more question.
Sure.
Go one more back to the San Miguel one.
So I actually just moved over here,
so I'm very familiar with this area.
This left-hand turn coming like,
like on San Miguel, like turning left, basically,
is really difficult in a car?
Is there anything that we can do about that?
Not a whole lot, although we are removing
the tree on the corner.
It's just, it's causing the,
in the upper left picture,
is there a pointer?
Okay, thank you Matt.
Oh, here we go.
Oh okay, this is cool, there's some lag.
This tree right here will be removed.
So that should improve visibility coming from the east.
I feel like coming from the other direction,
it's not quite as bad, although there it's,
I don't think there's much we could do to open it up.
That's given the constraints of the bridge and stuff there.
but we will be taking out one tree
which should improve things a little bit.
Okay.
Yeah, that's true, yeah.
The cars coming from the other direction
will be slowed down,
so you'll have a better chance to react,
not pull out in front of them,
but traffic will be slower through this intersection,
so it'll make maneuvering easier.
Okay.
Is there any way you could consider a roundabout there
or anything like that, or is there not no space?
Well, these are already in construction, like you said.
They just want to.
But the next set of plans are going into design.
And so I think input like that consideration would be good.
And yeah, I mean, we try to consider those roundabouts
or other options, but we are limited on budget
and the right of way, the space we have, it's public.
and so this was our best design we came up with.
Well, thank you so much.
Sorry for all the questions.
Thank you.
Love all the questions.
Commissioner Guerrero.
Yeah, so in this one right here for the Walker Avenue,
somebody said that one of the crosswalks is gonna be raised.
Is it the one we're looking at that comes from that tree
that's gonna be taken out?
That's gonna be a table?
My apologies if that's not totally clear.
It's Crossing Walker right here.
copy. So is the one that actually crosses the iron horse? Is that also going to be tabled?
No. We don't have any plans for that right now. The only thing that we'll just be painting
some yellow reflective curb on the median right there. That's more for nighttime driving
than, you know, really any pedestrian benefit.
But I think visibility is pretty, pretty good here.
It's pretty, you know, we have the bulb outs,
but no, we don't have plans for raising that.
Okay, if we could leave this picture up,
going back to the lighted signs is how does,
what's the, without a long time of questions,
but what's the process of choosing
street and deciding that one of those signs with the lights is going to go in.
Is that what which project are you referring to? So like the Iron Horse
Trail crossing right it doesn't have a lighted sign right now like like what
I'm looking at right now in this screen. Correct? That one does. The Iron Horse
does one does? That one does, yeah. Okay and these lights when they get put in it
I think it takes, is it a meeting and you guys just,
how is it chosen?
How are the areas chosen for those lights to go in?
For the most recent trail crossing improvements,
our traffic division has done outreach
with local bicycle advocates out into the community.
They've received feedback and sites were selected
based on that.
And in terms of the pedestrian crossing,
we have a number of un-signalized crossings
throughout the city,
pedestrian crossings that aren't at a traffic signal.
And through that, we receive recommend,
the CIP department receives recommendation from traffic
on locations they feel need them the most.
And from there, we generate projects
based on the budget available.
Got it. And then, previously, you alluded to feedback from the citizens.
How's that feedback received? How do they get it to you? Is it phone calls? Is it
emails? Is it social media? How do you take that feedback in? We received
all of those. Also, Matt, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we
actually were at the trails receiving feedback from cyclists. We've had
community members do outreach to get feedback and just to hear what bikers
are feeling out there. Yeah to expand on Rashad I mean we we take in requests
typically through email is most common although phone calls or voicemails is
also popular and then you know to narrow down the various pedestrian crossings
for improvements we're really trying to take a data-driven approach so we look
at speeds of roadways and length of crosswalk.
So a roadway with five lanes, two lanes in each direction, plus a center turn lane, that's
a really long crossing.
And so that's going to be prioritized over a smaller two lane road with slower speeds.
And so from that, it filters itself in terms of where should we be applying these.
And so now as we've done these projects multiple years in a row, thanks to Rashad's work on
this. And so now we're going down that list and finding shorter and shorter crosswalks
to improve or going back to some of these locations and adding these flashing lights.
Okay. I think that's all the questions I had. Thank you. Very informative.
Great. Thank you. Vice Chair Patch.
A couple of questions. We can start on this slide. I know some of this work are things
that we've piloted or tried out in different locations.
Are there any in this particular project
that it was like a temporary measure
that we're now making permanent?
In this project specifically,
we took a two phase approach.
Where the first phase we introduced a striping
in the photo here we have the Mount Diablo
and oh, it looks like Alpine.
that's Mount Diablo and Bond crossing there.
Previously, we installed the lane buffer treatment.
That's what we were able to do
with the funds we had at the moment.
And now we're actually in construction now
to come back with the flashing signs.
So not necessarily a pilot program,
but we are phasing installs.
Great.
I just wanted to hear if any of like,
what you had actually been learning by doing it
it was getting implemented.
And then my second question is,
two of these projects say they're waiting
on federal approval.
I'm assuming that's because the funds
are from federal grants.
What's the likelihood that they don't get approved?
We have approval already.
Alex, would you like to speak to?
Yeah, we were, the city was awarded those grants
and we're just waiting for each of the steps
comes through. There's been a lot of federal changes and guidelines and I
think it's really slowing down the Caltrans local assistance with approving
the projects and moving them forward. These projects, the OBAG, Walnut, and then
also Ignatial were scheduled for this summer and they haven't responded to us
for months so that pretty much puts us out of the construction season moving the
projects through next year. Okay and that kind of makes me have a second
question of a lot of these are listed as spring summer of this year. Is there a
priority list? Like or are they all just gonna happen concurrently? These projects
they're in like they're they're been awarded by Council and moving toward
construction. I think like this one's in construction. I think the WOC, the
San Miguel WOC-er that's just was was awarded so it probably start
construction in about two or three months. They're still rolling in and it's
As that map shows, these projects are spread out throughout the city so they don't really
impact each other.
It's just, you know, and we have different project managers that manage each one of them.
So, you know, we handle the load, you know, year after year, so it's...
Great.
Thanks.
All right.
Thank you.
Would you mind going back to the first slide?
See, we all want to go through all the slides with you.
Okay.
So one question I had is, what is an optical speed bar?
I know, I get to ask the dumb questions.
So optical speed bar, it's a set of pavement markings that go over a span, say, maybe 600
or so feet, and as you progress through the sequence, the spacing decreases between the
pavement markings, so gives the driver the feel of increasing speed, even if they are
maintaining the same speed.
So this is to address driver behavior.
