VTA Riders Union | May 3, 2001 VTA Board Meeting News and Notes

• Agenda items 5 and 6 (VTA exercising eminent domain over parcels of land needed for the Capitol LRT expansion) were stricken.  VTA reached a compromise with the East Side Union High School District and several over private property owners over the disputed land.
• Kim Strickland and Margaret Okuzumi spoke separately during the 2 minute open presentation period regarding the Regional Transportation Plan and VTA's need to play a role in developing sound transportation and land use projects for the Bay Area.
• A transit advocate from the East Bay spoke about how VTA buses and light rail do not interact well with each other, nor commuter rail such as ACE or Caltrain.  The advocate also described how the newer drivers were considerate of other passengers and their intermodal transit needs, while the older drivers were the exact opposite.  The advocate called for the VTA Board to investigate and resolve the issue "for the sake of thousands of riders out there." [Editor's Note: after his speech, the advocate left the building to go home, as it took him two hours to get to the board meeting.  About 15 seconds after I gave him a VTA Riders Union flyer and asked him to get involved, two managers from VTA light rail division asked the man questions about various missed connections, and wanted him to get back to them.  When the advocate said he needed more time with me, the two men went back into the Board of Supervisors' chambers, no doubt peeved off at the brush-off.]
• Skipping portions of the agenda, Agenda item 29 (VTA to adopt a position support of legislation for bills in the State Assembly for transportation funding to transit-oriented development to an indefinite extension for the Safe Routes to Schools program) passes.
• Item 31 (add up to $1 million to contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas for design submittal of an alternate Hamilton Ave. grade separation for the Vasona LRT extension) passes.  The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is protesting VTA's current at-grade alignment on Hamilton Avenue (by Hwy. 17) in Campbell and wants grade separation.  VTA Board member Ken Yeager (San Jose) expresses concern over how the grade separation will affect the Hamilton Ave. neighborhood, and how the grade separation could be an "eyesore" for the area.  VTA Board member Pat Dando (San Jose) wants VTA GM Peter Cipolla to submit a review for how community outreach regarding the grade separation will be achieved.  And VTA Board member David Cortese (San Jose) wondered how the VTA would better anticipate groups opposing the project.

• Item 32 (award separate contracts for preparing environmental documents for the Santa Clara/Alum Rock and Capitol Expressway LRT projects for over $1.4 million total) passes.
• Item 33 (up to $1.6 million total for a contract amendment for architecture/engineering consulting for the Cerone Bus Garage Improvement Project and Zero Emission Bus (ZEB) Demo Project passes.  It is mentioned by James Pierson, VTA Planning and Development Manager, that 6 or 7 hydrogen-fueled buses will be what the ZEB Demonstration project consists of in 2003.  The ZEB buses will be purchased in a consortium with AC Transit.
• Item 34 (contract amendment with Outreach and Escort, Inc. to remove "compensation ceiling" up to the approved budget for services; increase VTA's ops budget for ADA paratransit services by over $1.4 million) passes.  Mr. Pierson expressed that Outreach had some problems with its phone system.
• Item 35 (approve "reprogramming" of $1.6 million of federal funding for Sunnyvale's El Camino/Wolfe widening project) waived until the June board meeting.  [Editor's Question: how wide can this corner possibly be made and still be pedestrian/bicyclist friendly?  The corner, with only two lanes on Wolfe on the NE corner from 5 lanes on westbound El Camino Real, is very dangerous for cars making right turns onto Wolfe, and worse for pedestrians.  The signal timing, from personal experience, is heavily biased toward automobile traffic.
• Item 35x (VTA position of support for all California-based railroads to be exempt from rolling electrical blackouts) passes.  VTA Board Chairperson Manuel Valerio (Sunnyvale) states that VTA owns a total of 22 electrical substations in Santa Clara County.  Eight of these substations are already in the "exempt" block (block 50) while two substations are in Santa Clara (which has its own municipal utility).  This means that the other 12 substations would need the exemption.  Item was a last-minute addendum.

Referring to the East Bay transit activist speech earlier, VTA Board member Don Gage (County Supervisor - South County) wanted to speak to the activist more about this issue himself.  Mr. Gage has received several complaints regarding the issue of poor connections between transit services but "hasn't seen it" fully.  Pat Dando (San Jose) asked Peter Cipolla how much leeway LRT operators had on their schedule.  Cipolla mentioned that the LRT operators run on a tight schedule, and that any delays in the LRT system (especially Guadalupe) would mess up the entire LRT system.  Dando told how she was left behind by an LRT operator trying to meet schedule when she rode one of the historical trolleys on Easter morning.  VTA Board member Forrest Williams (San Jose) also mentioned that he received complaints about this problem, and had experienced it himself.  All VTA Board member Dennis Kennedy (Morgan Hill) said was that he uses Caltrain and then DASH to commute.

Now it's time for the Advisory Committee Reports.

• ACE: Forrest Williams used the Capitol Corridor trains on several occasions to see his new grandchild.  The trips, he mentioned, were nice, and the cars were near capacity.
• Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC): VTA ex officio non-voting Board member Jim Beall (County Supervisor - District 4) mentioned that funding for the Bay Bridge retrofit will come from bonds purchased thru bridge tolls.  He also mentioned that testing of the TransLink Smart Card will begin soon.  Mr. Beall also mentioned more MTC outreach meetings regarding the Regional Transportation Plan will be coming soon.  [Editor's Note: We will have information posted on these meetings as soon as it's available.]
• VTA Board Chairperson Manuel Valerio, in his report, mentioned that the regularly scheduled July 5 VTA Board meeting was cancelled due to the holiday.  A special meeting will be held at noon on June 21 in the San Jose City Council chambers for those issues "that can't wait until the next board meeting."
• VTA General Manager Peter Cipolla, in his report, mentioned that the Second Job Fair on April 28 was a major success.  Over 2100 people attended with over 1,100 applications turned in.  This included more than 200 bus drivers, 75 mechanics, and nearly 70 service workers.  Mr. Cipolla mentioned that VTA was the beneficiary of all of the "dot-com" layoffs that have plagued the South Bay over the last few months.  Mr. Cipolla also mentioned that mistakes that were made during the first Job Fair were corrected in this edition of the Job Fair.
• VTA Board member Judy Nadler (Santa Clara) mentioned that she may not be able to make the June 21 special meeting, as the City of Santa Clara is an All-America City finalist and that she needs to be in Atlanta that week for the competition.

Editor's final comments: it's interesting to hear that the Board members have actually used mass transit within the last few months.  It is even more interesting to hear that some board members have directly received complaints from riders regarding poor connections.  The June 7 VTA Board meeting will be a very big meeting, as the budget for FY 2001-2001 is approved and the Regional Transportation Plan that the VTA must submit to the MTC gets formally adopted.  Last note: has anyone noticed that the resolution to support the Transbay Terminal Joint Powers Authority (but not how it was created) was not on the agenda this month?  See you on transit. --eb