Pedestrian only-streets almost always fail (in the U.S.)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Katiana

People tend not to park at those garages unless they're planning to be at Pearl St. for a while. If you're just going to "run in" and buy something, you look for a free spot, or at least a street spot. Make no mistake, the concept of the mall was to get people to not bring their cars. Those garages were built to "accept reality".

See below:

Originally Posted by Katiana

Yes, length of planned stay would have a lot to do with it.

I have an anecdote, too. My daughter wanted some special jacket that was only sold at the company store on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. There is no parking on the mall (pedestrian mall) and the nearby parking is all pay. The pay parking has these dumb credit card readers, and the reader for the spot I found (after driving around quite a lot, and believe me, if it weren't the only store in Boulder County that sold the jacket, I would have gone elsewhere) was not working. I said a bad word, out loud, and pretty soon a big guy (I am 5'1") came up to me and I thought, "I'm going to get mugged in broad daylight". Then I noticed he had a "Boulder Parking Authority" jacket on. He asked me what was wrong; I told him, and he gave me a free parking pass for 7 hours! I think the Boulder mall merchants want people to shop there.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

The bolded parts are why none of your story makes any sense. Why would the transportation authority waste its time considering any of these issues for one shopping center out of the 100s it probably serves? If the shopping center complained to the transportation company then why would they go through the trouble of starting a BID that runs a free shuttle (that apparently connects with the bus)? That makes zero sense.

You didn't cite any of this, name a route number or even a location so one can only speculate, as you are, that the route was changed to either provide more efficient service or because of budget cuts.

"Racism" is about the laziest excuse of an explanation I can think of.

The BID started the shuttle around 8-10 years ago, and it ran parallel to the bus routes during all of those 10 years. It stops about 10pm. The bus route changes happened around 3 years ago, during a time of budget cuts. The route that served the "mall" is one of the trunk routes and is very long. The city buses offered more frequent service than the free BID shuttle to all of the shopping centers. Service to the entire city of Emeryville was cut pretty dramatically, and buses were re-routed. Now most buses only run along the San Pablo corridor. Over the past 7 is years, lots of fancy condos have gone up west of San Pablo as well, in areas that were formerly pretty well served by the city buses.

Back when the BID started the bus, it was pre-Target opening in the shopping mall, at that time there was another Target that was really easily served by transit. It was in the parking lot of the train station. Around 5-7 years ago, it closed because they opened another store a couple of miles away. Well actually 2 stores. The first one to open is not served by transit at all, and this has been a huge criticism of the store since it opened. IT is on a section/corridor that isn't served by transit, even though there are a bunch of athletic fields and other draws that would be helpful for transit.

Before the new Target opened, there was lots of discussion about how the store would be easily served by transit, and it would be the only target in the area convenient for both the college kids of Cal, and other residents of North Oakland. It is located in a former industrial area that is terrible for all non car traffic. It was recently retrofitted with sidewalks and bike lanes, but those are all pretty disconnected, and it is virtually impossible to walk in the city of Emeryville. It is extremely difficult to walk or bike between the shopping centers and strip malls. These shopping areas are regional draws, and the 57 route serves a ton of the main commercial districts in the area. This "mall" is actually a collection of 4 that used to be served by the bus, over a 1/2-1 mile run along the same road.

Also, since the Target opened up, the apartment building has converted to condos, after being constructed around 15 years ago. The demographics in the city have changed a lot, and it went from only big box stores to new, more affluent residents who work at companies like Pixar and Jamba Juice.

It is completely silly the bus service is so terrible there these days, as the number of residents is increasing, there are more bicyclists, and it is getting denser in the neighboring section of Oakland as well.

As for the bus route in question? It originates in the roughest part of town. And makes its way North/South across all of Oakland. I did chime in during the public comment period about the bus route, they could easily split the difference, and extend another block or two to serve the shopping center. It is also just a few blocks away from the main bus garage and service center, it would be super easy to make up a route that goes past the bus garage, and serves the strip mall. I can merely speculate, but it is definitely sketchy the bus no longer serves the Pedestrian mall of the strip mall, given the gridded road layout, wide traffic lanes and proximity to the bus service center. The bus service center is two blocks west of the aforementioned new travel line for all of the routes. And the line, a main corridor, is already running express buses and is slated for BRT, so a feeder route is needed from the shopping centers to the main boulevard.

I have seem lots of local "commentary" about malls in the burbs not wanting to be served by buses because it brings in an "unwanted element," particularly for Stoneridge Mall in nearby Pleasanton.