If a driver is feeling, in theory, if a driver is feeling they're going too fast, maybe before
a turn, the optical speed bars are set to, just to get them to slow down a little bit.
that would be inside the lane itself
or to the side of the lane?
They are detailed as, say, one foot on the outer edge
of each lane.
So from the outside of the travel lane going inward
towards the driver, a distance of one feet on both sides.
OK, they're not depicted on here on this photo, right?
Oh, no, not on this photo.
OK.
Excellent, thank you.
And then we already had a question
on the distance of the speed humps before the crosswalks.
By the way, this is home turf for me.
I've been a pedestrian and a driver for a long time
on this intersection.
So I know why we're trying to do all this stuff.
How harsh will the speed bumps be?
Just as a scale to reference, so the plastic temporary bumps
on Homestead and Walnut are like probably,
give that a 10 for how harsh it is versus
maybe the speed bumps that are kind of near
Arbolado Park, they're pretty gentle.
You can kind of go 25 miles an hour over those.
What's the thinking of what you wanna do here?
Cause you're really trying to keep someone
from going in that pedestrian lane.
Yeah, I would say at an appropriate speed,
no speed hump is harsh, yes.
Yeah, go ahead.
Sorry, that made me think of a question.
Are they going to be permanent or like the temporary ones
that we've put on Homestead?
We are considering asphalt speed humps for this project.
Thanks.
Yeah, because I look at the, you know,
we have the temporary ones, you know,
on Homestead as an example.
And just from driving over on myself,
I mean, I literally have to slow down
to about three, four miles an hour.
I can't do anywhere near 25 miles an hour,
so I cannot do an appropriate speed on that.
Because I'm sure I would imagine you wouldn't be saying to us
that three miles an hour on homestead is appropriate.
But anything faster than that, my teeth are going to come out.
Sure, sure.
But I think the pavement ones are really good.
OK, can we go to the next slide, please?
Can I ask a follow-up question to what you were just
asking on that first slide?
Sorry.
How's the coming down Ignacio towards Oak Grove
from Concord and Upline Ridge?
You guys have added all the white reflective stuff
to separate out the right turn lane.
I'm wondering if you've got,
if you've seen some results or how that's gone.
P.D. loves them.
As part of it, do you wanna explain the pork chop
and extending it in Concord?
So one thing we're gonna be doing is extending the concrete,
is that's, yeah, extending the concrete of the pork chop.
So into those existing white delineators,
we're gonna be extending concrete a little bit further
so that we don't have as many delineators
and then still continue the delineators.
They are hard to maintain given the speeds out there,
but generally the feedback from PD
and the safety implications, they're well worth it.
I think you've actually answered my question is why I don't see the
two traffic officers on the motorbikes there anymore. Those are
that's probably making a big difference. Okay, so back to the next slide. So
I love the flashing lights. My wife and I were driving yesterday
somewhere downtown and she was like these flashing lights are great. It makes
it very easy to not miss a pedestrian. I just sort of
to have a related question. How do we determine the the lag time that it stays
flashing? Because the one thing I've noticed is the pedestrians cross and it
seems like it still flashes forever. Not that people don't just drive through them
when there's no pedestrians there, but is there some formula to like how long we
have them flash after someone pushes a button? Great question. I don't know. I
think they may configure that when they set them up based on the length of the
crosswalk. I know for traffic signals we do time the lights for a pedestrian
speed of 3.5 seconds where I imagine a typical walker would be closer to 4 or
4.5 feet per second. So they are timed a little bit longer and I think they'd
probably use similar timing for those flashing lights. Okay thank you let's see
next slide I think we're on the sorry okay so very familiar with the oak grove
intersections, Deer Park, Valley Vista, I can see why you'd want to put flashing stop signs.
My question is, and I was kind of thinking about a criteria I heard earlier, like we
have more lanes or craziness that might get the intersection and the loop for that treatment.
I'm wondering why we didn't also add Oak Grove and Diablo Shadow, which is like a demolition
Derby, especially during school traffic. In fact, it's very unsafe even for pedestrians.
I was thinking that flashing lights there would also be fantastic, but I'm assuming
these projects are already baked in. But if you had a little extra money, that'd be a
great intersection. Do you want to take that, Matt?
Yeah, I think it is baked in, but we can take a look and see.
Thank you.
Oh, and then one more question on the safe routes one.
I was just curious, like if we look at the lower right hand
bulb out, are we losing trees there or any of these?
It's just an optical illusion.
No.
So we're not basically building out.
So there's an existing, because there's no sidewalk there.
It's just, it's a striped concrete bulb out.
If you look out there, it's kind of funky.
So we're not removing any trees,
we're just building out from the existing infrastructure.
Great, thank you.
You're welcome.
All right.
And Laura, this is another location
where we have existing striped bulb outs,
as Austin mentioned,
but we're gonna be coming back with concrete.
So it's kind of like that interim,
and then coming back with that final design.
All right, I have a process question for the secretary.
So, normally, if this was the end of the presentation, we had the presentation, we had questions
from commissioners, we do public comment, we do comments from commissioners,
but we bifurcated this one, should we?
Would you recommend we just do the public comment and commissioner comments
after we get the second presentation or should we do that twice?
Yeah, let's save the comments until the end.
Okay. That's okay.
All right, then we can move on to part two of the presentation.
Thank you for all those questions and comments. I'm here to talk about the fourth location of the
Obag-3 safe routes to school project. This location is on the intersection of Newell Avenue
and South Broadway. We have a rendering at the top picture that kind of shows sort of the
improvements that we want to do. We want to, again, do concrete bulb outs, building out the
existing infrastructure to reduce the crossing distance. Right now, I think it's around 100,
110 feet per cross. So if you're a pedestrian or bicyclist, you're crossing a long distance here.
And so I want to reduce that crossing distance. We also want to treat the Iron Horse Trail
that runs parallel or that runs diagonally through this intersection, which will also serve the
students using that trail to get to Los Alamos High School, south of it, as well as people who are
further normal commute or going to Broadway Plaza.
So to do that,
we are implementing a additional signal phasing
called the pedestrian scramble,
which would allow people on that northeast corner
where they're coming out or coming out of the Ironhorse Trail
to basically cross diagonally through the intersection
so they can cross in one go
without any cars being anywhere near them and vice versa.
And so that's what we're doing there.
And then we're also going to be extending bicycle infrastructure going west of the intersection
down Newell Avenue all the way down to California.
We are doing a hard raised bike lane from Capwell all the way to Newell Avenue that
will connect to the Iron Horse Trail on the south side of the street where, you know,
in front of Whole Foods.
