SMART BICYCLE PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS
For Station Planning

December 2003

The SMART Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Group (BPAG) is pleased to submit these findings and recommendations to the SMART Board. The BPAG believes that the proposed bicycle and pedestrian improvements for rail stations will be a vital part of the SMART commuter rail system. Members of the BPAG have attended the seven (7) rail station public workshops and reviewed the concept plans of Community Design + Architecture that were presented to the SMART Board on October 15, 2003. The BPAG has prepared a set of findings and recommendations that are summarized below.

Findings

1. Bicycle and pedestrian access to each rail station is one of the most effective ways to increase ridership and accommodate the most environmentally sound method of station access.

A. General Recommendations

1. Each station, for which it is practicable, should have a structure that can be rented out (possible income to SMART) for an attended bicycle parking facility. A private enterprise would rent the space. The attended bicycle parking facility would be a business that offers secure inside bicycle parking, compressed air or bike pumps, a repair service for bicycles and a small retail store to fulfill the needs of bicycle commuters.
2. Each station should also have covered bike parking outside the attended bicycle parking facility that would be free.
3. SMART should make it a policy that all bicycle parking have the best access to the station and is closer than auto parking. Next would be busses, then drop-off cars.
4. Each Station should be designed to accommodate the proper north south pathway alignment.
5. The consultants should develop a formula that shows the space ratio of auto and bicycle parking comparisons for space efficiency at train stations (i.e., compare how many bicycles can park in a parking space).
6. SMART should consider more robust pedestrian and bicycle strategies for the rail stations rather than auto strategies to gain train patrons.
7. Each station should have good pedestrian and bicycle circulation through the parking lots.
8. SMART should request that local jurisdictions amend their existing Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans within a two-mile radius of each station for getting people to and from the station. This would include integrating local jurisdiction plans and the north-south pathway.
9. SMART should make it a policy that if the bicycle parking spaces are consistently full that more bicycle parking will be built using auto parking if necessary (because of the formula/data of Rec. 6) at any such rail station.
10. SMART should make it a policy that bicycles will have 25% of the unit spaces of the available parking. (For example, a given station may have 75 car parking spaces and 25 spaces for bicycles.)
11. At stations where there is no auto parking, SMART should provide significant bicycle parking. This access strategy would bring MORE ridership. (In these stations the 25% rule should not be used as a guideline for bicycle parking because there is no auto parking for the train.)
12. SMART should make it an overarching theme, a policy, to seek opportunities for public/private partnerships in station design to reduce the costs of the station and increase train ridership.

B. Specific Stations

1. The San Rafael downtown station should include an EIR/EIS alternative for a below ground pedestrian and bicycle passage starting just west of W. Francisco Blvd on the north-south pathway. It would pass underneath 2nd Street and connect to the busses at the Transit Center (between 2nd and 3rd Streets) and the rail platforms (between 3rd and 4th Streets), as well as provide Class I passage below 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Streets for the north-south pathway.
2. The San Rafael Station should provide significant bicycle parking for both busses and rail.
3. The Central San Rafael Phase 2 Long Term Pathway Routing needs to be modified in both the (a) SMART Project Recommended Bicycle/Pedestrian Pathway Routing by Segment; and (b) the Long Term Right-of-Way and Speed Chart SMART Corridor. Such modifications would reflect the subsurface pedestrian bicycle alignment of the north-south pathway below W. Francisco to the north side of 4th Street, which would be the new long-term alignment of the north south pathway.
4. Coordinate the evaluation of suggestions 1 and 2 with the City of San Rafael when it does its traffic study for these areas.