South Bay Bus Rapid Transit
Faster, more convenient and frequent bus service is coming to Santa Clara County
Santa Claa county is also home to the useless VTA light rail system. BRT simply makes the rails more useless. This is not the first time Santa Clara has been caught in a depression because of rails instead of asphalt. But, VTA has great right of way, we simply remove the rails and add a lane guided BRT system. So I suggest we tear out the government boondogle VTA and reuse the right of way, Let's add a twist, however, lets ope up the digitally guided lanes to private enterprise.
Much of the VTA right away is on the meridian space of a big freeway in the area. That meridian space s underutilized by steel rail because because rail cannot exist from the freeway to the major commercial and residential spots. BRT can exit the asphalt rail system and drive on city streets, specilly with traffic light assist.
That meridian goes south of Silicon Valley, on 101, by about 30 miles to major suburban housing, commuters clog up 101 during the commute. So run very high speed bus transit, on protected lanes at speeds near 100 MPH, computer controlled. The articulated buses can go into the suburbs, load up with 100 people, gun it up to the Silicon Valley commercial zone in twenty minutes, then make the rounds dropping off commuters.
1 comment:
From 1987 to 1990, I worked at IBM GPD San Jose (modelling disk drive performance using queuing theory and Monte Carlo simulation; coding models in APL, SAS, occasionally FORTRAN77). The IBM facilities were on Cottle Road, and futher south, where Blossom Hill Rd ended, at the south city limits of San Jose.
There was a bus route run by the public transit authority, an express bus, that made one trip south, and one trip north, every day. It started in Palo Alto, at Page Mill and El Camino, took the 280 south, exited in Cupertino to make a 2nd passenger pick-up. Then off we went, straight to South San Jose, HOV express lane and 65-70 mph nearly all the way!
Bus was always just a bit under full capacity. If there were sufficient demand, another would have been added. In 3 years, I don't recall either a standing-room only, nor less than 1/2 occupied status. After exiting off the 101, the route had multiple destination/stops for the 5+ IBM San Jose/Almaden/Santa Theresa sites. Most but not all passengers worked at IBM. It was a PUBLIC transit bus.
That was the best commuting arrangement I ever had, far superior to driving. Light rail was just introduced around the time I left.
Sounds like Bus Rapid Transit would compare favorably with the alternatives, now just as then. I wonder if that express bus route still runs...? It would make a fine case example for advocacy of BRT in Silicon Valley.
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