San Jose's first BART station is coming along nicely

If you have driven around Berryessa recently, it is nearly impossible to miss the new BART station. The project seem to be moving pretty quickly and will hopefully hit its 2018 completion date. Below are the most recent construction photos I have found.

Source: Hillrise from the San Jose Development Forum

High-speed rail will add Merced and Bakersfield to initial service to San Jose

San Jose scored another win when high-speed rail comes to our city in 2025. The initial operating segment will now likely include both Merced and Bakersfield, two cities originally omitted from the first phase. Merced would require a spur track from the main operating line that will eventually go from San Jose to Los Angeles (and perhaps San Diego). Bringing Bakersfield into the network would involve choosing a different terminus station with connections to Amtrak services.

This would give even more people easy access to Downtown San Jose and further stimulate the demand to locate more jobs in or near Downtown. The main risk in adding more cities into the initial segment would be the potential for delays and funding issues. If this ends up happening in 2025, it will give us a substantial economic boost and can perhaps help to correct our jobs and housing imbalances.

Source: SVBJ

Plans for two towers at Greyhound station are coming together

The same investor that is building Silvery Towers (San Jose's largest residential project ever) is now gearing up for an even larger project. KT Urban and their partner have acquired the 1.6-acre Greyhound bus site for $39 million. The latest concept for the site calls for two towers around 24 stories tall with with 708 residential units and 13,500 SQFT of retail.

The next step is to acquire construction financing, which should be no problem despite the recent slowdown of investment markets. Construction will begin soon after they receive financial approvals from the city, which is expected later this year.

So what will happen to the Greyhound bus station in Downtown San Jose? All Greyhound operations will move to Diridon Station in late May. Customers will be able to purchase tickets at the Amtrak counter and easily connect to other bus services, VTA Light Rail, Capitol Corridor, ACE, Caltrain, and eventually BART and California High Speed Rail. Greyhound should have likely been located at Diridon to begin with, so the move will correct a transit mistake created long ago.

Source: SVBJ, SVJB #2

Envision Silicon Valley - preliminary VTA project evaluations

The VTA has started doing very early research on a variety of potential future transit projects. It would almost definitely take an increase in sales taxes for any of these to become reality, but it is interesting to see the ideas that are being tossed around.

There were several projects in the study that are already well into planning-mode. These include BART to Downtown San Jose, a Light Rail extension to Eastridge Mall, a Light Rail extension to Los Gatos, and expanding the Express Lane system on our freeways. However, there were also brand new projects that I have never heard even mentioned before. This include a billion dollar Downtown San Jose Subway (nice!) that would significantly speed up the whole Light Rail system, a $1.5 billion Light Rail line that would go from Downtown San Jose to Santana Row/Valley Fair and eventually De Anza College, a new Light Rail line that would go from that NASA/Bayshore station to North Bayshore in Mountain View, and a ton of highway interchange improvements.

You can find some of the project "evaluation cards" below, but I recommend going through the whole list over here.

Source: Robertee from the San Jose Development Forum

San Jose will be first major California city to get High Speed Rail!

San Jose has just scored a major infrastructure win that should provide a nice economic boost next decade. California High Speed Rail officials have decided to build the first segment of its 220 mph rail line between the Central Valley and San Jose.

The original plan going back to 2012 was to initiate high-speed service between the Central Valley and Burbank. However, that southern segment requires expensive tunneling through mountains and drew major opposition from a small number of NIMBY cattle farmers. LA's loss is our gain, as the plan is now to bring High Speed Rail to Downtown San Jose by 2025.

The new service will put some serious pressure on increasing jobs in Downtown San Jose as it will dramatically open up our job market. Madera will now only be 40 minutes away by train from Downtown, previously a two to three hour drive. That is a feasible commute to the tech job capital of the world, while not clogging up our freeways. A home in Madera costs about $250k, which also opens up new affordable housing options for those that want to work in San Jose but can't afford to live here. This is a big win for local companies that are hungry for talent and contribute more to the local economy (financially) than most residents. Considering it is much more likely that people will be commuting in for jobs than the other way around, this will help correct the jobs and housing imbalance that San Jose currently faces and negatively impacts the city's financial position.

