[Federal Register: November 24, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 227)]
[Notices]
[Page 71085-71087]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24no08-158]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental
Impact Report for the Geary Bus Rapid Transit Project in San Francisco,
CA
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of
Transportation.
ACTION: Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS).
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the San Francisco
County Transportation Authority (The Authority) intend to prepare an
EIS on the implementation of a fixed-guideway transit system in the
Geary Boulevard Corridor located between the Transbay Terminal on the
east (at First and Mission Streets) and 33rd Avenue on the west.
Alternatives proposed to be considered in the draft EIS include a
combined No Project/Transportation Systems Management (TSM)
Alternative, a Geary BRT Alternative and any additional reasonable
alternatives that emerge from the study process. The EIS will be
prepared to satisfy the requirements of the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and its implementing regulations. The FTA and
The Authority request public and interagency input on the purpose and
need to be addressed by the project, the alternatives to be considered
in the EIS, and the environmental and community impacts to be
evaluated.
DATES: Written comments on the scope of the NEPA review, including the
project's purpose and need, the alternatives to be considered, and the
related impacts to be assessed, should be sent to The Authority by
December 24, 2008. See ADDRESSES below.
Scoping Meetings: Meetings to accept comments on the scope of the
EIS will be held on December 4 and December 6, 2008 at the locations
given below. On December 4, 2008, the public scoping meeting will begin
at 6 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. or until all who wish to provide
oral comments have been given the opportunity. The meeting on December
6, 2008 will begin at 10 a.m. and continue until 12 p.m. or until all
who wish to provide oral comments have been given the opportunity.
The locations are accessible to people with disabilities. A court
reporter will record oral comments. Forms will be provided on which to
submit written comments. Project staff will be available at the meeting
to informally discuss the EIS scope and the proposed project.
Governmental agencies will be invited to a separate scoping meeting to
be held on December 3, 2008 at the San Francisco County Transportation
Authority between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the scope of the EIS, including the
project's purpose and need, the alternatives to be considered, and the
related impacts to be assessed, should be sent to Zabe Bent, Principal
Transportation Planner; San Francisco County Transportation Authority;
100 Van Ness Avenue, 26th Floor; San Francisco, CA 94102. Phone: (415)
522-4819. Fax: (415) 522-4829. E-mail: Elizabeth.Bent@sfcta.org. Please
include the name of an appropriate contact person in your agency for
continued EIS coordination. Further project information will be
available at the scoping meetings and may also be obtained by calling
(415) 522-4800, by downloading materials from http://www.GearyBRT.org
or by e-mailing gearybrt@sfcta.org.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background/Project Description
The proposed project would be located in the Geary Boulevard
Corridor, a key east-west transportation corridor in the heart of the
City and County of San Francisco. Geary Boulevard is an important
roadway and transit route serving high-density commercial and
[[Page 71086]]
residential areas along its length from Market Street on the east to
Pacific Ocean on the west. The project aims to improve travel times and
reliability in the portion of the transit corridor located between the
Transbay Terminal on the east (at First and Mission Streets) and 33rd
Avenue on the west; special focus will be on the segment located west
of Van Ness Avenue which is the most congested portion of the corridor.
The roadway serves as a major thoroughfare for local traffic as well as
through traffic, carrying over 50,000 transit trips per day, between
30,000 and 65,000 auto trips daily depending on the location on the
corridor, and thousands of pedestrian and bicycle trips. Transit
service is provided by Muni route 38-Geary (including 38L, 38AX, and
38BX), and by Golden Gate Transit (based in Marin County), which
operates commute service and limited all-day service into San Francisco
on Geary Boulevard. Unlike many transit routes that primarily serve
commuters, transit ridership on Geary Boulevard is consistently high
throughout the day, on both weekdays and weekends, and in both the
eastbound and westbound directions. A number of major north-south
transit routes cross Geary Boulevard and generate major bus-to-bus
transfers with Geary Boulevard services, including Muni lines 22-
Fillmore, 49-Van Ness, 30-Stockton, and 14-Mission (including 14L and
14X), and the Muni Metro T-Line (formerly 15-Third). In addition to the
routes on and perpendicular to Geary Boulevard, routes that operate
within a few blocks of Geary Boulevard are considered part of the
broader Geary corridor, including 1-California (including 1AX and 1BX),
2-Clement, 3-Jackson, 4-Sutter, and 31-Balboa.