And then beyond that, we're just going to be doing striping improvements for bicycle
infrastructure all the way to California and that we're currently waiting to hear
back from the TDA grant which was I believe presented to you guys a couple
months ago and so this project is so that TDA work is going back to
Commissioner Patches kind of common as far as temporary and then going back so
we're actually planning to go back for a phase two in this project when we see
funding to do hard concrete improvements all the way down in front of Kaiser, all the way down that
street. So, and then again, this is part of the One Bay Area Grant, so it's in the same federal
funding group, so waiting on that, and then anticipated construction is spring summer of
2028. All right, so here we have the Highway Safety Improvement Project, which is federally funded
through the Highway Safety Improvement Program.
Here, this intersection is at Ignacio Valley Road
and Walnut Boulevard.
We will be doing essentially the same thing at Wimbledon Road
and Wiggett Lane and Biemonte Intersections.
And we will be installing protected left turn phasing
at all four intersections.
The current existing condition is permissive left turns,
as you can see in the picture.
We will also be upgrading curb ramps
to be AD&C applying on Ignacio Valley Road and Webb-Balden Road, and the estimated construction
for this is summer or fall of 2027. The next project is the Ignacio Valley Road Intersection
Safety Project. This is funded through the Glenn Development, and due to limited funding we had to
develop our primary goals and objectives for this project, and so I listed them in order out here.
So our primary goal is to construct a roundabout on March Banks Drive and Kinross, as you can see
to your picture on the upper left, that red circle illustrates what that roundabout would
look like. Following that, again, as funding permits, our goals are to install protected
left turns at three intersections, being Ignacio Valley Road and March Bank Drive,
Ignacio Valley Road and San Carlos Drive, and then La Casa Villa and Ignacio Valley Road. And again,
due to limited funding, we are prioritizing in order as they are listed.
and we are expecting to have this be constructed in the summer or fall of 2027.
All right, next up we have the San Miguel Drive pedestrian path project.
This is a joint project between the city of Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County,
that's currently in design. This is a county led project, they're leading the design,
however we are responsible for improvements within our jurisdiction and this is funded
through traffic impact fees. And the intent of this project is to close the sidewalk gap,
close the sidewalk gap between San Miguel and Newell up to San Miguel and Norris Road,
just providing better downtown access to the residents in this area. And shown we have the
intersection of San Miguel Drive and Andrea and on the right as you can see are in the photo we have
sidewalk on one side of the road however we plan to come back and install a five foot sidewalk
eight feet wide parking and 10 foot travel lanes where there is none now and we anticipate a summer
2027 construction. Next we have North Broadway improvements and this is funded through the
Affordable Housing and Sustainability Grant and it's a redesign of North Broadway from civic
to central and we're aiming to right-size the corridor to better serve today's demand.
Right now there are areas that do not have sidewalks along this corridor and we plan to
install sidewalks throughout. Ball boats at the intersections, class four bikeways at sidewalk
elevation and reduce the travel lane width for cars. And we anticipate a spring-summer
2028 construction for this project.
Good evening commissioners. My name is Neil Mock. I'm also with the capital improvement
team. First I'd like to talk to you about the South Main Bridge replacement project.
This is going to replace the existing structure over Las Trampas Creek at South Main Street.
It's going to be a two-phased project.
The first phase, we estimate a construction of spring of 27 and it's going to build a
pedestrian bridge which will also act as a utility bridge on the eastern side of the
roadway.
The construction will have intermittent traffic impacts but the road will be able to remain
open.
Phase two of the project will be the following summer.
Summer of 2028 is the estimated construction date.
And that will remove the road, the structure completely and be replaced with a new bridge
structure.
This is all under the Caltrans Highway Bridge Program.
So it is funded through federal funding.
And that's the first project.
And then the second project I'd like to talk about is the Bus Stop Improvement and Shelter
Project.
adding bus amenities to existing bus stop facilities and ADA access improvements at those sites.
This is funded through the Contra Costa Measure J transportation and livable communities grant,
as well as the AHSC affordable housing and sustainability community grant.
we're going to replace or install shelters at five existing bus stops. These locations
are at Ignacio Valley Road and March Banks, Civic and Ignacio Valley Road, Locust Street at Mount
Diablo, South Main and Lilac, and then the last one's going to be on North Main at Civic right
outside at City Hall. The last sixth location that we're going to be working on is just a
mini-plaza and ADA improvements at North Main and Bonanza that services our free trolley.
One additional aspect on these projects is going to be real-time signage so that the
bus stop signage will tell users when the next shuttle or bus will be arriving.
So that will be installed on all six of the sites. And our estimated construction is spring of 27.
All right, was that all the projects or you have more?
No, I got two more.
All right.
All right.
So this is the Proxide Drive multi-modal improvements.
So the goal of this project is to provide
improved multi-modal access from the Iron Horse Trail
to the board station.
So this really provides a east-west connection
from the Iron Horse Trail to the board station.
It's a connection I've been looking for for a long time.
But really, the challenge of this project
is to balance the different modes of transportation.
Parkside Drive, you can see here from North Main
to Civic Drive, is really a four lane through lane street.
And really one of the lanes have to be converted
into a multimodal use lane for this to work.
So it's really balancing what impacts are going to be
and seeing what's the best way to move this
toward construction.
Again, this is another affordable housing
sustainable community funded along with a traffic impact fee funded project and we're looking at
this project for beyond 2028. Last project here is the Oakland Boulevard multi-nodo improvements.
This project was added to the capital budget in 2025 and goal of this project is to improve the
multi-modal access from west downtown connecting to transit. You can see on the top illustration
there of Oakland Boulevard. It starts at Mount Diablo going through the Almond Shoey neighborhood
through Trinity and then connecting back to Oakland Boulevard to the board station.
One of the big challenges of this project is the great difference on parts of Oakland Boulevard
where you have the west side is a lot or the east side is higher than the west side so there's
needs to be an engineering solution to make that work out. So this project is going to be funded
by state transportation improvement program funds this to be approved by the CTC. We're looking at
this project for beyond 2028 also and it's going back so we had the projects that's moving towards
construction and then the design development so you can see that where
projects are spread out through the city and we're here to take questions and
comments. So before we go through the Commission I just had one quick
technical definition question on the last slide. What's a joint pull? Joint
pull? Yeah like joint pull like the utility pull that has all the different
okay different utility poles. Okay thank you. Alright just to not always pick on
Commissioner Ash. How about we start with Commissioner McMahon?
All right, let's do it. Thank you so much for all this information. It's awesome
seeing all these projects coming up, so it's really exciting. For the Always Stop
on Newell and, is it Broadway? What's the timing look like on that? Like how does
that, how long, like, does it stay on for people to cross? Do you have to push the
button. I saw in one before it said like there's like some passive like signals
or whatever so it's like do you you know like do you have to go push the button
once you push it how long does it stay on for how long is it always stop pass
that one to traffic so this one's you're talking about new on Broadway the
diagonal crossing with Iron Horse Trail so we do have certain limits that we
have to meet in the California manual of uniform traffic control devices or the
the MUTCD, so that's the 3.5 feet per second.
