An ambitious and controversial plan that would have transformed one of the main arteries through Silicon Valley is dead — at least for now.
The proposal to create bus-only lanes along the El Camino Real from Santa Clara to Palo Alto fell apart amid hundreds of residents balking at the idea of forcing cars out of at least two lanes.
“It does not seem to have very widespread support and it raises a lot of concern,” said Cory Wolbach, a member of the Palo Alto City Council who sits on the El Camino Real Rapid Transit Policy Advisory Board. “I don’t see an appetite for moving forward at this point.”
Traveling the approximately 17 miles from Santa Clara to Palo Alto now takes about 81 minutes by bus and 44 minutes by car. A Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority analysis suggested two designated bus lanes in the center of the thoroughfare could cut the bus time to just 48 minutes, with minimal effects to those traveling by car. In the coming years, demand for public transportation is expected to increase and officials have been searching for ways to ease traffic woes.
But from the start, the plan generated enormous pushback from residents along the route who feared dedicated bus lanes would force car traffic onto side streets and make gridlock worse during rush hour.
Right now, said VTA spokeswoman Brandi Childress, “any substantial infrastructure improvement is not moving forward.”
Childress said traffic studies for the idea have already cost about $10.5 million. Although bus-only lanes won’t be coming to the El Camino anytime soon, Childress insisted the money wasn’t wasted because information about traffic patterns could prove important for future projects in the same area.
“It’s an illustration of the travails of trying to do a corridor improvement project for public transit that crosses multiple boundary lines,” said Joseph Kott, a lecturer at the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State who has studied the project.
Teresa O’Neill, a member of the Santa Clara City Council, wanted more time for her city to have a discussion about the bus lanes but acknowledged “there were a lot of residents who were very hesitant about the situation.”
“I’m personally a little disappointed that we didn’t have more discussion,” O’Neill said. “But I understand that if several cities to the north were already saying no, then I totally get that for VTA, it didn’t make sense.”
But Glenn Hendricks, mayor of Sunnyvale, isn’t sorry to see the concept go. His city had opposed the idea over traffic concerns. And a watered-down alternative plan to have express bus lanes run along the righthand curb each direction during peak hours sparked worries about enforcement costs and bicycle safety, he said.
Hendricks suggested installing ticket kiosks along the El Camino to make getting on and off buses faster or changing the timing of traffic signals to speed up trips along the busy corridor, instead.
Wolbach wanted the advisory board to study high-occupancy vehicle lanes along the El Camino, which buses, shuttles and carpoolers could use.
“I think it’s at least worth trying a pilot,” Wolbach said.
But that pilot isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
“That was going to be quite a heavy lift,” Childress said.
For now, VTA says it’s improving bus stops and shelters to make what could be increasingly long wait times along the busy corridor a little more pleasant for bus riders.
But Kott says don’t expect much else to improve unless the Bay Area makes major changes in the way it handles transportation.
“Each community has its own take on what it needs and its own take on what it wants,” he said. “The problem with that is, it’s chaotic.”
Right now, the area’s transit authorities defer to different cities, he pointed out. Instead, Kott would like to see VTA and other transit agencies have the authority to do transit projects across jurisdictional lines.
“The trouble,” Kott said, “is with the parochialism of the process.”
