Category: Advocacy

Our (and other) transit advocacy efforts in Silicon Valley.

Improving Story/Keyes in San Jose

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Live, work, or do business along Story Road and Willow Street between Capitol Expressway and Highway 87? The City of San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) want to hear from YOU.  The goal of these street improvements, according to VTA:

The study will investigate ways to make this corridor safer and easier to use for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders while still serving drivers. We are currently evaluating the challenges, needs and opportunities for the study, which will be developed in 2017.

Tonight will be the first of three (3) community meetings to obtain public input on street improvements in the area.

DATE & TIME: November 17, 2016 from 6pm-8pm
PLACE: Leininger Center, Okayama Room, 1300 Senter Road, San Jose (1/2 block south of Story Road)
GETTING THERE: VTA’s 25 and 73 bus lines stop within a short walk of the Center, located near Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.

Want a better street in the area to travel by bicycle, bus, or automobile?  Be there.  Information on the other two public meetings will be available as soon as possible.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

 

NO.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
–Albert Einstein

no-2016-vta-measure-b

Here we go again.  On November 8, Santa Clara County voters will once again decide a transportation sales tax measure for Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).

Remember the slogans of prior transportation sales tax measures in Santa Clara County?  “A + B = Traffic Relief” (1996) and “Traffic Relief NOW” (2000) are some examples.  Ask yourself: is access, speed, and reliability of public transit better than what it was when I was asked to approve a transit sales tax measure?  Is traffic more or less than what it was the last time I was asked to approve a transportation sales tax?

Read on for information that supplements what’s already out there on why you need to vote NO on Measure B November 8.

Read more →

Coming Soon – Our Measure B Stance

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At this time, our group is still discussing our stance on VTA’s Measure B – a 1/2-cent transportation sales tax proposal on the November 8 ballot.  This discussion is taking place on our email list and our Facebook page.

To help you decide whether or not you should support or oppose Measure B, here is the full ballot text of Measure B, as VTA sent it to the County Registrar.  In addition, here are the Attachments A thru D mentioning the proposed projects in the ballot measure.

Also, here are details on where your money on prior VTA transportation sales taxes went.  This Mountain View Voice article from 2014 shows how nearly 80% of the $4.2 billion of your money from the last two ballot measures (2000 and 2008) went to the BART extension to Berryessa in San Jose.  In addition, this Palo Alto Daily Post article from 2014 details how VTA’s spending of your money affected Caltrain and, to an extent, bus service throughout Santa Clara County, since 2000.  For your reference, here’s the ballot text for 2000 Measure A and 2008 Measure B.  For balance, here’s VTA’s “report card” of projects built with your tax money from 2000 Measure A.  (A separate article on how your money was spent from 2000 Measure A is upcoming.)

The Mercury News has already endorsed Measure B.  Here’s a counterpoint on why to vote against Measure B.

Based on the information given above, would you support or oppose Measure B? Our Measure B stance – and why that stance will be taken – will be announced this week.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

 

VTA “Strategic Plan Update” Meeting On Wednesday

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Long-term planning or ballot measure publicity stunt?  This question will be answered on Wednesday in San Jose, as the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has a “Strategic Plan update” meeting in room B106 at its River Oaks headquarters.

VTA’s headquarters are at 3331 N. First Street in San Jose.  It’s served by the 58 bus line and is at River Oaks light rail station.

Read the VTA Strategic Plan (10.9MB Adobe Acrobat PDF) here.

One thing that stands out in the plan so far: how VTA running transit (bus and light rail) service while building toll lane/highway “improvement” projects contradict one another.  Is VTA supposed to help get people “out of their cars and onto transit” or is VTA supposed to keep people in their cars?  VTA is one of the few agencies in the nation where road building and transit providing are performed by the same agency.

What do YOU think about VTA’s Strategic Plan update? What would you have VTA do differently to make it more efficient and beneficial to every Santa Clara County resident?

I’ll be at this meeting on Wednesday.  See you there.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

Bus Crashes On Both Coasts

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Photo courtesy nj.com

Early Friday morning, two New Jersey Transit buses crashed into each other in downtown Newark, NJ. Two people – including the driver of one of the buses – died as a result of the crash.  Seven bus passengers are in critical condition at a nearby hospital.

According to the Associated Press (AP), investigators are determining whether the bus driver killed in the crash ran a red light.  The same AP report mentioned that the intersection the bus crash occurred was one of the first in New Jersey to feature surveillance cameras that caught red light violators. That surveillance camera program was discontinued in 2014 amid controversy.

Later on Friday, in downtown Palo Alto, a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus jumped the curb and hit some newspaper racks after making a right turn.  While Palo Alto Online reported that no one was , it is rather interesting to note that the driver was allowed to continue the route on another bus.  This is something worth asking VTA, I have never heard of this practice after an incident involving a bus and passengers.

On behalf of the Silicon Valley Transit Users, our condolences go out to the hurt and perished in the Newark bus crash.

Let’s all be careful when riding – and driving the buses and trains…

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users