FanPost

Green Grass: Piecing Together the Transportation Access Puzzle

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


Last month, I wrote about the four potential sites that we knew John Fisher included on his tour of Oakland's potential ballpark sites. Since then there has been some stadium related news. First we have had an overwhelmingly successful Fan Fest (which I was unable to attend because my family Christmas party moved back a month, dad verne it!), a sweet announcement about the playing field of the Coliseum (see you at The Rick) and... a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to the pieces of a much larger puzzle that are being pulled together in an attempt to make a stadium work adjacent to Jack London Square.

Transportation

The undisputed authority on actual ballpark news for the last decade (it's been more than a DECADE since Cisco Field I was announced?!?!) ran a Twitter based survey to figure out what fans wanted as far as transportation options to help bridge the gap between people and a ballpark at Howard Terminal. The people have spoken! And they disagree with the Oakland Athletics!

Recently, Scott Ostler reported that the Oakland A's have floated the option that the city of Oakland build a light rail. That this light rail begins with the express purpose of extending BART to Howard Terminal. That the money to build the light rail comes directly from the money pledged to keep the Raiders in town. Brass knuckles have been deployed.

Let us not focus on the politics of A's money v. Raider's money, when it is really all Oakland's money (and with a little dash of us Alameda County resident's money). Let's talk about why Light Rail is what the A's are after. Let's also chat about previously completed analysis on Light Rail options to extend Downtown transit options into JLS. Let's also, also chat about why Light Rail is a far superior option than buses and why this makes sense with or without the context of a baseball stadium.

Light Rail

We should start by mentioning that yes, the start up costs for building a Light Rail are significant. The cost associated with building out a Light Rail system in Oakland were last studied in 2004. In that study there were 5 alignments studied. They range in distance from the 0.68 mi of the "Broadway Spine" to the 2.12 mi of the "Big Loop." The projected costs of the 5 potential routes ranged from $38M to $75M (in 2004 dollars). The other thing to consider as far as costs is that the distance of the system also drives the Annual Operating Expense. The ranges here vary from $1.7M to $4.2M (in 2004 dollars).

Here is a picture of my favorite alignment (The "C Loop," 1.54 mi, $64M, $3.4M):

C Loop

Disclaimer: We do not know what alignment the A's are kicking the tires on, it could be entirely different than any of those studied in 2004. The costs in today's dollars will be about 30% higher. So, assuming they ask for the most integrated alignment that was studied, the "start up" cost for Light Rail would be about $100M. If they were looking to build the Broadway Spine, it is closer to $50M. In either case, it is much cheaper than the estimated $250M (in 2004 dollars, $325M today) that a BART station would cost.

Why would the A's prefer a Light Rail beyond costs of the entire project? Why would Oakland agree that Light Rail is better than either alternative option (Cars, Buses or BART)? The answers are fairly straightforward.

First, Light Rail cars carry more passengers than buses. Here is a PolitiFact article on the subject specific to Portland, Oregon. When you are moving thousands of people in a tight window, capacity of the transit bridge is critical to making it go smoothly. Buses seat about 50 people. Street Cars carry around 90. Buses share Right of Way with all other vehicles in the area, Light Rail can have it's own "path" which means shorter round trip times. More people, moving more swiftly.

Second, if we look at current BART ridership to A's games, around 30% of fans make their way to The Rick on the blue and silver, electrified trains. If we use that number as an estimate for Rickey Henderson Field adjacent to Jack London Square presented by Kaiser Permanente, and RHFatJLSpbKP has the 37,000 seat capacity that ex owner Lew Wolff, and current President DK, have both indicated it would... We are looking at moving 11,100 people from 12th Street and/or Lake Merritt (or maybe even West Oakland?) Stations in a couple hour window.

If we use only buses, that will take 222 bus trips. Figure each round trip takes 10 minutes. Figure you have 2 buses going back and forth, hitting either end 5 minutes apart from each other and you have... math. Or, it would take somewhere around 45 minutes to move those folks in a vacuum (not accounting for other variables). Of course, we are forgetting that an urban park means less adjacent parking which means folks will use parking garages across 880, so we'd need to include additional riders on the shuttles and... anyway, you catch the drift! Street Cars, higher capacity, no shared Right of Way, more efficient than buses and less costly than a brand new BART station.

The benefit to Oakland, beyond efficient moving of folks at the peak time for A's games, is that as the article I linked above describes: Light Rail attracts more riders than buses. Imagine a Light Rail network that eventually ties Rockridge to JLS to Lakeview to Fruitvale. You could eventually have a multidestinational transit model, statistically proven to raise ridership on mass transit systems, as a strategic asset for the City by the (Eastside of the) Bay.

In summary, transportation is easily the biggest challenge at Howard Terminal. Access for cars, pedestrians and hazards created by frequent train traffic all need to be addressed. It appears that the A's and the City are working through those challenges before going all in on any specific site. This is really good news for all of us that would like to see a shovel hit dirt.

In the meantime, see you all The Rick in about two months :)