BART-to-Oakland International Airport Title VI Equity Analysis May 2014 Prepared for: San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Prepared by: CDM Smith Corey, Canapary & Galanis Research Table of Contents Section 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1-1 Section 2 Public Outreach .......................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.2 Public Comments ........................................................................................................................................................ 2-1 2.2.1 New Service Input .......................................................................................................................................... 2-1 2.2.2 Fare Preference Input ................................................................................................................................... 2-2 2.3 Limited English Proficient (LEP) Community Comments ........................................................................ 2-3 2.4 Airport Employee Comments ................................................................................................................................ 2-3 Section 3 Project Description ................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.1 Project New Fare ......................................................................................................................................................... 3-1 3.2 Alternative Modes ...................................................................................................................................................... 3-2 3.3 Prospective Project Ridership .............................................................................................................................. 3-2 Section 4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 4-1 4.1 New Fare Analysis ...................................................................................................................................................... 4-1 4.1.1 Demographic Assessment ........................................................................................................................... 4-1 4.2 Service Change Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 4-3 4.2.1 Demographic Assessment ........................................................................................................................... 4-3 4.2.2 Travel Time Assessment for Systemwide Population .................................................................... 4-6 Section 5 Findings ........................................................................................................................................ 5-1 5.1 New Fare Analysis Findings ................................................................................................................................... 5-1 5.1.1 Demographic Assessment ........................................................................................................................... 5-1 5.2 Service Change Evaluation ..................................................................................................................................... 5-2 5.2.1 Demographic Assessment ........................................................................................................................... 5-2 5.2.2 Travel Time Assessment for Systemwide Population .................................................................... 5-3 Project Benefits ............................................................................................................................................... 5-4 Other Improvements Benefitting Protected Riders ........................................................................ 5-4 5.3 Overall Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................... 5-5 List of Figures Figure 3-1 AirBART Riders ............................................................................................................................................................ 3-5 Figure 3-2 Oakland Airport Air Passenger Catchment Area ........................................................................................... 3-6 Figure 4-1 Percent Minority by Census Tract ........................................................................................................................ 4-9 Figure 4-2 Percent Low-Income by Census Tract ............................................................................................................. 4-10 i 101152 Table of Contents List of Tables Table 2-1: Respondent Fare Preference .................................................................................................................................. 2-2 Table 3-1 AirBART and Project Service Levels ..................................................................................................................... 3-1 Table 3-2 Alternative Modes Service Levels .......................................................................................................................... 3-2 Table 3-3 AirBART Ridership Demographics ........................................................................................................................ 3-3 Table 3-4 AirBART Ridership – Trip Purpose ....................................................................................................................... 3-4 Table 4-1 Low Income Definition (Existing AirBART Ridership)................................................................................. 4-2 Table 4-2 Estimated Minority Share of the Project: Scenario A .................................................................................... 4-5 Table 5-1 Protected Share of Ridership (New Fare Analysis) ....................................................................................... 5-1 Table 5-2 Protected Share of Ridership (Service Change Analysis: Census) .......................................................... 5-2 Table 5-3 Protected Share of Ridership (Service Change Analysis: Survey) ........................................................... 5-3 Table 5-5 Average Travel Time Comparison (Systemwide Populations) ................................................................. 5-4 Table 5-4 Project and Systemwide Protected Share of Ridership ............................................................................... 5-5 Appendices Appendix A Additional Assessments Appendix B Systemwide Population Calculations Appendix C Existing AirBART Ridership Calculations Appendix D Public Participation Report Appendix E Outreach Publicity Materials Appendix F List of General and Fare Comments Appendix G BART Rail Expansion Projects ii 101152 Section 1 Introduction The New Service and New Fare Title VI Equity Analysis for the BART-to-Oakland International Airport Project (Project) provides an evaluation of how the Project may affect low-income and minority riders. This analysis is undertaken in connection with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. While low-income riders are not a protected class under Title VI, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), also requires recipients to evaluate proposed service and fare changes to determine whether low-income riders will bear a disproportionate burden of the changes. Accordingly, the FTA has adopted regulations and reporting compliance requirements for agencies that receive federal financial assistance to ensure that the programs and activities of each respective agency comply with the requirements of Title VI.1 The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the new service and new fare of the Project based on the FTA’s Title VI requirements and guidelines, including but not limited to, FTA Circular 4702.1B (Circular), which requires an analysis of impacts of the new service and fares on minority and low- income riders. This report determines if the new service and new fare would have a disparate impact on minority riders or place a disproportionate burden on low-income riders based on BART’s Disparate Impact and Disproportionate Burden Policy (DI/DB Policy). The DI/DB Policy was developed pursuant to the Circular, following an extensive public participation process, and adopted by the BART Board of Directors on July 11, 2013. In accordance with the adopted DI/DB Policy, for new service and new fares, a disparate impact to minority riders or a disproportionate burden on low-income riders will be found if the applicable difference between the proportion of Project riders that are protected and the proportion of protected systemwide riders is equal to or greater than 10%.2 The Project falls under the new service and new fare guidelines as it provides service between the Coliseum BART station and the Oakland International Airport (OAK) that was not previously served by a fixed guideway system. This report includes the following sections. Public Outreach: An overview of the public outreach efforts and feedback received for the BART-to-Oakland