BART is also scheduled to come Downtown around 2025, making Diridon in Downtown San Jose the most connected transit station on the West Coast. Over 600 trains could be stopping at the station each day after all of these projects are completed.

Construction has already started on California High Speed Rail last summer in Fresno. Ridership is expected to be between 2.2 million and 4.1 million riders when the San Jose service begins in 2025.

Source: SVBJ

VTA FLEX Program

One of the many challenges of public transit in Silicon Valley is that both offices and homes are spread out over a large area. This makes point-to-point transit available only in a few limited areas. VTA has just launched an innovative program called FLEX to help address this issue.

FLEX is an on-demand transit system where you use an app to request a pickup and drop-off in one of many designated service stops in North San Jose. Software will then automatically route vehicles to pick up other customers along a similar traffic route. There are no set schedules, the whole system is on-demand. Payment is even done via the smartphone app. You can think of it as a public version of UBERpool.

The vehicles that will be used for FLEX are ADA-accessible buses with capacity for 26 passengers and two bikes. Service is available Monday through Friday from 5:30am to 8:30pm and the cost is only $2 during off-peak times and $3 during peak times.

If the program is successful, you can expect other areas to get a similar service in the future. For more information click here.

What is it?

FLEX is an On-Demand, shared-ride public transit service. Other riders that have similar travel destinations may be picked up and dropped off during the course of your ride.
FLEX is ideally suited for smartphone users. Riders can use the app to request a ride.
FLEX Service Area

Scheduling a Ride

On the App – easiest
On the Web - please visit vta.ridecell.com

Service Days & Times

FLEX’s service area is approximately 3.25 square miles in North San Jose (surrounding VTA’s Tasman Light Rail Station)
Boundaries are

• North – Route 237
• South – Montague Expressway
• East – Coyote Creek
• West – Guadalupe River

Monday – Friday; 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Peak Hours 5:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.; 3:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
• The last Flex ride MUST be completed by 8:30 p.m. 

Fares*

Single Ride - $2.00 (Off-Peak Hours)
Single Ride - $3.00 (Peak Hours)

No Shows/Cancelations
Customers who fail to cancel a ride before the bus is dispatched or have failed to show up for their rides will be charged the regular fare.

You can download the VTA Flex Fact Sheet here.

FAQ

What VTA fare can I use on FLEX?
Currently you must pay for your ride using an account that you set up on the FLEX app.  Once you complete your ride on FLEX your account will be charged.  FLEX does not accept Clipper cards, VTA Monthly Passes, VTA Day Passes, VTA Express Day Passes, Cash, Eco Pass nor any other VTA forms of fare.

How do I know if I’ve been assigned a driver?
You will be notified via text message when booking through the app.  If booked over the phone, the customer service representative will let you know once you’re assigned a driver and their estimated time of arrival.  You can also check out the web or app to see real-time updates about your requested ride.

How long does it take for my driver to pick me up? Can I track my driver?
It depends on trip requests at any given time.  The web and app interface will show you an estimated time of arrival, based on the driver’s GPS location and current trip load.

Where will I wait for the FLEX bus?  Are there bus stops?
X marks the spot!  The app will provide you walking directions to the FLEX stop where you will be picked up. The stops are marked with FLEX floor decals.

Can I bring an Animal onboard FLEX?
Only service animals are welcome on FLEX.  The animal must be under the control of the passenger throughout the trip and while boarding and exiting. Service animals may sit on the floor or in the rider’s lap.  Service animals may not sit in a passenger seat.

Can I contact the driver?
No, you cannot contact the driver, but you can determine the driver’s location through the real time mapping on the app.

If I cancel my ride request, then make another one, will my request go to the end of the request queue?
Yes, every time you cancel and resubmit a request, the process starts all over again.  Your request will be put at the end of the queue and then be assigned to the next available driver.

I don't have a smart phone, can I create my account online?
Yes, you can create your Flex account through the web on this page.

*FLEX is a pilot program and the fare structure may change during and/or after this pilot program phase.  Please continue to check this page for updates.

