This weekend in Silicon Valley features several interesting events – despite expected rain this weekend. For starters, there’s bull riding and a Bacon Festival in San Jose. Also, there’s college football in San Jose and Raiders football in Oakland. This transit guide has Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus, light rail, and other rail service to and from these events to help you beat traffic gridlock.
More information follows…
At this time, our group is still discussing our stance on VTA’s Measure B – a 1/2-cent transportation sales tax proposal on the November 8 ballot. This discussion is taking place on our email list and our Facebook page.
To help you decide whether or not you should support or oppose Measure B, here is the full ballot text of Measure B, as VTA sent it to the County Registrar. In addition, here are the Attachments A thru D mentioning the proposed projects in the ballot measure.
Also, here are details on where your money on prior VTA transportation sales taxes went. This Mountain View Voice article from 2014 shows how nearly 80% of the $4.2 billion of your money from the last two ballot measures (2000 and 2008) went to the BART extension to Berryessa in San Jose. In addition, this Palo Alto Daily Post article from 2014 details how VTA’s spending of your money affected Caltrain and, to an extent, bus service throughout Santa Clara County, since 2000. For your reference, here’s the ballot text for 2000 Measure A and 2008 Measure B. For balance, here’s VTA’s “report card” of projects built with your tax money from 2000 Measure A. (A separate article on how your money was spent from 2000 Measure A is upcoming.)
The Mercury News has already endorsed Measure B. Here’s a counterpoint on why to vote against Measure B.
Based on the information given above, would you support or oppose Measure B? Our Measure B stance – and why that stance will be taken – will be announced this week.
Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users
Long-term planning or ballot measure publicity stunt? This question will be answered on Wednesday in San Jose, as the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has a “Strategic Plan update” meeting in room B106 at its River Oaks headquarters.
VTA’s headquarters are at 3331 N. First Street in San Jose. It’s served by the 58 bus line and is at River Oaks light rail station.
Read the VTA Strategic Plan (10.9MB Adobe Acrobat PDF) here.
One thing that stands out in the plan so far: how VTA running transit (bus and light rail) service while building toll lane/highway “improvement” projects contradict one another. Is VTA supposed to help get people “out of their cars and onto transit” or is VTA supposed to keep people in their cars? VTA is one of the few agencies in the nation where road building and transit providing are performed by the same agency.
What do YOU think about VTA’s Strategic Plan update? What would you have VTA do differently to make it more efficient and beneficial to every Santa Clara County resident?
I’ll be at this meeting on Wednesday. See you there.
Eugene Bradley
Founder, Silicon Valley Transit Users