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10/14/2018 Transit and Election News

“Discernment is the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well (or the activity of so doing). In the case of judgment, discernment can be psychological or moral in nature. Within judgment, discernment involves going past the mere perception of something and making nuanced judgments about its properties or qualities. Considered as a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgement; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others.”  – Wikipedia

On transit matters, this is ‘NOT’ an endorsement, because as a Pacifican, I have not fully decided on who to vote for on November 6 and I reserve the ‘freedom’ to waffle over the course of the next few weeks, which we all should do. BUT my favorite quote so far as we get the shrapnel of everyone else’s opinion (again I may not vote for her, but I may) is from Vickie Flores: “We’re not stupid.”

Pacifica City Council – Choose 3 – Decide for yourself

Hear Pacifica candidates present their views on Transportation on the Pacific TV video stream at the October 3, 2018 Environmental Families Candidate forum… Click Here

Or Contact the candidates and ask questions directly:

Measure W – 1/2 % “Transit” sales tax increase in San Mateo County

To fund highway, local roadway, bicycle, pedestrian, infrastructure and operations projects over the next 30 years.

Currently San  Mateo residents pay 1% sales tax for transportation. This measure would up it to 1.5 %.  SamTrans proposed the following in February 2018 making no commitments or linkage to Measure W.

“Longer-term improvements, requiring significant resource investment, which will be further studied individually by SamTrans staff:

Expand Route 118 to new places such as Half Moon Bay and increase frequency. This route would offer a direct ride from points south of Pacifica to BART and increase the frequency of trips from Pacifica directly to BART. This service is envisioned to run on weekdays at 20 or 30-minute frequency in the peak commute periods and hourly in the midday periods.”

HOWEVER – Page 44 the SamTrans Business Plan states that the following is underway and partially funded: “Implement Coastside Study Long-term Recommendations” 

Having a more frequent limited stop bus route from Half Moon Bay – Pacifica to BART is a small beginning to creating a much needed transit corridor the length of Highway 1 along the coast. It could provide additional workforce by making it more convenient  for potential workers to get to our small coastside merchants, who often find it difficult to find workers, because they cannot afford the expense of moving closer to where they work. It could open up federal and state grant programs that fund housing projects for low income along ‘Transit Corridors.” It could help the environment by providing more work commuter options and take some cars off the road.

Click Here to see what some Pacifica Candidates think and what they might do about it. Does anyone have insight into how Half Moon Bay November 6 candidates feel about?

Carpool, Scoop Update

Received the following email describing the results of the May – August 2018  511.org Coastside carpool campaign.

“Beginning with our spring campaign, our outreach team was on the ground at the Pacifica and Half Moon Bay Farmer’s markets, as well as door to door to nearly 2,500 homes across Linda Mar and Vallemar distributing door hangers. We promoted the Scoop app for regular work commutes, as well as the Scoop to BART program which offers free BART parking to Scoop carpoolers heading to Colma and Daly City stations. Our takeaway was a mild interest in carpooling; those that were open to trying the app were not doing so as a solution to a perceived problem, but as a back-pocket alternative to their current transportation mode.

We also provided digital billboards live for 4 weeks on I-280 to target single-driver Pacifica residents. Anyone within a radius of Pacifica was then geo-targeted with a digital ad on their smart device, linking them to our website for more carpool information. 376 people clicked through the ads to our website. This self-selection showed more interest than our conversations on the ground in which our team was actively approaching people.

I can also help with some learnings my team discovered in our analysis of carpool incentive strategies.

We reviewed the San Mateo $2 per person, per trip Scoop incentive to understand its success in achieving behavior change, reducing single drivers on the road, and encouraging additional carpool trips.

The incentive had little success in attracting new users, and therefore generating more carpoolers in the region. The vast majority of incentive recipients were existing Scoop users already taking regular carpool trips; this user group increased their activity leading to the formation of more carpools. Unfortunately, when the incentive ended, the data showed a clear downtrend in carpool trips. In other words, this strategy does not give opportunity for organic behavior to grow and sustain over time, missing the goal of achieving behavior change.

Part of the traction of this incentive in San Mateo County was likely the existing carpooler base in the region. If Pacifica’s starting point is building such a base, it may be helpful to explore incentive structures that are user-focused, rather than trip-focused.

App incentives have been a cornerstone of the 511 Carpool Program for the past 3 years. We’ve observed carpool apps come and go in the marketplace, and evolve their business model from user acquisition to enterprise acquisition. In this course, we’ve learned that an effective incentive strategy isn’t necessarily a more money equals more carpooling equation. We are always learning about what gets people to use the app, stay on the app, and recommend the app.

Also, we recently launched our new website, and are now known as the Bay Area Carpool Program. For Share Your Ride Month, we’re offering a $20 Amazon gift card to anyone who takes five carpool app trips in the month of October. Learn more at carpool.511.org.

Best,
Gabi”

Bike and Pedestrian Planning

It would be great if we all could walk and bike the length of Pacifica without having to worry about dangerous automobile intersections and dodging Highway 1 traffic on/off ramps.

The Pacifica Bicycle / Pedestrian master plan consultant, Alta, will present an update to the Parks Beaches and Recreation (PBR) Commission on Oct 24, 2018 at 7PM at City Council chambers.

Pacifica has a $109K contract with Alta Consulting to develop the Bike/Pedestrian Master Plan for Pacifica. $28.5K of that budget is for “Public Outreach and Engagement.” Has anyone been contacted to get your input into the plan. If not contact Mike Perez 650 738-7381, PBR Director, to provide your input.