TransitCamp

I asked this question at one session and am not sure I really got an answer.

There seem to be two types of barriers to making transit in the Bay Area more usable: technological (operations) and political. There are no end to the technological solutions that are already being put into effect (NextBus, 511.org, improved rail and bus technology, BRT, better ways to collect fares, jiggering with transit routes and schedules, etc. etc...), however, the 800 pound gorilla is the fact that we have 36 different and sometimes antagonistic transit systems blanketing the Bay Area. Greater Boston, with a similar population and area and variety of modes of travel (bus, trolley, light and heavy rail, even ferry boats!, and far too many cars for the amount of highways), has one (1!!!) system, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. It's not perfect, by any means, but seems to work a lot better than here.

Far too often, reasonable technological improvements become impossible because of agency posturing, turf protecting, struggling over the dollars that are available, etc.

How do we overcome this gorilla of politics that effectively blocks many of the technological ideas that so many of us were coming up with last weekend?

Many great ideas at TransitCamp! We have to feed some of them into the planning process so the ideas can influence adopted goals, criteria, funding.

Valley Transportation Plan Update Process

The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) periodically updates its 25-year long-range transportation Valley Transportation Plan (VTP). The last plan, VTP 2030, was adopted by the VTA Board of Directors in February 2005. The update for the VTP is underway and generally tracks in advance of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) update which is undertaken by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).

Community Feedback

At this point in the development of VTP2035, VTA is asking for input from the public regarding the projects lists submitted. VTA has created two avenues for providing feedback: community meetings and an online survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...

Upcoming Open Houses

Morgan Hill
February 27, 2008 from 6:00 to 8:00pm
Morgan Hill Community Cultural Center, Madrone Room
17000 Monterey Road

Mountain View
February 28, 2008 from 6:00 to 8:00pm
City Hall, Plaza Conference Room
500 Castro Street

As part of the VTP development process, the cities, towns and County of Santa Clara submit projects to VTA for funding that they would like to see implemented within the timeframe of the plan. Since there are more projects submitted than there is funding available, VTA must place projects in groups that can be funded with the expected revenues over the life of the plan (financially constrained) and those which must wait for additional, yet to be obtained funds (financially un-constrained).

This is an ongoing process that is expected to continue through 2008 with a plan adoption by the end of the year. At the end of this process, VTA's Board of Directors will adopt the Valley Transportation Plan 2035 which will articulate a countywide vision for transportation, support the regional vision for transportation in the Bay Area, and outline transportation planning, projects and programs for Santa Clara County.

The VTP organizes potential projects into the ten categories listed below. Over the next month, VTA will prepare draft constrained project lists to be submitted to MTC for consideration in the RTP. These lists will be subject to revisions over the next several months as discussions continue at the county and regional levels. Click on the program area links below to view the draft (unconstrained) projects lists for each funding category.

Check back for updates as the process proceeds over the next several months.

Transit
Intelligent Transportation Systems
Highways
Expressways
Local Streets
Bicycles
Community Design and Transportation
Soundwalls
Pavement Management
Graffiti Removal & Landscape Restoration