No Change For AC Transit Bus Line in Emeryville

Former Emeryville mayor and current AC Transit President of the Board of Directors Greg Harper has announced the F-Line bus route will not be eliminated or even change for Emeryville residents as was reported last week in the newspaper the Daily Californian.  Mr Harper told the Tattler, "the Daily Californian got the story wrong" and that the Board is actually increasing the number of buses for the popular route.

AC Transit President and
Emeryville resident
Greg Harper

The Daily Californian reported and the Tattler reprinted a story that is factually incorrect according to Mr Harper. The UC Cal newspaper reported the transit agency is considering changing the F-Line route through Emeryville but that is incorrect Mr Harper said, "It will continue to use 40th Street and access the Bay Bridge via Powell Street".  There will be no changes for the Emeryville portion of the F-Line except buses will run with greater frequency he stressed.  Mr Harper noted that the proposed change will occur at the UC campus where the line now loops around the campus.  The loop will be eliminated and instead the buses will just run past the university, "90% of the total route is the same" he noted.  "It won't go around the campus as much as it did before.  But that will enable us to increase the frequency with the same number of buses" he said.  "There will be a 10 minute peak bus frequency for weekdays" he added, noting he is trying to convince his fellow Board members to accept that half the buses should go down Powell Street, owing to the greater frequency, "Every other bus will go down Powell instead of 40th Street if I can get that past my colleagues" he said.
The addition of an F-Line Powell Street route, closer to Emeryville residencies, would increase usability for Emeryville citizens.
These changes would make the F-Line "better than ever as far as Emeryville is concerned" President Harper said,  "The downside is that will be less convenient for some UC students" he added.

Former mayor Greg Harper heads up Harper and Associates law firm on Horton Street and he has lived in Emeryville for over 30 years.

Emeryville Businesses at Risk With AC Transit Bus Line Closure

Concern about the AC Transit proposed F bus line closure continues to ripple across the East Bay.  Today, the Daily Californian editorial board staff weighs in:

EDITORIALS

MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2013

Bye Bye Bay Street

BAY AREA AFFAIRS: A proposal to cut the popular AC Transit F bus line could eliminate a convenient way for students to get to Emeryville.

BY SENIOR EDITORIAL BOARD | STAFF

A new proposal being considered by the AC Transit Board of Directors to cut the system’s F line could mean the end of a direct and economical bus route to Emeryville, a premier destination for shopping and dining for many UC Berkeley students. This is cause for concern.

In place of the F line, AC Transit is considering a shorter, more frequent transbay line that would run through the south side of the UC Berkeley campus and down Telegraph Avenue into Oakland. This line, however, would not run to the north side of Berkeley.

This spring, UC Berkeley students voted to keep the Cal 1 Card Class Pass in order to continue to be able to travel around Berkeley and the rest of the Bay Area. Emeryville, for example, is home to Ikea and Target, which are both staples for college students’ shopping needs. With the F line, students who work or live in Emeryville have a direct route to and from campus.

Without the F line, students will have to find alternative methods to travel to Emeryville — methods that might be expensive and time-consuming due to the lack of a BART station there.

The F is also a way for students to travel to the edge of downtown San Francisco for free instead of taking BART, which costs a minimum round-trip price of $7.40 to get to Embarcadero station.

Additionally, there are already multiple buses that frequently run through Berkeley and into Oakland — including the 1 and 1R, which go down Telegraph, and the 51A and 51B, which head down College Avenue in both directions. Adding another bus line would serve little purpose other than possibly creating a faster way for students to travel around Southside.

AC Transit leadership is rightfully cautious in regards to cutting the line. Chris Peeples, the system’s director at large, expressed reservations about the proposed Telegraph line being an adequate replacement for the F line. Peeples also said that an analysis of Title IV — the 1964 federal legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin — needs to be conducted before any further decisions are made regarding the F line. We agree with Peeples.

The board of directors will hold a public hearing as well as several community meetings before making its final decision. But it needs to make sure that students and the ASUC are adequately represented at these meetings and notified about them before the beginning of the fall 2013 semester.

UC Berkeley students voted to keep the Class Pass for a reason. The AC Transit board needs to heed the concerns of students when making its final decision regarding the fate of the F line.

Emeryville Bus Route May Be Cancelled

From the Daily Californian:

AC Transit considers proposal to cut 

popular F line bus route

BY CHRIS YODER | SENIOR STAFF

AC Transit heard a proposal to replace its popular F line, which connects Berkeley to Emeryville, Oakland and San Francisco, at a meeting of its board of directors Wednesday.

The F line would be replaced with a shorter, more frequent line that would run on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus and bypass a busy corridor of the Emeryville commercial district, according to a report presented to a group of transbay passengers last week.

The new service, however, is a long way from being implemented. According to AC Transit spokesperson Clarence Johnson, the organization’s board of directors still needs to decide whether or not to proceed with the proposal. If it decides to proceed, AC Transit will hold a public hearing and several community meetings for public comment.

Johnson says the changes are “months away, if at all,” but he stressed the need to constantly re-evaluate the bus system.

“Living patterns and transportation patterns change over time,” Johnson said. “People want them to stay the same, but they don’t. We need to formulate something to address those changes, and that’s what the report does.”

Chris Peeples, AC Transit director at large, raised concerns that the proposed route, which would run through the Telegraph corridor into Oakland, is not an adequate replacement for the F line.

“They’re changing the route that covers a good bit of the polar areas of Berkeley,” Peeples said. “But from Shattuck to Market (in Oakland) is a lower-income area, so that gives me some concern.”

Peeples also wants to see a Title VI analysis on the proposal, referring to the 1964 federal legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. Johnson said an analysis would be conducted if the board moves forward with the proposal.

Berkeley resident Ken Niemi voiced concerns about the proposed route through Emeryville, which would bypass a popular commercial area.

“On weekends, I use (the F line) a lot to get to downtown Emeryville for shopping and entertainment,” Niemi said. “I use AC Transit for all my transportation needs. And there always seems to be a dozen or so Cal students going to Target or Ikea.”

Although the proposed transbay route would not reach the north side of the Berkeley campus, it would run more frequently than the F line.

“I don’t know how much more often these guys can actually stop,” said UC Berkeley student Nicole Morris, who uses the F line to commute from Oakland. “I would love an F that came more frequently.”

UC Berkeley students voted this spring to extend an agreement with AC Transit that provides unlimited rides to students for a semesterly fee. The agreement is set to continue through 2020.

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.