• Write a letter to the editor of the Mercury News:

• Write a letter to the VTA Board of Directors:

• Read the VTA Board Meeting Agenda and Proposed Fare Changes for More Information:

Safe Routes for the Mayfair Community
A Study of Safe Routes to Transit and Station Design for the Proposed DTEV Corridor

Intersection between Sunset and Alum Rock Ave where a future transit station is being proposed by VTA.

Sponsors
Caltrans
Office of Santa Clara County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado
 

Project Coordination
Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC)
 

In Collaboration with:
San José State University
URBP 226/178 Transportation & Urban Planning Class Fall 2004
& Comité Cesar Chávez/SIREN
 

The Downtown/East Valley (DTEV) corridor, which runs along Alum Rock Ave. and Santa Clara St. between East and Downtown San Jose, has the highest transit ridership in Santa Clara County. In 2000, voters passed Measure A, a transportation sales tax that includes funding for light rail or enhanced bus along this corridor.

Three of the future transit stations will be located in the Mayfair community, a primarily low income community that is 80% Latino. This new investment creates an incredible opportunity to address broader community concerns of unsafe streets, inadequate services, and the need for additional housing. Without extensive community involvement, however, the DTEV project is destined to remain a simple transit upgrade.

This report is the culmination of a 10 month project to involve the Mayfair community in identifying major issues of access and station design, then developing and prioritizing a broad range of solutions. The report uses community input from 483 surveys and three community meetings as well as an analysis of existing plans and census data, and it lays out the specific projects that will increase bicycle and pedestrian safety in this corridor, and the amenities and services that community members want at and near the future stations. Since these issues of access and design will affect the health of the Mayfair community for the next century, residents and leaders of the Mayfair community need to feel empowered to interact as partners with the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the agency overseeing the project, as well as San Jose city agencies. By working together we will be able to win funding for these improvements and improve the safety, quality-of-life, and access to economic opportunities for the Mayfair community.

What you can do to help:

Click here to read the executive summary

Click here to read the entire report

Click here to see the prioritization of the recommendations by the participants of the community forum on 5/26/05

Due to funding constraints TALC no longer has a staff person specifically dedicated to this issue. You may contact the following people and organizations to find out the status of the report’s recommendations and to support the recommendations of the report:

Javier Aguirre
Senior Policy Aide for Supervisor Blanca Alvarado
408-299-2040

Salvador Alvarez
Development Specialist for San Jose Redevelopment Agency
408-794-1154

Christine Silva Burnett
Chief of Staff for Nora Campos, District 5 City of San Jose Councilmember
408-277-2446

Lucy Hernandez
Community Organizer for Comité Cesar Chávez/SIREN
408-928-2434

John Brazil
Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for City of San Jose
408-277-3771
 

To contact TALC about the report call 510-740-3150 and ask for Stuart Cohen, Executive Director.

Rutas Seguras Para la Comunidad de Mayfair

Un Estudio de Rutas Seguras Hacia el Transporte Público y Diseño de Estaciones Para el Proyecto de Extensión del Tren Ligero o de los Autobuses Rápidos de Alum Rock hasta el Centro de San José

Fundado por:
Caltrans
La Oficina de la Supervisora del Condado de Santa Clara, Blanca Alvardo
 

Coordinado por:
La Coalición de Transporte y Uso de Terrenos (TALC)
 

En Colaboración con:
La Universidad de San Jose (SJSU)
La Clase de “Planificación del Transporte y Planificación Urbana”, y
El Comité César Chávez/SIREN

La extensión del tren ligero o autobuses rápidos sobre las calles de Alum Rock y Santa Clara (DTEV), entre el este y el centro de San José, será extendida al área de mayor uso de autobuses de todo el Condado de Santa Clara. En el año 2000, los votantes aprobaron la Medida A, un impuesto sobre las ventas que incluye fondos para diseñar, construir, y operar un nuevo tren ligero o autobuses rápidos en esta área.

