Category: News

Coming Together In Cupertino

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Moderator and four panelists at last Sunday’s Regional Planning Forum in Cupertino, where our group met.

Silicon Valley’s housing and traffic crises are already well documented.  Our group gathered in Cupertino last Sunday to discover and hear what can be done to resolve these crises.  The four panelists at last Sunday’s Regional Planning Forum in Cupertino were:

  • Kansen Chu, 25th Assembly Member, California State Assembly
  • “Chappie” Jones, San Jose City Council Member
  • Richard Bernhardt, CEO of Bernhardt Communications and Strategy
  • Tom DuBois, Palo Alto City Council Member

Part 1 of the Regional Planning Forum can be viewed below:

Part 2 of the Regional Planning Forum (the Question and Answer portion) can be viewed below:

A special Thank You goes to Better Cupertino for hosting this forum.  Please view both videos above.  You will learn some things from both videos.

After viewing both videos in full, please share your thoughts on what needs to be done to address Silicon Valley’s traffic and housing problems.  Also, indicate what YOU are willing to do to help solve these issues.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

October Transit Schedule and Fare Changes

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Changes to Silicon Valley bus and rail schedules are being made this month.  As regular service is being operated today (October 9), the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) made changes to several bus line schedules in Santa Clara County.  Some of the schedule changes enable better connections with the Caltrain commuter rail service.  Read up on the service changes here and learn how YOU will be affected by these changes.

Speaking of Caltrain: several fare changes were made on October 1:

  • The price of a monthly Caltrain parking pass was raised from $55.00 to $82.50.  This is because Caltrain changed their basis of a “month” to 15 days from 10 days.
  • Caltrain riders will pay an additional 25 cents per zone they travel
  • Caltrain 8-ride tickets are no longer available for purchase.  Current 8-ride tickets will no longer be valid after October 31.

This is in addition to the changes Caltrain made to its Monday thru Friday schedule, to increase “operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.”  These changes were approved by Caltrain’s Joint Powers Board back in August.

What are your thoughts on the schedule and fare changes at VTA and Caltrain?  Please discuss them in comments below.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

Tonight’s VTA Board of Directors’ Meeting

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BART tunnel options won’t be the only things the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board Of Directors will discuss this evening.  Besides discussion of “single-bore” vs. “twin-bore” tunnel choices for the BART subway in downtown San Jose, the VTA Board Of Directors will vote on spending over $3 million of your tax dollars on 64 Braun Entervan paratransit vehicles for its ACCESS paratransit program.

The VTA Board will also vote on spending $847,743 of your tax dollars on parts needed to heat and cool the light rail vehicles.

WHEN: This evening at 5:30pm
WHERE: Santa Clara County Supervisors’ Chambers, 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose

Read up on the transit and parking directions you need to this evening’s VTA Board Of Directors meeting.

See you this evening.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

September VTA Meeting Summary…With a Feeling

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Last month, I wanted to experiment with providing a brief summary of a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board Of Directors meeting.  Your feedback demanded more information be provided for such summaries.  So, in the future, more detail will be provided for such summaries.

That said, the September 7 VTA Board Of Directors Meeting and follow-up workshops revealed a potential conflict of interest in a formed sales tax measure watchdog group. They also confirmed routing for two bus lines, once the BART extension to Milpitas and Berryessa comes online.  Finally, conflict was revealed between VTA and BART over how a tunnel for BART in downtown San Jose should be built.

Detailed information on all of this (in chronological order) is below.

Read more →

Summary Of Last Night’s VTA Board Meeting

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Last night’s VTA Board Of Directors’ meeting featured the following:

  • More information on Phase II of the BART extension from Berryessa to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.
  • The VTA Board approved a staff proposal on having the temporary 500 bus line use San Fernando St. instead of Santa Clara Street, and improving the 45 bus line, which was originally proposed to be eliminated.

Also, Roland LeBrun of San Jose noted some conflicts of interest as the VTA Board approved members of the 2016 Measure B Citizens Advisory Committee.

Download and view the VTA Board meeting in its entirety. (Video is in Microsoft Windows Media Video format.)

What is your perspective on tonight’s VTA Board meeting? Please discuss in the comments below.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users