Wednesday Wishlist: E-paper Signs for Transit

London has become one of the first cities in the world to test out using e-paper signs to provide real-time transit information at its bus stops. The signs show how long until each bus arrives, but they can also provide additional information by using three buttons below the display.

What is really nice about e-ink is that it uses almost no power. This is the same technology that is used in the Kindle. It can display what is on the screen indefinitely without using any electricity, energy is only used when the screen updates. These signs can be solar powered and in London they will use 3G data to get updated information. The fact that you would not have to plug them in anywhere makes them relatively easy to roll out and install.

These types of signs would be great for VTA's growing bus network. Light Rail is already getting color flat-screens. E-paper signs would provide a less expensive alternative for VTA's hundreds of bus stations. They could also be used to show ads and other information to help cover their costs.

Source: Engadget

VTA Adding Monitors to Light Rail Stations

VTA is in the process of adding a huge convenience feature to the Light Rail system. The 20 busiest stations are getting 47-inch passenger information monitors that will let riders know when the next train arrives. Every station marked with an "i" below will have the new system by January 6th.

There are a total of 62 VTA Light Rail stations and it is possible that the other 42 will get the real-time information monitors at some point in the future. It would also be nice to get these installed at the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations and popular bus stations.

The monitors were provided by Allied Telesis, a San Jose company based at 3200 N. 1st Street.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Bike-Sharing Program is Getting a HUGE Expansion

Earlier this month the city council unanimously approved a dramatic expansion in San Jose's bike-sharing program. The current system has 16 stations filled with 130 light blue bikes that can be rented and dropped off at any other station in the network. 15 of those stations are in Downtown San Jose and one is in Japantown.

The expansion will bring 100 bike stations to San Jose and a whopping 1,000 bikes! That is close to an eight-fold increase over the current program. With that many stations and bikes, hopefully more people will get out of their cars and give the system a test run.

It gets better--the expansion will cost the city nothing. Motivate (the vendor providing the stations and bikes) will self-fund the program through corporate sponsorships and user fees that will range from $60-149 per year (for unlimited 30 minute rentals).

Several other Bay Area cities are getting stations and bikes, such as Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley. However, several cities that were part of the original Bay Area Bike Share pilot program will not be offered a free pass like San Jose was. Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Redwood City did not get enough riders to justify either an expansion or having Motivate self-fund the program. They will either have to pay to keep their bikes or choose a different program entirely. That really would be a shame because a membership in the San Jose program also gets you access to bikes in the other cities that also participate in Bay Area Bike Share.

Source: SVBJ

Wednesday Wishlist: BART to Santana Row

Mark from Think Bigger San Jose is proposing a different alignment for Phase 2 of the BART extension into Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara BART station is highly redundant with Caltrain service and if not for the maintenance yard nearby, it would be considered mostly unnecessary. Yes, you have SCU and large development projects like the Coleman Highline are being planned for the area, but the need for BART there is far less than the route Mark proposes--taking BART through Midtown to the Santana Row and Valley Fair area. This is a region that is booming and is in desperate need for mass transit access. At the rate "Uptown" is growing, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is not going to cut it. Check out the thoughtful post and discussion right over here.

San Jose Bike Share is Planning a Huge Expansion!

Two years ago, Bay Area Bike Share officially launched in San Jose. The program allows residents and visitors to rent bikes 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Membership is inexpensive, costing only $88/year or $9 for a 24-hour rental. The bikes are pretty nice and feature LED lights, a 7-speed grip shift, and drum brakes. You can pick up a bike at any station and drop that same bike off at any station, you do not have to return it to the original destination.

The program has been quite successful, especially in Downtown San Jose where there are 14 stations. There is also a station in Japantown and another near the Civic Center on First Street. Now the Bay Area Bike Share program is growing ten-fold and San Jose will have well over 100 stations by the end of 2017! Combined with dozens of miles of new bike lanes that are currently being planned, this will make San Jose one of the most bike-friendly cities in the nation.

Bay Area Bike Share is looking for suggestions on where to locate their new San Jose stations and bikes. To suggest a new station, just head over here. To learn more about the program or become a member, head over to the Bay Area Bike Share website.