Traffic congestion in mixed-flow traffic lanes and transit
overcrowding result in poor transit service reliability and low average
bus speeds, currently just 8 to 10 miles per hour for Muni Route 38-
Geary. Bus reliability is poor, with high variation in headways and
bunching. Buses serve as much as 25% of the trips made in the Geary
Boulevard corridor in the PM peak hour, with the highest passenger
loads between Fillmore Street and Van Ness Avenue. For all
neighborhoods in the corridor, walking also accounts for a large
percentage of trips. The non-auto mode share in the neighborhoods
located in the heart of the city is as follows: The Tenderloin is over
50% bike, walk and transit; in the Western Addition/Japantown, it is
40%; and in the Richmond it is just over 30%. In spite of high transit
ridership and high pedestrian use, much of the current roadway layout
and traffic signal infrastructure on Geary primarily benefits motorists
more than it benefits transit riders and pedestrians. A major project
purpose is, therefore, to improve its walkability and livability.
Geary Boulevard has been identified as a high priority transit
improvement corridor in a number of planning studies and funding
actions by the City and County of San Francisco. The Authority's Four
Corridors Plan (1995) and Muni's Vision for Rapid Transit (2000) and
Transit Effectiveness Project (2008) identify Geary Boulevard as a
priority corridor for rapid transit improvements. Along with two other
key transit corridors, Geary Boulevard was designated for BRT
improvements in the New Expenditure Plan for San Francisco, approved in
November 2004 by voters as Proposition K, the reauthorization of the
City's half-cent transportation sales tax measure. The Expenditure Plan
is the investment component of the 2004 San Francisco Countywide
Transportation Plan, which sets forth the city's ``blueprint to guide
the development of transportation funding priorities and policy'' with
a key objective being the promotion and implementation of San
Francisco's Transit First policy through the development of a network
of fast, reliable transit including bus rapid transit. The Geary
Corridor BRT Study (the Feasibility Study) was initiated in 2004,
completed in 2007, and evaluated the feasibility of four alternative
BRT configurations on Geary Boulevard. A Transportation Systems
Management (TSM) and three full-featured BRT alternatives were
developed and compared with a No Project scenario, in conjunction with
a comprehensive public and agency participation program. The
Feasibility Study found that all the BRT configurations studied would
be feasible on Geary and recommended an environmental analysis and
further technical design work to identify a preferred alternative. The
alternatives--and others identified through the scoping process--will
be addressed in the proposed project EIS.
As discussed above, previous studies and documents relevant to this
action include the recently completed Geary Boulevard BRT Feasibility
Study (June 2007); 2005 Prop K Strategic Plan (March 2005); 2004 San
Francisco Countywide Transportation Plan (adopted July 20, 2004), and
the New Transportation Expenditure Plan for San Francisco (Proposition
K, approved November 4, 2003). These documents describe the planning
and funding for transportation improvements in San Francisco, including
BRT in major bus corridors.
II. Scoping
The FTA and The Authority invite all interested individuals,
organizations, and Federal, State, and local governmental agencies to
comment on the project's purpose and need, the alternatives to be
considered in the EIS and the impacts to be evaluated. During the
scoping process, comments on the proposed statement of purpose and need
should address its completeness and adequacy. Comments on the
alternatives should propose alternatives that would satisfy the purpose
and need at less cost or with greater effectiveness or less
environmental or community impact and were not previously studied and
eliminated for good cause. At this time, comments should focus on the
scope of the NEPA review and should not state a preference for a
particular alternative. The best opportunity for that type of input
will be after the release of the draft EIS.
Following the scoping process, public outreach activities with
interested parties or groups will continue throughout the duration of
work on the EIS. The project Web site, http://www.GearyBRT.org, will be
updated periodically to reflect the status of the project. Additional
opportunities for public participation will be announced through
mailings, notices, advertisements, and press releases. Those wishing to
be placed on the project mailing list may do so by registering on the
Web site at http://www.GearyBRT.org, or by calling (415) 522-4819.
Public and agency scoping meetings to be held on:
Thursday, December 4, 2008, Self Help for the Elderly, Jackie Chan
Activity Center, 408--22nd Avenue (at Geary), 6-8 p.m.
Saturday, December 6, 2008, Tenderloin Community School, 627 Turk
Street (at Polk), 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
An agency scoping meeting will be held on:
Wednesday, December 3, 2008, San Francisco County Transportation
Authority, 100 Van Ness Avenue, 26th Floor (at Fell), 1-3 p.m.
Comments on issues and impacts to be considered in preparation of
the EIS will be recorded.
III. Purpose and Need
The Authority adopted as part of the 2004 Countywide Transportation
Plan and its investment component, the New Expenditure Plan for San
Francisco, a BRT strategy for expanding rapid transit service in San
Francisco. The BRT
[[Page 71087]]
network is intended to address the following purpose:
1. Support the city's growth and development needs;
2. Better serve existing transit riders and stem and reverse the
trend toward transit mode share loss; and
3. Improve the operational efficiency and cost effectiveness of the
transportation system.
