Category: News

Tonight’s VTA Board of Directors’ Meeting

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[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.svtransitusers.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/VTA-BoD-Agenda-Thursday-October-5-2017.pdf” title=”VTA BoD Agenda – Thursday, October 5, 2017″]

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

Measure “B” Blocked Again

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Santa Clara County Superior Court House. Courtesy Wikipedia.

It could be months – or years – before money for transit and road projects promised to voters in 2016 come to fruition – if at all.  The August 28 edition of the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported that a lawsuit was filed that blocked all Measure B spending.  This included spending for extending BART into downtown San Jose, pothole repairs, and other transportation projects.

More on this matter – and how it affects Measure B – follow below.

Read more →

Transit Events Calendar Now Available…and More

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Per reader request, a local transit events calendar has now been installed on the web site.  The calendar will help list public transit, bike/pedestrian, and paratransit events and meetings hosted by other citizen groups throughout Silicon Valley.  This will include our own live group meetings.

Examples of entries already present in the events calendar:

In the future, the Event Calendar will also include Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)-hosted public workshops and public meetings.

Hear about a public transit, bicycle/pedestrian, or paratransit meeting or event in Santa Clara County or San Mateo County?  Please let us know at least 7 days in advance of the event so that it can be added to the event calendar.

One more thing:  there have been reports of people not receiving confirmation email when subscribing to new posts or comments.  When you initially subscribe to be notified of new posts or comments to posts, please check your “Junk Mail,” “Junk E-Mail” or “SPAM” folders for the confirmation email.  That confirmation email is sent to ensure your email address is not being abused in any manner.  Click the URL link in the confirmation email to confirm your subscription; otherwise, ignore and delete the confirmation email.

Enjoy the rest of this big Bay Area concert weekend safely and sanely.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users