San Joseans try to get to the bottom of VTA's woes
Image by SoundTransit
In a recent Reddit thread titled “If you could improve anything about VTA what would it be?,” users in r/SanJose dig into the Valley Transportation Authority's rampant shortcomings re: spending, politics, and practicality. Their suggestions are pragmatic, common-sense, and—we can't help but notice—long overdue.
dont_frek_out: I remember an article a few years ago and if I recall the gist of correctly, the VTA board structure is bad. It is mostly composed of political leaders with 2 year terms. Also the politician board members have other political duties which vie for their time. As a result the board overall lack expertise in transit and there is little continuity over the years.
So I would update the governance to a more effective, experienced and dedicated board.
SomeRandomGuy069: For me what they need to do is do some cost cutting for the San Jose BART extension as it is ridiculous that it's going to cost 13 billion dollars because using the cheaper cut and cover construction method is "too disruptive to businesses and traffic". …
It should be usable for business travellers and tourists too so there is no need to rent a car and you can use light rail to connect to most of all silicon valley tech campuses (Google, Apple, Adobe, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, perhaps an eventual extension to Meta where there'd be a link to commuter rail on the Dumbarton bridge that has been discussed for many years) major infrastructure such as directly going to SJC, places in downtown San Jose such as the convention center, Diridon Station, City Hall, the county courthouse, etc most of which are already served by the light rail.
Due to the unfathomable incompetence of VTA in recent years to improve their service this is only a dream but it sucks that we have the 3rd highest GDP per capita in the world behind I believe behind San Francisco and Zurich yet the entirety of Santa Clara county yet mobility is a big miss and everything looks like suburban car dependent hell and people like me living in Santa Clara county without a car (cannot afford one at this time) are treated as second class citizens.
s1lence_d0good: The biggest thing to improve is to remove all zoning laws near any light rail stop and express bus route.
schen72: Light rail needs to go to actual places people want to go. Let's see... I would choose the bay area's largest and nicest mall, Valley Fair, to be a stop. I'd also choose the south bay's only airport as a stop.
evokus0: They need to finally send it places it needs to be (Stevens Creek / Santa Clara Street, El Camino / SJC), and when doing so should aim for maximum grade separation. Same thing with signal priority at all crossings, should have been a thing yesterday---badly needed. Tunnel down First Street in downtown---faster speeds for downtown and those south of it. We also need major TOD infill on our existing stations to make taking transit more competitive. Because when it's competitive, it's fantastic. We need these changes to start happening if we want to see any meaningful change in public perception, but it's possible.
Read the whole thing here.
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