Minutes of EBBC 10/16/07 General Meeting
APPROVED at 11/20/07 meeting
Board members present:
Rick, Tom, Mary, Leo, Craig, Steve, Bike D., Bill, Eric, Leo
Announcements
– Rails-to-Trails bike/ped conference coming up
– Bay Trails quarterly meeting recently – looking for more funds, and connector links to other trails
– EBBC contracted with MTC to offer valet bike parking (VBP) at Transportation 2035 event on Oct 26. EBBC hired Brian Toy as the VBP Site Supervisor.
– Mike Jones passed around a suggested new graphic look for rideOn, for later discussion
Membership committee – Leo
– Committee met tonight before the general meeting. We set a goal of 2009 members by 2009. Actions to get there include: increased renewal mailings, ask each of us to get one new member by next month, work on a member survey. The committee will meet next month at 6:30 before board meeting.
EBBC’s new office
– Grand opening October 28 –
Dia de los Muertos, with the adjacent BikeStation open 10-5
– Fruitvale Village, 3301 East 12th St, Suite 143, Oakland 94601; 510-533-RIDE (7433); hours to be determined, likely M-F 10-5; mailing address will remain at PO Box 1736, Oakland 94604.
– We have desks (from CityCarShare), a display rack, two computers, a printer and fax (510-533-7432), and burglar alarm.
– We need to think about what items to offer there – e.g. what periodicals. There is no intention to compete with shops. We are looking into generator hubs, rain ponchos, bike utility trailers.
Caldecott 4th Bore Legal Action
Our needs have not been accepted by Caltrans. An important focus for us is the bicycle blackout on BART. Safe Routes to Transit has not been acknowledged in the EIR.
In Oakland, the Landvale bridge was eliminated in 1960s. We need that to be replaced. Caltrans has told us it is outside the scope of the project. Traffic mitigation is needed on both sides of the tunnel, but Caltrans regards these as outside the scope, with assurance that there will be only small impact.
Our proposal for direct access – the 3rd bore fresh-air duct – was not studied. EIR says bike access was addressed and found too costly, but they did not consider the fresh-air duct proposal; they only considered the cost of enlarging the bore to include a bike lane.
Aileen Frankel, from the North Hills Phoenix Association (property owners in the Oakland firestorm area), addressed our meeting on behalf of the 4th Bore Coalition – Caltrans met with reps of Parkwood Association, explained that planning a temporary sound wall on each side, with blasting and digging for 2 years and contractor work probably 4 years. They have ignored calls for mitigation by various organizations. So coalition plans to sue Caltrans for inadequate environmental review. Hope to compel Caltrans to figure out how to get funds to meet these other needs. Funds are needed for the lawsuit. Stu Flashman and Antonio Rossman, environmental attorneys; need $30-50k. Also lobbying City of Oakland to file a lawsuit.
She asks for $5k from EBBC. Would be possible for individuals to make tax-deductible contribution to a Sierra Club fund – await details on this. Also can send non-tax deductible to the NHPA – if they win the lawsuit, those funds would be returned to donors. If judge combines the 2 cases, that would decrease the costs of the suit.
30 days to file a lawsuit – by Nov. 15 (assuming a previous 30-day deadline was extended)
Motion to support 4th Bore Coalition – APPROVED [Ayres abstained]
Motion to donate $2500 to 4th Bore Coalition legal effort, with pledge to try to raise another $2500 later through members – APPROVED [Ayres abstained]
BABC Regional Transportation Plan platform report – Robert
We have already adopted support for TALC’s platform. There will be a series of meetings with MTC Commissioners to urge adoption of BABC platform. Sabrina Merlo from BABC will be coordinating these meetings. Motion to support
– APPROVED
Board/member responsibilities
Eric is willing to step down from board, would continue his work on the website and support.
Craig is stepping down from Chair position.
Robert hopes for more representation from CoCoCo, people east of the hills. As for Chair, he suggests Dave Campbell. Could pass the task of preparing agenda to vice chair.
Suggestions are sought by Board search committee (Robert, Rick, Craig).
BART Bicycle Advisory Task Force report – Mike Jones
Meeting dealt with stair ramps (not using the Berkeley design), bike e-lockers (lots of these going in), car retrofit for Bike Space on trains (trial design being tested; need to address whether every car, whether allow in peak hours), what design plans for future replacement cars, parking at Oakland and other stations (no explanation of why no bike parking within the stations)
Notes that many technical issues. He suggests meeting without the BART staff to resolve some issues before working on them with staff.
Bike Dave, BBATF Chair, notes that the non-operator cars will wear out soonest, so BART won’t want to put money into retrofitting those for bikes; so the new replacement cars are an important focus for the future.
Short reports and actions
– John Ruzek has long been contributing BAC Reports – but has had to resign. Robert suggests might be good to publish BAC Reports on our event calendar rather than paper. Could get volunteers involved in this. Ruzek deserves acknowledgement for his generous efforts.
– Newsletter – Jon Spangler has indicated he would like to continue working on newsletter in 2008. Minutes of 9/07 meeting: APPROVED with correction of a typo.
– Director report: 26 new members at Out & About Rockridge TDA funds in Contra Costa County: Every city in CoCoCo is eligible to submit a project for Transportation Development Act funds.
Next meeting:
Nov 20, board 7, general 7:30