So we have to provide a minimum duration once it's on.
I think Austin, correct me if I'm wrong,
but I think we are trying to look at passive detection
so that we can see pedestrians in that landing area
that will just place a call.
Because what's usually hard about that
at typical intersections is figuring out
which direction they want to go.
Where here, we just give a pedestrian phase
and so we don't care which way they go.
So if we just detect people at one of the corners,
we can just give them.
Are we including that or is it still too early?
It's a consideration.
It's a consideration as we go through the design.
I mean, obviously there's a cost component to that,
but that's something we'll be looking at.
Yeah, I think that'd be great,
especially for all the bikers on Iron Horse Trail.
Like sometimes when you're on a bike,
it's hard to hit that button,
like turn around and get to the right position.
So I think that'd be a great thing to look into.
And then the roundabout one, I think it was slide three.
I was kind of just curious,
What will the roundabout look like?
Is there going to be like flowers, trees?
What's the design component of that?
Yeah, I think it's going to be pretty plain.
It's going to be a raised curb, but I
think it's mostly going to be just
pavers or something in the middle.
I think there was one that we were looking at in Berkeley.
I forgot what the street was, but there's no landscaping.
It's not an exciting one. I mean roundabouts are exciting in general, but
All right, and then
Let's see. Oh, I was also curious about for the bus stop improvements. What will the digital sign look like?
I saw like a little digital sign on the slide
But I was just curious like how
That would look
The screen itself is essentially like a Kindle where it's a very high efficient battery operated screen
The looks because of its county connection specs they like them actually taller than this photo
So it's gonna be seven eight feet high in the air and they're larger than that photo
This was just a stock photo that was taken from the internet
Okay, and then it'll just always show like when the next it will show the next bus and then whatever bus is on the line
How much what's the wait time for each route?
And they will get linked into county connection system. So then they'll update it with their system
And they'll actually take ownership of it once we've installed them. Okay, that's awesome. I love that. I
Definitely get confused on the bus stuff. So I always appreciate a sign
And then the last one the parkside Drive
Yeah, I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about this one
So basically it's gonna be like a bike lane
To Bart is kind of the idea from Iron Horse to Bart
Yeah, we're looking to provide
Bicycle access from Iron Horse all the way to Riviera which connects to Bart
In order to do that, we really need to have like a separated bike lane of some kind
There's a couple of different options that we were looking at
Either a separate bike lanes on both sides
It's like a cycle track on the north side or the south side, but there's like different impacts on each for each option
So we're looking through those
Okay, acts so you just need to kind of study it. Are you gonna take you know comment from the public or anything?
Or how does that how does that work? I'll leave that to you
Yeah, so I want to say so if you notice a theme between this and the renewal and the Parkside projects
These are providing the east-west connections, you know, we have the beautiful iron horse trail going north-south
but again the city lacks that east-west connection so Parkside and Newell are
trying to fill that gap and so for this yeah we are doing the analysis right now
we don't have the results about which side or how these facilities would be on
Parkside and absolutely there needs to be a outreach component which will go as
And once we kind of learn a little bit more about options.
OK, sounds good.
Thank you so much.
All right, Commissioner Guerrero.
Thank you.
So I want to stay on this one real quick.
So we're talking about the Iron Rose Trail that's
down below Civic in the far right of the screen.
Yes.
And we want to bring that access to be able to cross over
to BART at some point.
Yes, there'll be a bike lane, so it's through Parkside,
onto River Area.
There'll be a connection piece on Civic
to get from Briel, somewhere over there, to this point.
That's an easier stretch to deal with than this stretch
through Parkside.
Sure.
OK.
OK.
Japs Parkside and North Main is a pretty heavy duty intersection to bring.
Okay, and then the only other question I had was if we can go to the San Miguel one.
We're going to put the sidewalks in on both sides, I think.
Since I don't know my first time understanding this, what about the citizens?
I mean, obviously I know they probably enjoy sidewalks on their side of the property.
But as far as, do we take into consideration the hydrants that are along here?
Like, what happens to the hydrants and where the sidewalk's going to begin
and the bike lane is going to exist and the narrowing of the lanes?
Just curious about how you deal with those hydrants to be able to have.
I think hydrants, this payment typically requires us to move those hydrants toward the face
of closer toward the face of curb or access.
Okay. Cool.
That answers it.
Thank you.
Vice Chair Patch.
OK.
So on the Noll and South Broadway,
is the landscaping baked in already?
Like, the picture that you have has plans and stuff.
Yeah.
So yeah, this is a rendering.
I think a lot of it depends on the available budget
for this project.
I think first is to get the hardscape in.
There's looking at possibly adding in green infrastructure,
but all that costs a lot of money.
So we're seeing where it fits in and how much money we have.
Because the old bag funds is for the four different projects.
And we'll see how much money will be.
Those are the three are going before this one.
Okay, and then for the YVR left turns,
which I think is the next slide, no.
Yeah, these two.
Yes, this one.
So I know timing on YVR is a headache for all of you.
Have you looked at how having a protected left turn
in these three intersections will impact traffic
and slowing through traffic?
Because we'll have to stop more often, right?
Or longer, rather.
Yes and no.
I mean, I think it depends exactly where.
Yes, we're adding another phase, and that
could be additional delay.
Let's not forget the goal of separating out
the pedestrians crossing from left turn vehicles,
as we have now.
But let's look at what Ignacio Valley wrote in San Carlos.
Right now, the north side will go by itself,
and then the south side will go.
Where when we change it, the left turns will go,
the through will go, then the left turns
from the other direction will go,
and then the throughs will go.
But the throughs can go at the same time as the left turns,
so we still essentially have two concurrent phases
that we have to get through
before we can go back to Ignacio Valley Road.
And then if there's no cars taking a through,
we could even have a quicker return to Ignacio.
So it does depend,
And that analysis will be looked at for all these intersections that are being modified
as we go into design.
So we'll have an early estimate about what's going to be going on, so see if we can tweak
anything as we're designing it.
Great.
Thank you.
South Main Bridge, and I am mostly checking myself on this one.
This was closed, like, last year or the year before.
Am I, we like did something in that area
where we closed the road for a bit.
You might be talking about the bridge south of Macy's.
That's kind of a smaller access road
that was closed due to a fire.
No, that's not what I was thinking.
Not that one, oh.
All right, well then I'm just making things up.
So we'll take my question on that.