Tres de las futuras estaciones serán colocadas en el borde de la comunidad de Mayfair. Esta nueva inversión en el transporte público crea una oportunidad increíble de dirigirse a las preocupaciones y necesidades de la comunidad como calles inseguras, servicios inadecuados, y la necesidad de suficientes viviendas de precio accesible. Sin embargo, sin una colaboración extensa con la comunidad, el proyecto de extensión de DTEV será simplemente una mejora al transporte público y nada más.

Este reporte es el producto de varios meses de colaboración con la comunidad de Mayfair para identificar los problemas mayores para el acceso a las estaciones y el diseño de las estaciones, y luego buscando soluciones. El reporte refleja las respuestas de la comunidad que resultan de 483 encuestas y tres foros comunitarios como también de un análisis de planes existentes y datos del censo.

Este reporte da los proyectos específicos que incrementarán la seguridad para los peatones y ciclistas en esta área, y las comodiades y los servicios que los miembros de la comunidad quieren dentro de o cerca de las estaciones. Como estos temas de acceso y diseño afectarán el bienestar de la comunidad de Mayfair para el próximo siglo, residentes y lideres de la comunidad de Mayfair necesitan involucrarse con la Agencia de Transporte del Valle de Santa Clara (VTA), agencia a cargo del proyecto de la extensión, ademas de trabajar con las agencias de la Ciudad de San José. Trabajando todos juntos podremos lograr obtener fondos para estas mejoras y para mejorar la seguridad, calidad de vida, y acceso a oportunidades económicas para la comunidad de Mayfair.
 

Que puede hacer para ayudar:

Haga un clique aquí para leer el sumario del reporte
Haga un clique aquí para leer el reporte entero
Haga un clique aquí para ver las recomendaciones más importantes para los participantes del foro comunitario de 5/26/05

Por favor comuníquese con las siguientes personas para averiguar si se han implementado las recomendaciones del reporte y para apoyar las recomendaciones:
 

Javier Aguirre
Miembro del Personal de Supervisora Blanca Alvarado
408-299-2040

Salvador Alvarez
Especialista de Desarrollo para La Agencia de Desarrollo Urbano de la Ciudad de San José
408-794-1154

Christine Silva Burnett
Jefe del Personal de Nora Campos, Miembro del Cosilio de la Ciudad de San José
408-277-2446

Lucy Hernandez
Organizadora de la Comunidad para El Comité Cesar Chávez/SIREN
408-928-2434

John Brazil
Coordinador de Asuntos para Ciclistas y Peatones para La Ciudad de San José
408-277-3771

VTP 2030 and BART to San Jose

01/06/05: The VTA Board ignored recommendations from TALC, the Federal Transit Administration, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury, the VTA Policy Advisory Committee, the Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors, and the San Jose Mercury News to study a phased BART extension that could save the agency billions of dollars. Instead the Board once again bowed to powerful political and business interests, and continued on their collision course with bankruptcy.

Who voted against the cost saving study: The four San Jose representatives that sit on the board, Ken Yeager (who stood in for Ron Gonzales for the day), David Cortese, Cindy Chavez and Forrest Williams, as well as Jaime Matthews of the City of Santa Clara (who also works for the City of San Jose) and Robert Livengood of Milpitas.
 

Who voted for the study: County Supervisors Pete McHugh and Don Gage, along with Dean Chu of Sunnyvale, chairman Joe Pirzynski of Los Gatos and David Casas of Los Altos. David Casas was the only voting board member who is still on the board who also voted against this January’s fare increase.
 

VTA Riders Union Commentary

01/06/2005 Mercury News editorial: Solid Data Needed on BART Alternatives

01/07/2005 Mercury News article: No change for BART to S.J

12/2004: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Recommends Shorter BART Extension (70k PDF)
 

06/2004: Grand Jury slams BART-to-San Jose project. A June 2004 Santa Clara County civil grand jury report recommended suspending the $4.2 billion BART project to San Jose and disbanding the Valley Transportation Authority's current board of directors.

