Monday, 27 August 2007 01:56

General Plan Advisory Committtee Discusses Alternative Transportation

slide4Thursday night General Plan Advisory Committee held Meeting #19 on Non-Roadway Circulation Issues. This includes Trails, Transit, Railways and Airports. The meeting began with a presentation by Bob Devlin on Future Transit Alternatives, specifically taking into account N-E-V’s (neighborhood electric vehicles). These vehicles are fully electric, can travel on roads with posted speed limits under 35 mph, can cross major highways if the road they are intending to cross onto has a speed limit of 35 mph or lower, and can travel on special NEV only lanes. Mr. Devlin used the term QATL or Quiet Alternative Transit Lanes in his presentation, to specify these special NEV lanes, which could be added to already existing roadways, or built on their own specifically.

Mr. Devlin used the term QATL or Quiet Alternative Transit Lanes in his presentation, to specify these special NEV lanes, which could be added to already existing roadways, or built on their own specifically. One idea presented was to have large parking stations, slide20 where people could leave their NEV’s for a fee. The NEV’s would be charged continuously using solar power, and the public would be able to either drive to the station or utilize Public Transit to get to the garages and from there could easily drive their NEV’s to run errands in town. The Amador County Transportation Commission has set aside $10,000 in their annual budget for the Year 07/08 to research the item further because the utilization of the NEV is just one facet in a multi-faceted approach to alleviate the county’s traffic problems. Bob Ireland also spoke on behalf of the Amador Regional Transportation System, or ARTS (arts) stating that the public transit system supported Mr. Devlin’s ideas. He says it would be ideal to incorporate the Public Transit system into the ultimate general plan. As of right now 25% of the riders using ARTS are “Choice Riders” meaning they have the ability to use a car but choose to use the transit system, in the future however ARTS would like to see people thinking about taking public transportation before taking their cars.

Non-Roadway Circulation Issues were also discussed at the meeting. The topics included Trails, Transit, Railways, and Airports. Transit was the first topic to be discussed, and Sean Rebe of the ACTC began the discussion. ACTC reviews larger development slide26 applications, and recommend to the applicants including Park and Ride facilities, or Charting Stations to be built in the project. There are no policies to support these recommendations in the current General Plan or the Regional Traffic Plan. Next up was trails, with a statement from Recreation Agency Director Tracy Towner Yep, saying ideally trails will link “cities to cities, towns to towns and schools to parks.” Another question raised was why are we not developing the railroad assets we have to get commuters from the county to Sacramento and Stockton? Pat Ireland says a survey had been done approximately 15 years ago, as an alternative to the bypass, to find out what had to be done to put the existing railway back into service. At that time the estimated cost of the project was around 130 million dollars, and with cost increases it could be much closer to 200 million dollars now.. People are definitely looking for some protection from the county, asking for support for the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan.” At the end of the meeting a Preliminary General Plan Goals and Policies GPAC(say g-pack) Workbook was handed out to both the GPAC and the public alike. The workbook, which, provides an overview of the proposed structure and organization of the General Plan is meant for review and space is allotted throughout to write in questions, comments or concerns.