VTA Opens Innovation Center

The VTA opened an innovation center a couple weeks ago at its River Oaks headquarters (3331 N First Street). This is a space where VTA teams, companies, and students can get together and work on new transportation technology. VTA is looking at a variety of ways to improve the customer experience and this new innovation center will help them focus on these efforts.

Below are some examples of the technology projects that VTA is currently working on:

• A zero emissions vehicle with dynamic, on-demand routing directing its driver to pick you up with a request from your smartphone—we’re requesting proposals for the software to drive this and looking closely at the operational challenges.
• Bluetooth beacons throughout the system to tell smartphone apps where you are so they can help you plan your trip, improve accessibility or offer you coupons—this will be a central focus of Hack My Ride 2015, VTA’s app challenge starting this summer.
• Expanding our popular TransLoc real-time light rail arrival app to our bus fleet, as requested by our customers.
• An open-source, multimodal  trip planner for any combination of transit, walking, biking, park and ride, bike share and driving (if you must). You can customize your biking directions based on your safety, climbing and speed preferences.
• Touch screen and LCD monitors at light rail stations and transit hubs to provide real-time information, trip planning help, and more.
• A pilot big data project with Allied Telesis to share and analyze camera feeds, sensors and social media in the cloud, enabling better collaboration with security partners for Super Bowl 50.
• Working with startup Transitmix, a Code for America spinoff backed by Y Combinator, to move from paper and spreadsheets to an immediately responsive online transit planning tool that can engage the public and improve planning.
• Working with our North San Jose neighbor Cisco on the Internet of Things for transportation—buses that talk to trains that talk to bus stops that talk to traffic signals that talk to bikes that talk to...you get the idea.

Source: VTA

Joint Venture 2015 Silicon Valley Index

Every year Join Venture puts out a Silicon Valley Index that discusses a variety of topics from the economy to governance and challenges that our region faces. There are always tons of interesting stats in these publications.

Lynn Peithman Stock from the SVBJ has a nice breakdown of how some Silicon Valley stats compare to San Francisco over the last year:

Silicon Valley new jobs: 57,591 (11k up from the previous year)
San Francisco new jobs: 18,499 (4k down from the previous year)

Silicon Valley new patents: 17,000
San Francisco new patents: 1,900

Silicon Valley IPOs: 23
San Francisco IPOs: 5

Silicon Valley startups: 8,600
San Francisco startups: 7,400

Click here to read the entire report (or scroll down for highlights). You can also watch the video briefing below.

Highlights of the 2015 Index include:

Jobs – The number of new jobs grew by 4.1 percent, bringing the region’s job total to nearly 1.5 million. Silicon Valley added 57,951 new jobs between Q2 2013 and Q2 2014; San Francisco added another 18,499 for a total of 76,450 in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

Investment– Venture capital investments in Silicon Valley and San Francisco shot up, reaching $14.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2014 alone – more than in any other year since 2000. San Francisco’s share was $7.1 billion, a 68 percent spike over 2013. Cleantech venture capital investments increased dramatically as well in 2014, reaching an all-time high of nearly $3.3 billion.

IPOs/M&A – 23 of the 275 U.S. Initial Public Offerings in 2014 were by Silicon Valley companies, three more than the prior year. As of Q3 2014, Silicon Valley was on pace to reach 2013 merger and acquisition activity levels, while San Francisco exceeded the number of deals in 2013 in the first three quarters of 2014 alone. During that time period, there were 560 M&A deals involving Silicon Valley companies, and 403 involving San Francisco companies.

Innovation – The number of Silicon Valley patent registrations continued to rise, reaching 16,975 in 2013 (1,910 more than the previous year). The largest share (40 percent) of the patents was in Computers, Data Processing and Information Storage, with another 24 percent in Communications.

Population – The entire Silicon Valley region (including Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, Fremont, Union City, Newark and Scotts Valley) grew by nearly 42,000 people between January 2013 and January 2014. During that period of time, Santa Clara County was the fastest growing county in the state at 1.5 percent – nearly twice the growth rate of the state as a whole (0.9 percent) – and a few Silicon Valley cities (Campbell, Milpitas, Foster City and Morgan Hill) grew three to four times faster than the state.

