County Expressways Plan community meeting tonight in Santa Clara. VTA BPAC to discuss County Roads Expressways Plan this Wednesday in San Jose.
Santa Clara County Roads Department will make their twice-annual presentation to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. As required by the County Complete Streets Policy approved in 2012, County Roads capital projects are reviewed by the BPAC to provide the BPAC an opportunity to provide
comments and recommendations regarding Complete Streets features to be incorporated into the project.
Projects to be discussed include the annual chipseal project list, extension of the San Tomas Aquino sidewalk Trail south from El Camino Real to Homestead Road, and sidewalk improvements for Capitol Expressway. The County Roads Department will also present the current status of their Expressway Plan 2040 and the Page Mill Road Expressway Study Concept.
Expressway Plan 2040
Expressway Plan 2040 is the County Roads Department vision for paving more of the South Bay to accommodate more cars on the road due to low density housing development in the far reaches of Santa Clara County. This BPAC presentation includes the County Roads Department vision for increasing the car capacity for the County Expressway System.
The last community meeting of 2014 for the Expressway Plan 2040, incidentally, takes place tonight at 6 P.M. at the City of Santa Clara Northside Library. Staffers will discuss and collect public input for Central Expressway, Lawrence Expressway, Montague Expressway, and San Tomas Expressway.
Concepts for Almaden Expressway and Capitol Expressway are still under development, with community meetings to be scheduled in early January 2015.
Page Mill Road Expressway Concept Study
County Roads are also developing plans to increase the capacity and (temporarily) “relieve congestion” for Page Mill Road in Palo Alto between I-280 and El Camino Real. The four lane divided road carries 40,000 vehicles per day at a Level of Service of “E”, meaning motorists usually experience delays while traveling from I-280 to their jobs at Stanford, the various medical centers, and various high tech, low tech, high finance, medical startup and retail jobs throughout Palo Alto, Los Altos, Menlo Park and elsewhere.
To accommodate cyclists on this popular and busy road, County Roads proposes a number of alternatives for facilities to improve safety for cyclists at this challenging intersection between an Interstate Highway and a high volume expressway. County Roads also proposes grade separation for Page Mill “Expressway” at Foothill Expressway. The current drawings for this grade separation shows slip ramps for Page Mill and signalized turn lanes for Foothill and Junipero Serra.
For more information on the Page Mill project, visit this page. The agenda for Wednesday’s VTA BPAC meeting is available here as a PDF.
Yes VTA, keep carving away the roadside to build trails that will mix cyclists with pedestrians and then spit them out around corners into intersections. Keep us off of San Tomas where we can be seen by drivers and take lanes when necessary.