Tag: silicon valley

A Storm Front’s Coming…

A lot of rain is expected in Santa Clara County this weekend.  Transit agencies like the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) have already made preparations for these storms. Despite these preparations, incidents such as downed trees and flooding may cause delays and rerouting on VTA buses and light rail this weekend.

Traveling on VTA buses, light rail or Caltrain this weekend? Here are some tips to help you travel during these storms this week. These tips are based on experience in riding buses and trains during rainstorms and snowstorms on the East Coast.

Change In Tonight’s VTA Board Meeting Site

The first Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board of Directors’ meeting in 2017 will have a different site.  Due to a power outage at the County Government Offices, the VTA Board meeting was moved to the auditorium at VTA’s headquarters at 3331 N. First Street in San Jose.  Elaine Baltao, VTA Board Secretary, informed me around 11:30am about this move.

You can get to VTA’s headquarters by taking light rail to River Oaks light rail station, or the 58 bus line.  Here is a map of the area.

Up for discussion at this Board of Directors’ meeting:

Note the new meeting place for tonight’s VTA Board of Directors’ meeting.  See you this evening.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

 

Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus aboard a VTA bus. Courtesy @monicamallon on Twitter.

On behalf of the Silicon Valley Transit Users, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

On Saturday and Sunday, all Silicon Valley transit services will run their respective Saturday and Sunday/Holiday schedules.  This includes Caltrain, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), Capitol Corridor trains between San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento; ACE trains between San Jose and Stockton, SamTrans in San Mateo County, Dumbarton Express buses, and BART.

On Monday, the day after Christmas, is when Christmas Day will be formally observed.  Read on to learn how these transit agencies will run service this Monday only…

Next Network “Phase II” From VTA

One week after Measure B’s passage, more bus service reductions in Santa Clara County are being discussed.  At a workshop today in San Jose, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) will propose to staff “an “85/15 balance between ridership-purposed and coverage-purposed services.”  What this could potentially mean:

If VTA pursues a more ridership-purposed transit network, routes that would be leading candidates to be decreased or discontinued are coverage-purposed routes located in the low density areas of Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Gilroy and the Almaden Valley, East Hills and Evergreen areas of San Jose. Some of the riders in these areas depend on VTA for transportation and VTA is exploring alternatives to retain their mobility while lowering the per-ride subsidy that VTA currently pays, which generally ranges from double to triple the system-wide average per-ride subsidy.

Where VTA’s “Next Network” workshop will be held:

TIME & DATE: November 18 at 2:00pm
PLACE: VTA Auditorium at VTA’s River Oaks headquarters, 3331 N. First Street, San Jose
GETTING THERE: VTA’s headquarters is across the street from River Oaks light rail station.  It is also served bh the 58 bus line.

Special thanks to @CALHSR on Twitter for informing our group of this news item.

More information on VTA’s proposal will be posted this weekend.

Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users

NO.

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.