Okay, and then, can you comment on that?
you bring up the Oakland Road one okay so I'm just double checking the diagram
on this is it gonna be road sidewalk bike lane on each side because right now
you have road bike lane sidewalk with a bike in the sidewalk on the right side
of this diagram, and I just tried to figure that out there like it says bike
lane oh I get it okay I'm reading this wrong
no it's okay at least these sections there's a lot of detail there I think
that label could be shifted over I think it's just pointed but you know this is
one example of a cross-section and if you look at the colors it changes
throughout the corridor yeah so at one point you know you're looking at this
a cross-section shown, but in other sections it will change.
OK.
I know this isn't comment time, but just for public,
I think updating this diagram would be useful.
I'm done now.
Commissioner Ash.
Don't forget our tennis player here.
So can you go back to the first slide?
I just wrote my notes in order, and I just got a thanks.
That one, right?
OK, so great job on this, because I
know, this has been an intersection that we've all
talked about before that needs to be improved, particularly on
the pedestrian bike crossings. I was just curious on the slip
lane on the right bottom there on on South Broadway turning to
Newell. What is the impact of that on the traffic? Does it
slow? How does that impact like the backup to the words the
garage and everything?
So this intersection on the bottom right there, that would be down Broadway.
But generally, this intersection would see some additional delays.
The analysis showed about, you know, 25 seconds additional delays.
And again, you know, modifying to a full pedestrian phase, you're gonna see that, right?
There's a trade-off here.
I can't tell you offhand, you know, what the length of the queue is.
But as you change the roadway, vehicles change their mind
and adjust accordingly.
So it may not be as a desirable location to drive through.
OK, cool.
Thank you.
That was good info.
OK, I think we can go towards the bridge one, actually.
on this, and I think we've talked about this bridge
in the past, I think this has come,
because you guys have been working on this for a while.
I know bridge replacement is a lot.
I would really make sure as we get closer to this,
and what has to happen that you go door to door
to those businesses because they will be impacted,
and you don't have to go door to door in every location,
but here you're talking a significant closure,
and I would work with Downtown Walnut Creek
and make sure we're just really proactively communicating,
I guess that wasn't a question, sorry,
that was more of a comment, Chair, but yeah.
And then just on the, so I guess that was a comment on that,
but please make sure you reach out to those businesses,
and then on Parkside Drive, I think that was just great,
I know you guys have been looking to improve that bikeway,
Alex, for a number of years,
And so I just really want to commend you guys.
I know that's been an issue,
getting people from like the Iron Horse towards the part
and filling in all those gaps.
And so I just appreciate how hard
this must have been to plan and everything.
So I guess, damn it, I screwed up on the questions again.
Sorry, Chair.
We may forgive you.
How about Student Commissioner Kirsch?
Yeah, thank you for the presentation.
Sorry, I missed the first part.
I think most of my questions have already been answered.
I was also wondering about how removing the right turn lane
would affect traffic, but it seems
like it won't have much of an impact.
I guess my only, I have two questions.
One, I think for the funding,
why'd you have different sources of funding
for each project and how did you determine
which one was like federal and which one was local?
Yeah, these are good, good question.
These are grant funds that become available
and the city applies for them.
And there's different parts of grant funding available
that fits certain criteria for certain projects,
and that's just where they fit in.
Okay.
And then my second question was
for the bus improvement project.
Do you have a quick specific improvements
are you going to make?
And also, do you have data on how many people actually
use these bus stops and ride the bus?
The improvements are going to be mostly the real-time digital
signs, the shelters in the five locations,
and then the associated sidewalk work to bring everything up
to ADA compliance.
And then we do have real-time ridership data
from the last couple of years.
and that was used to help determine these sites.
Thank you.
All right, thanks.
My turn, I guess.
Can you just go back to the beginning of the slides, please?
So on the new project, I know the commission
has seen this one before, so I have a repeat question, which
is, did we consider a two-way scramble?
So crisscrossing both ways.
Like you see in the city and some of our other scrambles,
Is there a reason we're not doing that on this one?
Yeah, absolutely we did.
I think given the Iron Horse Trail
goes from the southwest side to northeast side,
that's going to be the main connection we're trying
to provide.
It's a pedestrian-only phase, so whether it's shown or not
shown, you can still do that movement.
But just given the volume to the Iron Horse Trail,
we're trying to really time for and provide
for that connection.
OK, so that's a great point you made.
Would we be able?
I mean, in this rendering, we have some fancy,
looks like bricks or pavers.
Could we maybe add some little painted stripes or something
so pedestrians would know, yeah, I can go this way.
It's OK.
I mean, yeah, this is still in early state beginning design.
And so that's something we can look at
and make sure it's usable for pedestrians.
Great, thank you.
next slide, I think is the the left turn. So okay, this does have Wigot. So I have
a question. So I think on the west side of the intersection where Wigot is
crossing Ignacio, there actually is no pedestrian crossing there. I believe
there's some metal bars and the sign that says, you know, don't cross. Are we
Are we going to open that up and put a crosswalk there
and then have protected left turn for that one?
On some of these intersection improvements,
we are trying to do that, especially
on the next set of projects.
But on Wigot, I don't believe we are.
No.
OK, because as a frequent user of that intersection,
because we have the school over there now on the other side,
The traffic has become pretty intense,
both at the normal school times.
And when you're crossing south to north,
or from the residential side to the Shadeland side,
it's really dangerous, because you
have a bunch of people barreling through the straight
to go back to the residential, as an example,
from the school and the medical offices.
But you can't really see them coming because the way YVR
crowns, probably for drainage, the oncoming traffic
that's turning, about to turn left to go up towards Oak Grove,
it really blocks the traffic that's coming straight through.
And I'm surprised we haven't had more accidents there.
So what I'm suggesting is even if there's not a crosswalk
there, that would be right for a left turn-only light
to go to westbound Ignacio, so that the people turning left
going in that direction won't ever hopefully have to worry
about getting hit head on by the people coming straight
from Shadelands to the residential side.
That's what we're doing.
Oh, you are doing that?
Yeah, so we will have left turns that are dedicated
just left turns.
Oh, OK.
And then you'll have through movements.
OK, so even if there's not a pedestrian crosswalk
to protect, you're still going to do the left turn?
Yes, fantastic.
Thank you.
On the South Main Street Bridge, phase 2,
how long do we think that'll be a can't go through here zone?
Because that's a big job, right?
Probably 18 to 24 months.
OK.
The tentative schedule is 18 to 24 months,
but it's still at 65% design, so that's going to.
Okay, be refined.
It's a, it's a seasonal construction.
So that last Trump is Greek it's it's, you can only work like certain months
of the year, so we need to establish the auto, you know, auto piles and everything.
And, uh, butments and then after that, then we can start working a deck and.
Great.
Yeah.