Income – Average annual earnings (including wages and supplements) in Silicon Valley and San Francisco as of Q2 2014 were $116,033 and $104,881, respectively, compared to $96,663 in the nine-County Bay Area, $70,847 in California and $61,489 in the United States. Median household income in 2013 in Silicon Valley was $94,534 and $79,778 in San Francisco.

Housing – Home prices and rental rates continued to rise in 2014, with a median home sale price of $757,585 (7.5 percent higher than 2013 and more than $360,000 higher than the median price throughout the state) and an average rental rate of $2,333 per month (11 percent higher than 2013) in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

Commercial space – The amount of approved development hit skyscraper levels in FY 2013-14 to 12.9 million square feet – nearly twice the floor area of the Pentagon, the largest U.S. office building. This amount of net non-residential development is far more than any other year over the last decade, and is 2.6 million square feet more than the last peak in 2004.

Published annually since 1995, the Silicon Valley Index findings are reported in five major sections: People (talent flows and diversity); Economy (employment, innovation and entrepreneurship, commercial space, income); Society (preparing for economic success, early education, arts and culture, quality of health, safety); Place (environment, transportation, land use, housing); and Governance (city finances and civic engagement).

The 2015 Silicon Valley Index is accessible online at www.siliconvalleyindicators.organd may be downloaded from the Joint Venture website at www.jointventure.org.

About Joint Venture Silicon Valley

Established in 1993, Joint Venture provides analysis and action on issues affecting the Silicon Valley economy and quality of life. The organization brings together established and emerging leaders—from business, government, academia, labor and the broader community—to spotlight issues, launch projects and work toward innovative solutions. For more information, visit www.jointventure.org.

BART Expansion to San Jose Getting Some Help from Obama

In Obama's proposed budget, $1 billion is earmarked for California transit. San Jose gets a nice shout out, since $165 million of that is to continue the BART expansion in Silicon Valley. Have a look at the source link for more details on the transit plans for California.

Source: LA Times, Hatip to Barclay Livker for sending this in!

BART to San Jose Update Video

Below is a quick update on the progress of the Milpitas BART station.

Source: Usedmedia on the San Jose Development Forum

BART or Automated Transit Network?

The Merc had an article last week entitled "Affordable transitt will help close gap between rich, poor in South Bay." I think that title may be a bit misleading since it is actually a proposal to completely change the plan for BART to Silicon Valley - Phase 2. Instead of spending $4 billion to tunnel underneath Downtown San Jose, the article points out that running BART west from Milpitas to the San Jose Airport and then Diridon above ground would only cost $1.6 billion. However, that is not the interesting part. The real fascinating proposal is not building the BART extension at all and instead building using $1.6 billion to build a 100 station Automated Transit Network (PRT system) that would blanket a huge portion of San Jose and be placed above roadways.

While I am a huge advocate for BART Downtown, I strongly believe that automated systems will be the ideal transportation of the future and would be willing to sacrifice BART for it if given a choice. Check out the article over here and let us know what your thoughts are.

Many thanks to Francisco Gonzalez for sending this in!

Future of VTA Light Rail

Last week there was a "Future of VTA Light Rail" presentation to SPUR San Jose. Below are the slides. Here are some interesting notes:

• Light Rail has 35,000 average daily riders, 62 stations, 79.6 miles of track, and 100 trains
• The most used stations are San Antonio, Santa Clara (both in Downtown San Jose), and Tasman
• Compared to other systems of similar size, boardings per mile are quite low and farebox recovery is the second lowest in the country (only DART in Dallas is lower)
• The current goals of VTA Light Rail are to increase ridership, speed up the system, spend money wisely, and be more relevant to the needs of the Valley
• Recommended Capital Improvements
• Grade separation on North First and Montague Expressway
• Fencing North First to increase top speed from 35 MPH to 45 MPH
• Pocket track at Ohlone/Chynoweth
• New Great America Station
• SJSU Extension to 11th Street (???)
• Almaden Branch, Mountain View, and Vasono Double Track
• Use bollards to separate tracks in Downtown San Jose and speed up trains
• Mountain View Double track to be completed by the end of 2015
• Levi's Stadium events are attracting 8,000-9,000 boardings on game days