The Grand Jury's report makes the claims that TALC first put forward in its March 2003 Transportation Injustice and May 2002 Sustainable Transit reports.

>> Learn more

VTA Fare Hikes and Service Cuts
A Legacy of Injustice and Declining Ridership

When prices go up and service is cut, low income people, people of color, the physically disabled, the elderly, and the youth are the ones who suffer the most. 

As the graph above illustrates, VTA has cut 20% of its bus and light rail service since the year 2000 and in June of 2004 the VTA Board of Directors voted to drastically raise fares for the third time since 2001.  As if that weren’t enough, VTA may also raise fares in the future and cut service by as much as 35%.  These fare hikes and service cuts make it more difficult for the transit dependent to access jobs, services, recreational opportunities, and other needs.  For example, in 2005, a family of four is paying $690 more than it did in 2004 for transit passes and $1,206 more than it did in 2002. As VTA’s 2000 ridership survey showed, 59% of VTA’s bus riders have a household income of less than $35,000 per year, meaning that many bus riders don't have the discretionary income to afford such steep increases.  In addition VTA’s policy of increasing fares and cutting service results in a downward spiral of ridership losses followed by additional fare hikes, and service cuts.

Although transit agencies throughout the Bay Area have already implemented, or are considering implementing, fare hikes and service cuts, transit patrons in Santa Clara County currently pay far more than other parts of the Bay Area. The graph below illustrates that the Santa Clara County VTA monthly youth bus pass is especially outrageous, costing each youth $49 a month in 2005 while youth in San Francisco only pay $10 and youth in Alameda County pay $15.  Clearly, the price VTA is charging in 2005 is out of whack with most other transit agencies.  What’s more, VTA had planned to increase the cost of its adult base fare to $2 and the cost of its adult day pass to $6 in 2006, as well as similar increases to its other passes, but they have decided not to do so, in part due to the pressure and press coverage generated by TALC and other advocates during the last vote to raise the price of transit passes.

Although declining sales tax revenues for operations is part of the reason VTA has raised fares and cut service over the past years, another major reason is the desire to quickly achieve a 20% fare box recovery ratio. The fare box is the percentage of total revenues for operations obtained from transit riders.

The strategy that VTA has followed between 2001 and January of 2005 to reach their fare box goal is cutting service on transit lines and raising the costs of fares and passes. This failed strategy has had the effect of driving away transit patrons, and has only raised the fare box to 13%. In addition, VTA ridership fell by 33% between 2000 and 2005, and ridership was lower in 2004 than it was in 1988. Continuing the policy of reaching a high fare box recovery goal through fare hikes and service cuts will only drive away more ridership and will have a huge impact on the ability of low-income people, immigrants, children, the elderly, and disabled to get where they need to go. In addition, it will make it more attractive for transit riders to switch to driving an automobile, thus causing more traffic congestion, burning more fuel, and increasing air pollution.

A Better Alternative

There is, however, a far more socially just and environmentally sustainable strategy to increasing the fare box that can be implemented by VTA. That strategy is to implement better quality service in order to boost the amount of ridership on VTA’s services and to study and implement cost-saving alternatives to fare hikes and service cuts.

For example, TALC applauds VTA’s new summer youth discount passes and their proposed free rides for seniors during off peak hours and weekends. However more must be done to stop continued ridership declines and avoid future fare hikes and service cuts.

We ask that the VTA Board launch a study of cost-saving alternatives that could stave off any more fare hikes and service cuts, and to convene a committee to formulate strategies to increase ridership VTA should implement those strategies adopted by the committee as soon as possible.

For information on the VTA ridership taskforce or up to date information on VTA service cuts and fare hikes, please contact:

Irene Hsu
Research Associate
Working Partnerships USA
408-269-7872

Save Our Transit Stops the Bus Cuts in 2003!
We achieved an incredible victory on June 5, 2003! The same VTA Board that had ignored our pleas over the previous two years finally acted on the overwhelming outcry from the community - they adopted the core of the Save Our Transit alternative and deferred the cuts.
> Read more