Category: planning

VTA: Models over estimate parking demand for transit

Richard MasonerOctober 30, 20137 Comments on VTA: Models over estimate parking demand for transit

VTA Capital Expressway Lightrail extension overview map

I’m reviewing the environment impact review documents for the VTA Capital Expressway Light Rail Project in San Jose, CA.

VTA plans to transform the Capital Expressway traffic sewer into what they call a multi-modal boulevard offering bus rapid transit (BRT), light rail transit, and safe connections to the regional transit system. The images below show Capital Expressway near Story Road as it currently is, and how it might look after the Capital Expressway light rail extension project is complete.

cap-streetmix-1

VTA Capital Expressway Light Rail extension project before & after

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Posted In planning | san jose | transit | transportation

Redwood City to discuss downtown parking tonight

Richard MasonerOctober 21, 20131 Comment on Redwood City to discuss downtown parking tonight

When municipal leaders talk about parking in downtown business districts, the dialogue usually goes something like this:

Merchant Association: We need parking garages! And time limits on street parking!

Shoppers: We support downtown, but there’s no parking!

Downtown workers: There’s no parking, and I’m tired of skipping out every two hours to move my car!

City Office: We show 500 parking spaces within the downtown core. At most, 258 of them are used at any one time.

Environmentalists: Parking is EVIL!

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Posted In planning
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What would you do with 120 feet of right-of-way?

Richard MasonerAugust 12, 20137 Comments on What would you do with 120 feet of right-of-way?

Have you seen those road cross sections you see in planning documents describing new projects and wished you could quickly and easily redraw them yourself?

Now you can play the amateur planner with a cool new toy called Streetmix. I created a cross section for median Bus Rapid Transit (as proposed, more or less, by VTA) along portions of El Camino Real where the right of way is 120 feet across.

Streetmix: EL Camino Real Bus Rapid Transit cross section

Don’t like what you see? You can click through to my Streetmix, change it up and create whatever you’d like.

See more details about Streetmix and possible future enhancements over at Streetsblog.

Posted In planning | transportation