Goal: Implement a water shuttle service between Jack London Square and Alameda with minimum of 20-minute headways
A Water Shuttle was identified in the 2009 Estuary Crossing Study as the preferred mid-term alternative for bicyclists traveling between Alameda and Oakland. The City of Alameda listed a water shuttle as a high priority in its Transportation Choices Plan, and is requiring every waterfront development on the estuary to provide a public water shuttle landing. As part of their development agreement, Catellus (the developer at Alameda Landing) has committed to building a landing/dock and operating a water shuttle service for one year, ETA 2020. We are working with Catellus, DOER Marine, and other stakeholders to make this service a success. We want it to operate for years to come, easing congestion while offering new and existing residents, workers, and visitors a much-needed healthy and convenient way to travel within this corridor.
Key elements of the shuttle at Alameda Landing:
- traverses the estuary between Alameda Landing and Jack London Square
- open to the public
- free or low fare ($1)
- capacity of 25 bikes + 5 pedestrians
- headways of no more than 20 minutes
- regular schedule (starting on the hour, ie 10, 10:20, 10:40), 7 days a week, capturing full commute times
- consider 2 shuttles (one as backup or to improve headways during rush hours)
More detailed/crowdsourced feedback
Amsterdam shuttle a great model (https://m.youtube.com/watch? feature=youtu.be&v=gS1sfkzw-Ic) — makes for a flexible/pleasant user experience, and expedites on- and off-boarding. Note that it only takes 3:30 to offload a *lot* of people and bikes. In our case, with a smaller vessel and fewer people, we might be able to do it in 3 minutes or less, which could reduce headways quite a bit. If crossing the channel took 7 minutes, that would mean 20-minute headways. With two shuttles, that would cut it in half, to 10-minute headways. Specific call-outs:
- easy roll-on, roll off — low-profile, nearly flat ramps, no stairs or sharp corners or turns
- broad gate-drop openings on both ends
- a simple, big open zone in the middle accommodates all sorts of bikes (tandems, cargo bikes, trailers, etc.); I know we talked about some kind of railings to lean up against, but looking at this, it seems to make more sense to keep the central area obstruction-free
- covered for inclement weather and shade
- no complicated, time-consuming mooring needed to dock the vessel (we could probably work with Alameda Landing to build landing infrastructure like this on the Alameda side, but would probably have to build something new on the JLS side — who to work with for that?)
- clear demarcation (here with red paint and arrow) in the loading zone, enabling unimpeded exiting
- this particular shuttle is free, one benefit being that there are no bottlenecks for collecting fares during loading; not sure yet if our shuttle would be free or just low-cost, but in the event we’d need to collect fares at some point, we definitely need to consider how that will be done without slowing everything down, and impacting headways. Need to explore further — TBD
- consider if/how to handle motorized vehicles
Other thoughts, beyond those inspired by the Amsterdam shuttle
- flip up/down seats (similar to those on buses, that are completely out of the way when not in use) along sides for those few who might want to sit this short distance
- non-slip/skid surface
- possible to get a permit to go 10 knots instead of just 5?
- open windows that have some kind of clear roll-down waterproof window covering in case of horizontal rain
- consider ADA requirements (wheelchair accessibility and straps/lockins) — perhaps along sides?
- environmentally friendly/green, of course
- two smaller vessels preferred to one larger vessel
- a dependable schedule is critical
- ideal shuttle service should start early, say 5:30am, so people who need to connect to BART and Amtrak to get to points much further away can do so; also, service should extend beyond commute hours, including weekends and evenings
- landing areas should be we well-lit and offer shelter and boarding information (like a schedule and perhaps a count-down clock). Extra points if they included a water fountain and one of those bike repair stands with a pump and toolkit
- long-term operational funding support could come from WETA, BAAQMD, developers, business districts
If there is fare collection:
- design so fare collection does not slow on- or off-boarding, a critical flaw with buses; consider multiple BART-like gates spanning the ends, or fare collection prior to boarding, etc. — TBD
- have an easy way to pay; leverage existing auto-pay/subscription systems like Clipper card, as the new Ford bikeshare system does
References
Page from the Estuary Crossing Study:
