Thursday, October 17, 2013

Sam Liccardo's Newsletter: Traffic Relief is on Its Way

In Sam Liccardo's latest newsletter, he talks about the plans for addressing increased congestion going forward. What do you guys think?

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Traffic Relief on Its Way

                If you’ve noticed that the traffic along your commute has become much worse, you’re not alone: in April 2013, INRIX announced that San José area congestion increased 25% over the prior year alone.   While a sign of the “good times” to be sure –a typical bellwether of our Valley’s rebounding economy—the impact of traffic on our quality of life cannot be ignored: more stress, less productivity, and fewer hours for family or recreation. 

         Doing the same things the same ways---i.e., expanding freeways and “hoping for the best”-- doesn’t amount to a winning strategy, for several reasons.  First, it costs between $3 million and $15 million to add a single mile of a single additional lane to a congested freeway,  and few discretionary dollars remain at any level—federal, state, or regional—to pay for more freeway expansion.  Second, SB375 and other legislation appropriately place the burden on regions like the Bay Area to reduce our per-resident greenhouse gas-emissions, and encouraging more people to find commuting alternatives to the automobile improves our environment and relieves traffic.  Finally, San José will see more population growth–about 400,000 additional people over the next quarter century—than the next three largest Bay Area cities (San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont) combined.   Job and population will outstrip any expansion of freeway capacity by a factor of three over that time.  So, if you think it’s bad now, just wait: it will be worse.

        Fortunately, we’re not doing the same things the same way.  As a Board Member of both the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), I’ve worked to push San José and the region toward innovative approaches that offer important alternatives: 
  • BART is under construction!   Moving ahead of schedule and $105 millionunder budget (yes, you read that right), BART will open service in San José’s Berryessa station in 2017.   In 2000 and 2008,  I spent thousands of hours advocating for BART in the media, raising money to support those ballot measures, and speaking at community meetings, so BART’s arrival is happily anticipated by me, and by thousands of commuters stuck in rush hour traffic along 680 and 880.
  • Last month, I was proud to join People Acting in Community Together (PACT) and the VTA in announcing a long-sought pilot project to expand the mobility of our working low-income neighbors, by reducing monthly transit passes fares by over 60%.   Residents making less than 200% of the Federal poverty level ( e.g., $47,000 for a family of four) can obtain the $25 monthly pass bycontacting one of the non-profits administering the program.
  • In the last 30 months, we’ve introduced “express lanes” on southbound 237 and 680, using congestion pricing to provide commuters with travel time savings up to 15 minutes along those routes, and generating revenues for transportation improvements.   Look for Express Lane implementation to relieve long-suffering commuters on 101 and 85 in 2014-15.
  • In the last year, we’ve seen the launch of both car-sharing (i.e., Zip Car) andbike-sharing services, providing our fast-growing Downtown with an antidote for the increased congestion and parking demand from the addition of roughly 2,000 housing units likely to be under construction by this time next year.  Now that my efforts to initiate these innovations over the last half-decade have borne fruit, we’ll continue to push to make these services available outside the Downtown.
  • Within weeks, we’ll begin construction on a “Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, linking Downtown and East San Jose with dedicated bus-only lanes, and high-frequency, high-amenity service along Santa Clara, Alum Rock, and Capitol.
  • As commuting trips along our trails system surges, we’re seeking continued investment in expanding our trails infrastructure.   Last year, I worked with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to obtain state grants for two trail segments in North San Jose.  Last month, we successfully obtained $1,200,000 in funding from MTC for the expansion of Los Gatos Creek Trail in West San Jose.
  • On the MTC Board, I’ve also recently voted to allocate regional grants to improve bike and pedestrian safety near San José elementary schools through our Walk N’Roll program, to retrofit streetscapes for better pedestrian and bike access along key corridors like The Alameda and San Carlos, and to boost our street repaving budget by $8 million.
  • We’ve recently obtained regional grants for implementation of “smart intersections” technology, and have begun construction on a sophisticated transportation management center on 5th Street.  Exciting innovations abound.  For example, working with our Transportation Department staff, BMW is testing ways that “smart cars” and “smart intersections” will communicate to dramatically reduce red-light running, auto emissions, and congestion at key intersections.  
We’ll keep pushing to reduce the traffic burdens you encounter every morning.   Let me know how we can better do so by sending me your thoughts atsam.liccardo@sanjoseca.gov.

Sincerely,

Sam Liccardo

10 comments:

  1. Can't wait for the BRT!

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  2. Once the Berryssa station is operational, both Taylor street and Hedding will become parking lots from 87 and 1st street. The 101/Berryessa interchange won't be able to handle the traffic as currently built. That's the traffic we need to prepare for.

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    1. Parking lots are built surrounding the station, so I won't worry too much about that. Who wants to park on 1st street/Hedding and make the 30 minute walk to the Berryessa station anyway?

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    2. There will be robust bus service from major destinations like DTSJ (express routes, articulated buses) to/from Berryessa BART once the system is operational. Hopefully that takes off some of the traffic burden.

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  3. Er, I mean "parking lot" figuratively, Bob. As in TRAFFIC JAM.

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    1. Ahh I see :) Well, then, yes you would be right hehe!

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  4. Enforce the "Slower Traffic Keep Right" rule and you'll see significant improvement on 101! It doesn't matter how many lanes you add if there are idiots who coast across all the lanes at the same 50 mph on the freeway and don't pay attention to the oncoming traffic and move out of the way.

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  5. You can't 10 lbs of stuff into a 5 lb bag. West San Jose and Santa Clara is being choked by "improvements" that are doing just that; parks turned into private use grounds for schools, parks turned into parking lots and empty mufti-use buildings just "in case" someone wants to rent them. They let it slip they want to run VTA down Stevens Creek-anybody already stuck there in traffic from Lawrence to 880? We live 12 blocks away. I've parked at Safeway/SR and walked home from work because of gridlock there Who cares if it ruins neighborhoods, right? And the of course the stadium: If you commute N on 880 from SJ to the East Bay in the PM you already sit in traffic for hours. Add one stadium's worth of out-of-town confused, partying people and their cars (60, 000) and you will NEVER, ever get home. NOTE: The NFL does not pay taxes, but the homeowners of SC and SJ do. We need another route, a parallel freeway, not a congestion-maker just to put money in your pocket. Mark these words.

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    1. Games are only on weekends, so the 49ers won't be contributing to work week traffic. However, there will be special events there that may be on week days. As for freeways, I don't think we will ever get another one. However, public transit will likely become a more viable option in the future, especially with multiple BRT lines. I'm still dreaming of a futuristic PRT system to connect urban and suburban areas.

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  6. Oh the irony, Liccardo talks traffic congestion when he's the one partly behind it.... Can't forget the mess Hedding as well as 10th and 11th Streets all are now thanks to his genius bike lane idea. The whole bike lane thing was executed poorly on those streets, if anything on street parking on one side should have been eliminated to allow for a standard bike lane, not one that occupies an entire traffic lane.

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