San Leandro council gets look at county transit plan

The city has mostly favored this version because, even though some parking would be lost, traffic along the rest of East 14th would not be affected as much.

The second proposal, which AC Transit favors, would extend the bus line all the way to the Bayfair BART station and create a longer stretch of isolated bus lanes. That means more parking spaces would be lost and more landscaped medians would be erected, but transit planners are counting on the improvements to increase ridership and speed traffic flow.

"The purpose of this is to move the most amount of people along the busiest corridor in the fastest amount of time," said Mary King, AC Transit's assistant general manager of communications and external affairs. "Otherwise, people won't even take the bus."

King added that transit planners have been making presentations throughout the city and will continue to incorporate input from residents and business owners into the plan so that they — and the cities involved — can reach a compromise.

Overall, "the exchange has been positive in that AC Transit and San Leandro seem to be looking at how to work together in cooperation," she said.

For more information about the Bus Rapid Transit plan, visit www2.actransit.org/planning_focus/brt/. Reach Martin Ricard at 510-293-2480 or mricard@bayareanewsgroup.com.