So I'm going to turn what would have been a comment to a question.
Have we looked at the cumulative overall traffic impacts
to vehicle traffic of all the lane removals,
lane narrowings, bulbing out, et cetera?
And have we analyzed would there be any potential negative
economic impacts to our downtown
by cumulative traffic impacts?
No, that hasn't been done.
But I think to Jared's point, the outreach for this project
particularly, it needs to go far and wide.
And we will.
I think we have contacts at Broadway Plaza,
and we also have the Wanna Creek Downtown Association.
So there's a lot of existing contacts
that we can utilize to spread the word about this
and mitigate those impacts.
Great.
Thank you.
Any other questions from commissioners?
I just have a follow-up question.
Alex, you mentioned a couple times seasonal construction.
Since we don't have snow and that's not a problem,
but can you define what you mean by that for me?
It's just a Las Trumpas Creek.
It's an active creek.
So I think between October and May, we can't be down there.
I think there's like storms coming to surge of rain flow.
Got it.
Thanks.
That's helpful.
All right, then even though I know there's
no public sitting out here, for the record,
is there anyone here who wishes to make public comment?
No one from the public.
Great.
Then we'll close public comment.
And then we can move to commissioner comments
about commissioner Guerrero.
I like the projects.
They all look really good.
I guess I'm very new.
So I just would like to see a lot of these in other places.
So I guess I'm going to take my time
to understand how that process works.
But I think it's going to make the city better.
I do concur with the chair that there
will be a huge economic impact, I think, to the downtown stuff.
So I don't have an answer, but I'm
hoping that the ones that can find it will find it.
Thank you.
Great, how about Commissioner Ash?
I love the rotation.
I'm sorry, I made one mistake.
I should have went with Student Commissioner Kirsch first,
so if you don't mind.
Yeah, I also like all the projects.
I think if you had to pick one to be a priority,
I think the Send Miguel Drive sidewalk improvement
project is a big one, because I go in that area pretty much
every day.
And I think it's much needed, because you have cars coming at
really quickly and it would be nice to have that like additional sidewalk and safety improvement.
Yeah.
Great.
Thank you.
Commissioner Ash, sorry.
That's all right.
First, like you guys are awesome.
This is a lot of projects and I know you're doing good and I, even though I sit here,
I get to see what a lot of other and public works and engineering teams are doing around
in the county through CCTA and other purposes.
And you guys are a well-run city.
Your team is great.
So I just want to say that.
And in terms of grant funds, I want
to illustrate for people a lot of other cities are jealous.
Walnut Creek does really, really well at getting these funds.
So that's why there's a lot of mix of funds.
And so congrats for that.
Other comments, Oakland Drive.
Yeah, you guys know where I'm going,
if you could pull up that picture.
I know this is a couple of years out,
but if you turn left from Ignacio today to Oakland there,
you have that raised trail.
I have literally seen in the last year three cars
make the left short and go up on the raised trail.
I am terrified that I'm going to witness somebody there
at that moment and the car not be able to stop in time.
I don't care if it's a yellow, bright, neon strip or something.
If there's anything we can do today,
instead of waiting until 2027 or 2028 for this project to come,
please do something simple, because that
is my nightmare of all the traffic here in the city
for some reason, because I've seen that happen.
And it's gotten close.
So I just really want to emphasize that.
Anything particular with Ignacio Valley Road,
love all those crosswalk improvements,
how you guys are thinking about that.
More than any road, that's a road
that we have to pay attention to, like timing impacts
on things.
And so just to be able to know what you have before that
and what you have tomorrow after you improve them,
I think just something to consider to be aware.
Because signal timing goes all the way down.
We're not changing one light.
We have to change 12 on that.
So I want to indicate that.
And then I feel like there was one other thing I wanted to say.
OK.
I'll shut up.
Thank you.
You can come back.
If you're a member, just let us know.
Commissioner McMahon.
All right.
Well, yeah.
Thank you, everybody, for just sharing with us
this information.
I think this is really exciting, all these cool projects coming
up.
And I think it really is going to benefit
a lot of the walkers, and pedestrians, and bikers,
especially.
It's just going to make them feel safer.
And then also, I think it's going
to make the people in the cars feel safer, too.
Because, for example, to always stop when
you have the right turn on red, you got someone honking behind
you, you got somebody cross in front of you.
It's kind of tough when you're in the car too,
so hopefully it makes everyone feel safer across the board.
I think in terms of the downtown,
if there is a traffic analysis,
I think it would be great to see that too,
but I think when you are downtown,
you're gonna have to drive slower.
It's a busy downtown, there's lots to do,
there's just lots of people down there.
And I think with some of these safety measures,
it could potentially offset the impacts to traffic
because there would be less accidents,
less close calls with people and bikes
and stuff like that too.
So I think hopefully there's a net gain
with all these coming up.
And I believe there will be based on the information.
And then the last thing is yeah,
I think we should just definitely keep looking
into the passive signals as much as possible
because I just love coming across those personally.
And I think it just makes it easier for everybody.
So anywhere we can put those in,
I think is definitely what we want to do.
So thank you so much.
Thank you, Vice Chair Patch.
Thank you, everybody.
This was a very thorough report and excited by a lot of it.
Couple of directed comments for this slurry project.
Can you just give the construction crew
a little warning to do cleanup when they're done?
I've been on a couple of roads that were done recently
and there weren't great jobs.
Some of the reflectors got bumped
and they are just now in the middle of the road
causing issues for people who are on bikes and scooters.
Not speaking from personal experience, not at all.
For the Newell and Broadway,
I hear you about the funding,
but would love to see if the landscaping
could include some trees.
That's a very hot intersection already,
and if you're pushing people even further away
from the existing landscape, which is limited,
it would be nice to provide shade coverage,
especially for people that are walking or biking
on the Iron Horse Trail, and trees are good,
especially in the downtown area
where there's already a lot of pavement,
and so the temperature is increased by that.
I second Jared on the YVR timing.
Matt, it sounds like you have,
obviously you know what you're doing,
but yes, it would be great to like hear
just how it's affecting that thoroughfare and whatnot.
I'm going back to the South Main Bridge
because I feel like there was something
a couple of years ago where we closed an area of the road
in that general vicinity, not for like an extended period,
but maybe for a day or two.
And I'm just curious.
Broadway Plaza Street is closed through the mall.
No, this was, I distinctly remember somebody from staff
coming in here and reporting how they were going to work
on a section of that.
I think we did talk about this project years ago.
We said it's coming, and the timing was still far out,
and we didn't realize how far out.
OK, maybe that's really what it was.
And I just talked about this project at least twice more
going back to when Steve was deputy director.
And yeah, OK.
I'm glad I'm not going crazy.
