The maxim 鈥測ou can鈥檛 build your way out of traffic鈥 holds true in Santa Clara County as much as anywhere. During peak hours, cars inch slowly on highways and arterials that criss cross the South Bay. Billions of dollars in highway improvements, many funded by local sales taxes, haven鈥檛 prevented recurring traffic jams. But billions of dollars of investment in a light rail and bus system haven鈥檛 yet made transit a viable option 鈥 because land uses have not been coordinated with transit investments. Countywide, 87 percent of people get to work in a car and only about 3 percent use transit 鈥 numbers that haven鈥檛 budged in more than 50 years.
黑料传送门recently published the report Freedom to Move: How the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Can Create Better Transportation Choices in the South Bay, which outlines strategies for how VTA can accelerate the shift to a more sustainable and effective transportation system. VTA is a large and sophisticated multi-modal organization led by 15 cities and the county. The agency runs VTA transit, is building the BART extension to Silicon Valley, designs and builds highway projects and is implementing the expansive Silicon Valley Express Lanes highway pricing project. VTA is one of the partners that funds Caltrain, the Capitol Corridor and the Altamont Commuter Express rail services.
How will people get around the county in the future? Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, houses one-fourth of the region鈥檚 residents and one-fourth of its jobs. Its population is poised to grow by 36 percent (641,830 new residents) and the number of jobs is expected to grow by 33 percent (303,270 new jobs) by 2040.[1] The county has been deeply shaped both by the car and growth during the highway era; we probably won鈥檛 wake up one day to a South Bay free of traffic. Nor will the spread-out subdivisions quickly transform into the walkable streetcar landscape of older cities. Nonetheless, 黑料传送门believes that we can make the options of cycling, walking or transit work.
In particular, VTA and its member agencies, along with private partners, can create real transportation choices by continuing to focus on networks. The greatest shifts in auto and transit usage have been achieved in places with highly interconnected transit networks that are linked with safe and direct walking and bicycling networks.[2] The South Bay has already developed a robust road and parking network, making it comfortable to drive between most places. It鈥檚 time to focus on the transportation and land use projects that grow similarly robust networks for other modes.
When choosing transportation investments 鈥 such as bike lanes, bus lines or a transit extension like BART to Silicon Valley 鈥 it makes sense to focus on how they improve the entire network. This is also known as the network effect. Linking transit-friendly destinations such as universities, cultural venues or downtowns 鈥 or effectively connecting transit with walking paths at those destinations 鈥 creates positive network effects. [3]
1. The Transit Network
黑料传送门supports VTA transit projects that connect and are able to grow a high-frequency, reliable, all-day transit network. These include bus, light rail and shuttles or feeder buses. Today, there are 42 miles of light rail centered around downtown San Jose and close to 4,000 bus stops on 71 routes. 19 of those bus routes and all of the light rail lines have frequent all-day service (every 15 minutes or less). [4]
Big transit projects are underway: the first $2.3 billion extension of BART [5], to the Berryessa neighborhood in San Jose, is slated to start service in 2018, and further extending BART to San Jose and Santa Clara is in the planning phase. a bus rapid transit (BRT) route along Santa Clara Street and Alum Rock Avenue is under construction, and two more lines are planned for El Camino R