Silver Creek High School cyclist killed this morning on Capitol Expressway.

RIP: Silver Creek High School
student killed
photo: dbking

Sad news this morning on the streets of San Jose. An unidentified Silver Creek High School student died at a local hospital after suffering injuries from a collision with a car while riding across Capitol Expressway in East San Jose. The crash site is two blocks from the high school and just over a quarter mile from the 101 Freeway.

Silver Creek High School Principal Adolfo Laguna in this morning's San Jose Mercury News, stated "the (student's) death is a poignant reminder of how careful motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists have to be around the school area, particularly during rush hour. We want our students to be safe."

Dangerous By Design

Yes this student's tragic death is a poignant reminder; but asking motorists, pedestrians and bicyclist to be careful as a preventive measure against these types of incidents is completely wishful thinking. This intersection is dangerous by design.

Here are some reasons that make this intersection dangerous for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

The speed limit is 45 miles per hour but given that the the proximity to the 101 freeway entrance, speeds typically can reach over 60 miles per hour.

San Jose City Council member Pierluigi Oliverio has been championing 15 mph speed limits near schools but he is limited by California state law to only two lane streets, not 10 lane expressways.  This expressway also known as" Capitol Raceway" is notorious for impromptu races among race tuned autos.

The intersection was designed to reduce congestion by increasing the speed at which autos can negotiate turns. As you can see in this photo (Google Maps), the intersections uses large radii turns creating a triangular area to place the traffic signal. This design to increase the speed of right turning cars is a safety risk to cyclists and pedestrians.

Given San Jose suburban development pattern this expressway channels a high volume of traffic to the freeway during rush hour, bringing large volumes of traffic and young students together in a dangerous mix. The school, with almost 2,500 students also creates its own commuter congestion with parents rushing to bring their students to school before heading on the freeway to go to work.

Crossing Capital Expressway subjects student, cyclists, pedestrians, and the elderly to a 200 foot crossing with no refuge or rest area in the middle of the intersection.

I am always amazed that we have been lead to believe that the suburbs are by design safe than cities. It is evident in this Wall Street Journal Blog post titled "Is Generation Y a "Game Changer" for housing?"   The article quotes a financial services consultant who recently bought a 2,500-square-foot house in south San Francisco. The 23-year old single woman mentioned that she anticipates moving to the suburbs later in life, stating, "In my 20s, I definitely want to live downtown; I like the whole high-rise, in-the-city feel,” she said. “But, definitely when I have children, I want to live in a single-family home. It’s easier for parking, transportation and it’s safer to live in the suburbs away from the city."

The community should use this tragic incident as a starting point to do something about the lack of safety so close to their children's school.

A side note: When I went to the Google aerial photo of the school a counted 9 bikes (out of a student population of 2,500) in one bike parking location; and I'm not surprised.

Update (San Jose Mercury News): The bicyclist, believed to be 16 years old, was traveling east along East Capitol Expressway around 7:35 a.m. when a white Ford F-150 pick-up going northbound on Silver Creek Road collided with him, Officer Albert Morales said. Emergency personnel performed CPR at the scene and took the injured boy to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:10 a.m.

What goes up must come down or have the chickens finally coming home to roost?

For curses are like arrows

San Jose Mayor
Louis S. Solari
July 1958 - June 1960

shot upright, which falling
down light on the suters
[shooters] head.

The Lamentable and True Tragedy of Arden of Feversham - 1592

Today's Roadshow column in the San Jose Mercury News led with the headline: "San Jose pothole blamed on Reed, Brown, and Pruius drivers". Well, for those of you from out of state, Reed is San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, and Brown is California Governor Jerry Brown.

San Jose resident Joe Coughlin writes to Mr. Roadshow Gary Richards:

"Mayor Chuck Reed should be ashamed of the job he is doing regarding road repair. And we all ought to be embarrassed. We are not only the worst in California, we are the worst in the NATION."