Well, I'm just a little crazy.
We didn't have to just do that.
I think we did have to like do a couple of like lane closures
to do pot holding for utilities.
and also we had to do a cultural resources study out there because it's federally required
for because it's next to the creek and everything so it's it's came up that we had to like dig for
perfect because what I was going to say is like make sure that whatever we learned from that on
the traffic impact or you know um how the business has responded um you've already committed to
reaching out to them but I'm sure there's learnings from when we had to do work in that area
previously to apply to this project. Is, did East Bay Mudd, didn't they close a street downtown
like in the last year or so? It wasn't you guys, it was them. Yeah, they did some night work out
there for their main, they replaced the main, and then they had to close. I think that was on Ignacio.
They did, they did here too. Yeah. That might be what also. Try and help me, thank you.
Okay on the bus stops I know that you're a little bit trapped, trapped is the wrong word, but
you have to comply with what County Connection wants to do. I would just encourage you not to
have benches that have arms in them and one of the pictures did I don't know if
that's what you're planning on doing but benches that have dividers in them are
not accessible for various reasons because they make the seat smaller so if
we can make sure that when we're building up those places and putting
benches that they don't have any barriers to them.
I'm really excited about the Parkside section and that that's
going to be addressed and I look forward to hearing what the
details are on that as you move forward. I'm good.
Commissioner Ash, did you remember what you wanted to add?
Yeah, thanks. Then the next time you guys come with the slides to
us or maybe even counsel, I would just ask to add two pieces
information. One, the total cost of each of the projects if that could be in a
little box because I think that would be helpful just for our educational
purposes mostly and then some data too if you could pull like the streetlight
data which I know you know that would be great to have per each of these
intersections and and see that way we just get a better picture of everything
Which I know you guys see that all that stuff so thanks
Sorry one more thing on the park side um on
The Broadway portion that comes into Park side and so that already has
the bikes
That the bike lane. That's not the safe bike lane the class class two. Thank you, Matt and and so
What I really love about that project is that you get on that road and then it just abruptly ends and you have nowhere to
Go safely on a bike and so this will be connecting that in a safe way. So, thank you
Great. Did I miss anybody or did everybody go? Okay, great
Really just a couple comments, but first off as the rest of the condition has said, you know, this is great work
You're all working on you should all be proud of all the work that you're doing and all the projects you're putting in place
so
My one comment is
It'll be repetitive, but I do highly encourage you guys to do
Accumulative holistic
traffic input impact analysis of
All the projects together, you know, you know pretending they've been built as designed
Because we just want to be careful. We we
We don't want to end up with like the best pedestrian bicycle multimodal
situation of all the cities around us but at the same time we chase away
enough folks frustrated with the traffic that they choose to shop in surrounding
neighborhoods or dine in surrounding neighborhoods so you know that I think
there's a real probably a real delicate balance to strike and I think looking
at it holistically would be valuable. The other comment I have going through this
exercise looking at these projects and it's it's based in something I learned
on Design Review Commission. So we, by the time the Design Review Commission had
projects in front of us, the plans were baked. The applicants had spent
serious money on their architecture and landscaping and other design works. So
it was almost almost too late for us to make any recommendations. When you listen
to the collective body of commissioners here, you can see there's a lot of great
ideas. So if there's a way, if it's possible, you know, on the go forward basis of the commission
could see some of these projects a little earlier where they're maybe not as fully baked
where you could might be able to take some of the great ideas that you hear from everybody
here and might make that a little more easy to implement them if you also agree, hey,
that was a great idea that they had. That's all I had. Any last minute other comments
any commissioners want to make?
All right, then we will close this topic.
Thank you very much.
All right, moving on to item C,
Commission Committee Appointments.
It's a annual agenda item.
I don't know if you have something to put up,
Matt, on the screen.
Okay. So we have the CCTA.
I know the other piece of paper it talked about who
goes to the mayor's quarterly breakfast meeting,
which is the chair and vice chair.
But I also encourage all the commissioners,
when I have not been chair or vice chair of a commission,
I went anyway just as a member of the public,
because those quarterly meetings,
you get really a great download from the mayor and the city manager.
So they're totally worth going to,
and you get free breakfast.
So I think the only committee we have,
because we disbanded the shared mobility,
Or did we turn that into something else?
So you have the CCTA 1, and then we have the Vision Zero
working group, which I believe Commissioner Patch, Vice
Chair Patch, is on.
And then we lost a?
And we lost one.
So we have an open slot there.
So OK, so let's go back to the CCTA advisory body.
So I know Commissioner Ash has been on this for how many years?
I lost track, maybe five, six.
Yeah, just to share a little bit of information for whoever wants to do it.
I'm going to step down from that.
It's been six years, I think five or six years.
And I had the opportunity to chair it several terms
longer than I expected to chair it.
But we really up the level of the body of engagement.
here, and so I'm really just proud of that.
Matt, I know you heard me talk about that
during my reappointment interview process,
but that committee five or six years ago
was considered kind of a joke
and something that none of the staff at CCTA wanted to do.
And now it is the committee in the next couple of years
that will lead the, as CCTA moves
for another transportation measure,
that will be the lead committee on that.
And I think that's because we've upped the level
of caliber people and the questions that we've asked in it.
Your only official duty, even though I know that measure
will be coming there for input on projects and stuff,
is you get to oversee some of that Measure J,
return to source funds.
And one of the key things that we got to do
is to not let cities take it as a sort of like,
We're just here, and you just have to share a little bit.
I think they've hopefully all learned
that they have to come prepared, because we are going
to ask you tough questions.
And we had voted people down.
And so if you didn't fill out your form correctly, sorry.
That's your job, right?
That's the one actual responsibility.
So I just thought I'd share those things.
It's from people all over the county,
but we are fortunate, because it is right here
near the Pleasant Hill Bart station.
and actually, I think that is Walnut Creek.
And you're certain you've made a decision
to step down from that?
They have asked me to stay, but I am okay taking the night.
They meet 10 times a year,
so I'm okay taking the night back, but I appreciate that.
Okay, because I came in with an assumption
that you might have wanted to stay.
I will say on Commissioner Asch's behalf that,
and I think it was at the commission interviews
the City Council vote spoke very highly of what you have done to help elevate the significance
of that committee. They were very complimentary. I know in the past, last year I offered up
to give it a try. I talked about sometimes it's nice to rotate things. I know you wanted
to finish out your prior term on there, but if you, you know, if you really want to continue
on it, you should, you know, tell us, I really want to continue on it, you know.
Okay, I wasn't thinking to do that.
Sorry, I wasn't thinking to do that, so I appreciate that.
