Santa Clara Expressway meeting tonight

Santa Clara County Roads wants to expand lanes for more traffic, more pollution, more emissions, more noise, and more danger for county residents.

Expressway meeting poster

The county plans in particular to give Lawrence Expressway more interstate highway style features, with grade separation, high speed entry and exit ramps, and higher speed limits.

Plans for San Tomas Expressway and Lawrence Expressway will be presented to the public at tonight’s meeting beginning at 6:30 PM at the West Valley Branch Library, on San Tomas Aquino Road at Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA.

4 Comments

  1. They are just selling false hope to residents. Widening the road just increases VMT, which then fills up the extra space. Congestion wise you end up at the same place as the increased demand will quickly fill up the capacity. What they are not telling the residents is that this increase in VMT will also increase congestion on the nearby residential streets, and simultaneously suppress multimodal transport options which are the only real hope for the future of the area.

    The question is how can they proceed with a project that will increase VMT, when VMT reduction is now the official priority. It looks like they plan to just ignore the new rules, in which case I think a lawsuit is the only option. The only hope I see is if the Sierra Club or others are considering a challenge in the courts. They should have more firepower now compared previous cases like San Diego.

  2. They’ve engaged Bicycle Solutions to help them with planning, and three options have been discussed, including a left-lane protected bike lane on the elevated portion, with left exit ramps to avoid crossing high-speed lanes. Some ambitious ideas being tossed around. Also to your point, I’m interested in how (and how often) VTA counts bikes and peds.

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