By Gary Jones, Cupertino Bike Commission Representative
Special announcement: Thank you James Wiant for your past service to the city of Cupertino on the VTA Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (“BPAC”). All in attendance at this month’s meeting extend their appreciation and warm regards. As your replacement I hope to live up to your footprints-in-the-sand.
Report
The VTA BPAC consists of 17 members including a county representative and the SV Bicycle Coalition, plus staff. The meeting is well organized and flows in accordance with rules-of-order. The public is given two minutes for presentation and then there are introductions. Try to envision a very large table with about 20 people around it and a Board Secretary taking notes (Hint: David S.). The audience sits in a theater-like area with about 20 seats at the end of the table. The meeting is held at the VTA on First Street, from Cupertino it took me 1.33 hours to drive there after leaving at 4 PM. The agenda is similar to our Cupertino Bike-Ped Commission’s.
There was one action item:
Adopt two One Bay Area (OBA) grant criteria to comply with Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s requirements for compliance… with the California Surplus Lands Act and adopted anti-displacement policies. Passed
Anti-displacement policy: in general, a policy to discourage displacement of low income and disabled residents
Meeting Discussion:
Much of the meeting that followed was spent discussing the Complete Streets Checklist submitted by OBA Grant applications and the 470 page aggregation of each Santa Clara County’s city applications/checklists. In the interest of sparing you the other 16 city’s documents I’ll keep this report to Cupertino’s, in summary. For a more detailed discussion please attend our city’s BPC meetings.
“LOCAL STREETS AND ROADWAY PRESERVATION GUARUNTEED FUND REQUEST”
The funds application is for Class IV Bikeway along Stevens Creek Boulevard from Tantau to De Anza College. The application is quite extensive and for more information please attend Cupertino’s BPC meetings.
Selected Topics of interest:
- Campbell has just opened two way tunnels along Campbell Avenue between the Pruneyard and their Downtown. If you have some time these are really nice, 12 feet wide each direction, lighted, separated from traffic and pass under Hwy 17. This connection has already increased activity between the shopping area and their Downtown.
- It was quite a surprise when the topic of major development projects in the Valley were discussed and The Hills at Vallco received a positive report from VTA staff as to how proactive Sand Hill Properties has been in working with them on all aspects of traffic, bicycle and pedestrian needs to manage congestion.
- Other major projects in the Valley were discussed; the Diridon/Sharks Project and the Santa Clara Project near the Levi Stadium.
Each city, regardless of size, had an equal opportunity at the end to say something about what is going on in their communities as to bicycle and pedestrian activity.
The meeting lasted nearly 3 hours 6:30 to about 9:30 PM.