Matt, is there a way we can do it?
and we may have to talk to ccta is there a way we could do it and we can have an
alternate where if I can't make it maybe that takes some pressure off with my
family that somebody else can participate or does that get complicated
I don't know I don't know if that committee allows for an alternate yeah
I don't think we've done that before but that doesn't mean that I know the rules
on that. I think it really depends on big picture where your heart is and what you want to do.
Well I appreciate that. Okay so yes I will, as we're talking about it, okay I will stick
with it but if I can't, if I find that it's just too conflicting at home, I will step down mid-term.
We won't have to wait a whole term as I'm not in the dais or immediate dais anymore.
Is that the right word?
Dais?
Well, chair?
I don't know.
So yes, thank you.
Yes, I appreciate that.
Charles.
I will nominate Jared Ash to take another year on the CCTA.
I second that.
So we have a motion made in seconding.
Can we take a roll call vote, please?
Student Commissioner Kirsch.
Aye.
Commissioner Ash.
Aye.
Commissioner Guerrero.
Aye.
Commissioner McMahon.
Aye.
Vice Chair Patch.
Aye.
Chair Krelling.
Aye.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Yeah, if you find that I'm willing to step up as backup,
if you find you're like, I can't do it.
Yeah.
Just trying to find that balance of volunteering and family.
Yeah.
Mics.
Mics, please.
It's the fourth Wednesday of the month,
and they skip August and November, December
get squished together, although I would advocate now
that they have to move August to July
because that keeps up with the school calendar.
But yeah.
Great.
Well, congratulations.
Thanks.
And then we don't have to really assign anybody
for the quarterly mayor's breakfast meetings.
I'll look forward to sitting there with Vice Chair Patch.
And so now we have the,
I guess it's the Vision Zero working group.
Yeah.
And who was the former commissioner that was on that?
It was Commissioner Reese,
as well as with Commissioner Patch.
And this group is evolving.
We've had two meetings in 2025.
And I think we're still trying to find a footing that
allows for commissioner input as well as them
to learn about the safety approaches
that we're taking through various projects in the city.
So it's a bit evolving.
And the commitment, I think, is still pretty low.
I don't plan for more than two meetings in 2026.
And those would be typically during the work day,
we can be a little flexible.
Usually, I think we did 4 o'clock to 5 o'clock last time.
But yeah, curious if anyone's interested in volunteering
on that.
What is the goal of that?
Yeah, the goal is kind of two part.
One, to kind of learn about our proactive measures
for safety in the city and how we're
addressing various things.
learning about recent collisions and events that occurred
and how we're being proactive to address those in the future.
And then the second thing is your community input.
You obviously are members of your own communities
within Walnut Creek.
And having that perspective, and I
think that's something that we need to grow on and work on
from the commissioner so that we can hear your input
and what you're seeing so that we can take that in
provide, you know, whether it's pursuing different grants based on that input or
making other modifications to the road. So I guess first we need to understand
if Vice Chair Patch is interested in continuing. Yes, I am interested in
continuing. I've found it very informative about some of the more
details, but I agree it would be helpful to figure out a way for more of my input.
but mostly I just sat there and listened.
So maybe it's like input on the agenda ahead of time
or like a section where the commissioners
on the team can give comments.
For example, one of the things we talked about
potentially addressing in that committee
that we didn't talk about last year
was parking garage safety.
And that's like, could be a,
I don't know how you do a presentation on that
without first hearing about concerns from the community.
So, but yes, I think it's great commission.
Good entry point too, for our new commissioners.
Yeah, do we have any passionate volunteers
that can feed into a motion?
I'm interested, yeah.
And are you interested, Commissioner Grew?
I'm interested.
Behind my commissioner here, if he, so.
You want two or three people, do we?
I think we just have two.
Oh, right, because you can't have quorum.
Right.
Correct.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Then I'll make a motion that Vice Chair Patch and Commissioner McMahon are on the Vision
Zero working group.
Second.
All right.
We have a motion made and seconded.
Can we take a roll call vote, Mr. Secretary?
Do you want to attend if you could attend those?
Are you interested?
when are the meetings taking place? They're ad hoc so we would schedule them
and I work with your schedule to to make sure we could make it. I still don't
know my plans for next year yet because I'm graduating high school so I would
have to get back to you on that because I'm not sure yet. Well congratulations.
Thank you. Alright so then roll. So Student Commissioner Kirsch.
Aye. Commissioner Ash. Aye. Commissioner Guerrero. Aye. Commissioner McMahon. Aye. Vice
Chair Patch. Aye. Chair Crowley. Aye. Okay I think we have completed Commission
Committee appointments. All right closing that item. Moving on to item five
commissioners announcements and brief reports on activities. So we'll start
with the commissioners.
I'll just go in visual order here.
So student commissioner Kerst, do you have any activities
or announcements?
Oh, no, I don't.
Commissioner Ash?
Commissioner McMahon?
All good.
Commissioner Guerrero?
None.
Vice Chair Patch?
None.
And the chair has none.
How about any announcements or reports from staff?
Yeah, I have a few.
So, as Jared knows, the measure J compliance checklist was passed by the CCTA board.
Henry Roode brought that to them, and we were successful in completing that.
That's a, as you saw tonight, that's a popular funding source for some of our projects.
I wanted to share a lot of the input that we get about different improvements that we
can make in the city come from resident request.
In 2025, we received 281, various emails and calls for various things and we completed
about the same number.
That tracks 2024 as well, actually, they're both about 280.
So that's one aspect of our work that provides valuable insight into our community.
The bus route four, that's the trolley that circulates downtown.
going to be rerouted between Saturday and Sunday.
So Saturday will run its current route,
and then on Sunday it will run a streamlined route that's
a little simpler through downtown.
And so we're working on some signage to modify that.
County Connection is leading that change
to simplify the route and improve ridership.
For the commission, the general plan update
has kicked off officially, and as the commissioners,
you will see this.
So look for that on future agenda items.
I'm told, possibly in the next or the following,
there could be an item.
And then bike to wherever day.
So typically, we run a station and then present to you
that night.
This time, the way it aligns with the calendar
is we'll have bike to wherever day.
And then the following week, we have the commission meeting.
But we have a few.
So since we don't have a commission meeting that night,
we have a few activities planned,
including a tabling event at Newell and Broadway again,
down there at the south end of Broadway Plaza.
And then we have a bike rodeo at Civic Park,
partnering with PD for that.
And I think a bike ride later in the day.
So with that, that's all I have.
Matt, what's the date on that?
Sorry, bike to where every day.
It's like middle of the month, I think.
It's the second Thursday of May, because we're
the third Thursday.
So I think it'd be the second Thursday.
All right, with that, we will adjourn the meeting at 7.47.
Thank you.
Ta-bo.
So much power.