Source: I Heart SJ

The Future of VTA Light Rail, Presentation to SPUR San Jose Nov. 12, 2014 from SCVTA

New BART to Downtown San Jose Proposal

The largest public transit project in the Bay Area is rapidly moving forward, but there is one major hiccup for Phase II of BART's extension to the South Bay. Phase I is fully funded and should be completed no later than 2018, running BART mass transit trains to both Milpitas and Berryessa. Phase II--which includes stations at Alum Rock, Downtown San Jose, Diridon, and Santa Clara--is now at risk of losing a huge chunk of Federal Funding. Timing is absolutely critical here. The project needs to enter the Federal New Starts Program by the end of 2014, or $1.1 billion of funding could be cut from the project, putting the whole phase at risk.

A four station Phase II BART extension will cost $4.7 billion. That breaks down into $1.1 billion from the Federal New Starts Program, $1.4 billion from Measure A, and a whopping $3 billion is unaccounted for. This puts the project at a high risk of being rejected by the Federal New Starts Program and we would likely need new substantial taxes to fund the $3 billion gap.

So here is the new proposal to get things off the ground and secure most of the funding within the next two months. Let's only build two station in Phase II: Downtown San Jose and Diridon. These will be by far the most utilized stations in the South Bay extension and would result in substantially reducing the cost of Phase II. The total cost would now become $3.4 billion, $1.1 billion from the Federal New Starts Program, $1.4 billion from Measure A, and a $1.7 billion gap. Since more than 50% of the project would be funded, it would greatly improve our chances of getting federal funding.

Personally, while I would love to have the full four stations now... I would gladly take these two over no extension at all (or one delayed to 2030). The Alum Rock and Santa Clara stations could be built in a future Phase III. In fact, my dream scenario for Phase III would be these two stations plus a further extension up north to Levi's Stadium/Great America, Mountain View, and Palo Alto.

We have to start somewhere. What do you guys think about dropping two stations temporarily in order to ensure BART connects with Silicon Valley's urban core?

Wednesday Wishlist: Mass Transit Upgrades From London

While it was just recently that I posted about the planned upgrades to BART that will come just in time for BART's expansion to San Jose, there are already some other great ideas out there that would be nice to have in our mass transit system. London is going to start getting next generation trains for several of its lines in 2022, and there are three great ideas that I would love to see incorporated into BART.

1.) Autonomous Trains - Improved safety, reliability, and a permanent end to BART strikes.
2.) Continuous Trains - Instead of having a series of connected cars, the new tube trains will be one single super-long cabin that can bend. This substantially increases capacity and access.
3.) Safety Doors - There will be no chance of falling onto the tracks since there will be a second set of door that are synced with the trains and only open when there is a train parked at the station.

See the video below for a sneak peak at what is coming next decade to London. Note several elements of the new London trains are incorporated into the new BART trains like more doors and digital signage.

New BART Trains Will Come Just In Time for San Jose Opening

Now that BART is just a few years away from coming to San Jose, we can talk about some of the improvements that you can expect to the system in addition to just the new stations. BART is spending well over $2 billion to replace its aging fleet of 669 train cars and add 300 extra train cars to support increased ridership and future expansion.

The new trains will be quieter, cooler, more comfortable, bike-friendly, and have digital signage on the inside (which you can see in the video down at the bottom). They will also have 3 doors per car instead of 2 in order to make it easier and faster to get in and out of the train. This is especially important since BART functions not only as a commuter train but as a Metro system in dense areas (SF, Oakland, and eventually Downtown San Jose).

I really hope this will be a system we can be proud of since we will be living with these trains for the next 30 or so years. So far, the plan looks pretty solid. The first 10 "pilot cars" will be delivered in 2015, the first batch of new train cars will do into service in 2017, and the rest of the cars will be delivered over the next four years. .

Sources: BART, SVBJ