Tag: Mountain View

This Thursday, Sam Comes To Our Club

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The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board Chair will see some of his managers this week.  San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo – also VTA Board Chair this year – will be our guest at our group’s upcoming meeting this Thursday in San Jose. 

TIME/DATE: Thursday, April 26 at 6pm
PLACE: San Jose Peace & Justice Center, 48 S. 7th Street (between Santa Clara and San Fernando Streets), San Jose
GETTING THERE: Many VTA bus lines like the 22, 522 Rapid, 72, 73 and Highway 17 Express stop near the Peace and Justice Center.  There is limited bicycle and automobile parking behind the building, so it’s advisable to take public transit to and from the building.  There is also wheelchair access behind the building.

The agenda and a toll-free dial-in number to the meeting follow…

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Transit To the Tunes This Weekend

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The biggest concert weekend of the year takes place this weekend in the Bay Area.  Several huge concerts and music festivals will take place in San Francisco, Mountain View, and San Jose.

Expect standing room only (SRO) conditions on Caltrain from Friday thru Sunday.  This is because fans traveling to and from these concerts will be riding with normal commuters.

This guide will show you bus and rail options to help you beat traffic gridlock and parking hassles at these events.  Options even detail some private shuttle bus options to and from these events.

More information follows…

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Next Network, Current Concerns

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Huge changes to your bus and light rail service in Santa Clara County will be discussed this week.  At Thursday evening’s VTA Board of Directors’ meeting, the Board members will further discuss what VTA staff proposed under the “Next Network” transit service restructuring proposal.

If you haven’t done so already, read up on VTA’s “Next Network” proposal.  Learn whether or not it may be made harder for you to reach your job, school, or doctor by public transit in Santa Clara County this fall.  This is especially true if you live in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Almaden Valley, or some parts of Palo Alto, Mountain View or Sunnyvale.  This is also true if you take any of the VTA express buses from Fremont, as they are proposed to be eliminated when BART opens in December.

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Next Meetings For the “Next Network”

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For transit in Silicon Valley, 2017 is off to a fast start.  In addition to changing its logo, colors, and tagline, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is holding meetings in January and February to take your input on its “Next Network” bus and light rail service restructuring proposal.  Recall VTA’s prior bus service restructuring in 2008 which has been documented, as a guide.

If approved by the VTA Board of Directors in April, changes will take affect this fall.

Public meetings have already been held in cities like San Jose and Milpitas, with more to follow until the end of February.  More on the VTA’s “Next Network” proposal – and some of our thoughts on it so far – are below.

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AUDIO: Silicon Valley’s Housing & Transit Crisis

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On March 31 in Mountain View, more than 40 people gathered at the Adobe House near the Mountain View Caltrain station. There, they heard Kim Mai-Cutler speak about the affordable housing and transit shortages currently affecting Silicon Valley.  The speech and gathering were organized by the Friends of Caltrain.

As you will hear in the recording above, some of the solutions discussed by Ms. Cutler and the audience, besides the need for additional, affordable housing, include:

  • Citizens must better educate themselves on who the decision-makers are at the city and transit (VTA) level, and lobby for improvements at both levels.
  • Citizens must also educate themselves on where the money goes at the local and state level NOW for housing and transportation. (A future blog post will have more on the transportation aspect of this.)
  • Citizens must realize that they cannot complain about increasing traffic and diminishing quality of life while blocking anything to improve both.

Please comment your own solutions to Silicon Valley’s affordable housing and transit shortage crisis below. Also, comment what YOU would be willing to do at the local government level to make such solutions happen.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users