A BRT network can meet those goals by:
Improving transit levels of service cost effectively;
Strengthening rapid transit services;
Raising the cost effectiveness of Muni service and
operational efficiency of transit preferential streets; and
Contributing to the livability of BRT corridors.
IV. Alternatives
Alternatives to be reviewed in the EIS include a (1) combined No-
Project/Transportation Systems Management (TSM) Alternative, which
would include low-cost improvements to corridor bus services, such as
bus stop amenities and limited transit signal priority; (2) a Geary BRT
Alternative, which will include design options for the configuration of
the BRT transitway and stations; and (3) any additional reasonable
alternatives that emerge from the study process.
The No-Project/TSM Alternative assumes a 2015 condition of land use
and transit capital and service improvements that are programmed or
planned to be implemented by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation
Agency (SFMTA) (which includes the San Francisco Municipal Railway and
the Department of Parking and Traffic), and other transit providers in
the study area (e.g., Golden Gate Transit and the Bay Area Rapid
Transit District, or BART, a regional rail service provider). For
transit, these include upgraded bus stops and passenger information/
communication systems. Other transit improvements could include
advanced traffic signal priority systems on Muni vehicles,
rationalizing the allocation of limited vs. local Muni service in the
corridor, expanding Muni service hours to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and
enhanced Muni transit shelters and signage.
The Geary BRT Alternative would include, among other features:
Dedicated transit lanes within the existing Geary
Boulevard right-of-way;
Sheltered, low-platform passenger stations with real-time
bus arrival passenger information signs, lighting, and fare ticketing
machines;
Off-vehicle self-service fare vending and on-board proof-
of-payment verification; and
Advanced transit traffic signal priority and traffic
management systems to reduce bus delays at signalized intersections yet
maintain acceptable traffic flow.
Preferred spacing for passenger stations would be an average of
one-half mile between stops, with local bus stations located every 800
to 1000 feet. BRT transitway and station improvements would be made
entirely within existing public rights-of-way; improvements outside of
existing public-rights of way are not anticipated with the possible
exception of required improvements to existing Muni bus storage and
maintenance facilities and to off-alignment intersections for
mitigation of project impacts. Variations in the cross-section for the
BRT transitway and the locations of stations are anticipated and would
comprise design options for the basic BRT alignment. A two-way
transitway either in the median of Geary Boulevard or along the outside
curbs (one eastbound BRT lane along the south curb/parking lane; one
westbound BRT lane along the north curb/parking lane) and,
correspondingly, stations in the median or as extensions of the
sidewalk were considered in the Geary BRT feasibility study and warrant
further evaluation as part of the EIS and alternatives analysis. All
BRT alternatives considered would be designed to be ``rail-ready'' in
terms of vertical and horizontal clearances and operational
requirements.
The Authority, in association with SFMTA, will evaluate the
procurement of modern low-floor high-capacity vehicles that would be
assigned to the BRT service and have added features, such as two-sided,
multi-door access, passenger station docking assist, and other
amenities. Streetscape improvements, such as enhanced landscaping and
pedestrian access along Geary Boulevard, are also included in the
proposed BRT project.
V. Probable Effects
The EIS will evaluate and fully disclose the environmental
consequences of the construction and operation of a fixed guideway
transit system in the Geary Transit Corridor. The EIS will evaluate the
impacts of all reasonable alternatives on land use, zoning, residential
and business displacements, parklands, economic development, community
disruptions, environmental justice, aesthetics, noise, vegetation,
water quality, wetlands, waterways, floodplains, hazardous waste
materials, and cultural, historic, and archaeological resources. To
ensure that all significant issues related to this proposed action are
identified and addressed, scoping comments and suggestions on more
specific issues of environmental or community impact are invited from
all interested parties. Comments and questions should be directed to
The Authority as noted in the ADDRESSES section above.
VI. FTA Procedures
The EIS will be prepared in accordance with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as amended, and its
implementing regulations by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
(40 CFR parts 1500-1508) and by the FTA and Federal Highway
Administration (``Environmental Impact and Related Procedures'' at 23
CFR part 771). In accordance with FTA regulation and policy, the NEPA
process will also address the requirements of other applicable
environmental laws, regulations, and executive orders, including, but
not limited to: Federal transit laws [49 U.S.C. 5301(e), 5323(b), and
5324(b)], Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act,
Section 4(f) (``Protection of Public Lands'') of the U.S. Department of
Transportation Act (49 U.S.C. 303), Section 7 of the Endangered Species
Act, and the Executive Orders on Environmental Justice, Floodplain
Management, and Protection of Wetlands.
Issued on November 19, 2008.
Leslie T. Rogers,
Regional Administrator, Region IX, Federal Transit Administration.
[FR Doc. E8-27868 Filed 11-21-08; 8:45 am]
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