I find this readers rant somewhat timely given that the evening before I attended the city's Planning Commission meeting. On the agenda was a study session to review the city's capital budget five-year plan. One set of figures that shocked me a bit (and after seeing these numbers for a few years I don't get shocked that easily) was the total infrastructure backlog reported at $909 million. Given that this year the city budget is $2.6 billion about 35% of the cities annual budget is represented by infrastructure backlog. Of the cities $909 million in infrastructure backlog $460 million is for transportation backlog, or just over 50%. Of that $460 million, $303 million is needed just to maintain the roadways back to normal levels.

But back to Mr. Coughlin's point. Who do we blame? Do we blame Mayor Chuck Reed, Governor Jerry Brown, or those

Population estimates used to
sell large infrastructure building progam
 in San Jose in the early 60's

high and mighty, wimpy green Prius owners. Well I have a new spin on their conundrum. Mr. Coughlin the next time you go to city hall to blame Mayor Reed; as you enter the elevator to the second floor council chamber gallery, look to your left on the wall. There you will see pictures and drawings, of most of the cites mayors going all the way back to the early days. Look carefully at those mayors from about 1945 to 1973; names such as Doerr, Solari (pictured above), Moore, Welch, Pace, and others. While were at it, let's also include A. P. (Dutch) Hamann, the city Manager from 1950 to 1969, a huge player in San Jose's expansionary history.



These mayors, and many other post-war U.S. mayors set us up with a new blueprint for the design of cities that pushed cities and their boundaries outward in a rush to annex tax generating development. In those days, it appeared that as soon as a new development was built, Dutch Hamann was out to annex it; One example routinely given is the Valley Fair shopping center. Leonard McKay told it so well in a series of two blog posts in 2006. (Dutch Hamann Part I and Part II)



Photo: wikipedia (San Jose)

 

"At that time, a sales tax was a major generator of revenue, and with the council’s approval, a program of strip annexation was set in motion.  Hamann determined where future shopping centers were likely to be located, and then the city proceeded to annex a narrow band of land out along each major road and intersection, thus ensuring that the sales tax revenue would come to San Jose. 

Along Stevens Creek Road to Cupertino, Bascom Boulevard, North First Street, and Monterey Highway to Morgan Hill—each and every area was annexed.  Prior to Hamann’s tenure—more than 100 years—only 46 annexations occurred.  During his 19 years, 1,377 annexations were effected"




If you've ever looked a map of Paris it looks by its very shape, its very design that it would be easy and relatively inexpensive to administer and maintain. Compare that with a map of San Jose (shown above) and

you ask yourself, how do you effectively police a city like this, maintain the roadway system or run an efficient library or parks system? In many areas of the city that fully enclose unincorporated county areas it even becomes more puzzling. Now try to figure out how you administer an effective police force, sanitary sewer systems, roads, streetlights, schools and water systems.

Yes it is extremely complicated. Just ask anyone living in the Burbank section of San Jose, an area where most neighbhors don't know who administers (county or city) parts of their own neighborhood.

Actually the layout of the city used to be worse. That is why 40 years ago the California State legislature created a regulatory vehicle to control crazy city boundaries that were confusing even city officials. Known by their acronym LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission), these independent regulatory commissions where created to control the boundaries of cities and most special districts (such as utility, school, sewage, vector, etc.). But more on that in a later post.

Given this willy nilly style of development and city leaders gross over-projection of population growth (see graph) infrastructure building (construction) was the real growth industry when an Apple in this valley was still something you ate. Even though California, the Bay Area, and San Jose grew at astonishing rates in the 1960's, 70's, and 80's their projections show that in 2010 San Jose's population would be at 1.8 million residents. In 2010 the city population was only 952,612 per the United States Census Bureau, or just over half what was projected.

To accommodate this overly inflated growth rate, the city built new sewer systems and water treatment plants (the current plant in Alviso), realigned roadways (Nagle Taylor, Julian and the Alameda), widened streets to nowhere (Park Ave., Minnesota at Meridian), built new railway under crossings (Park Ave. near Diridon), and new satellite libraries (West Valley branch etc. which was rebuilt several years ago), and fire stations.

What these leaders failed to realize was that the future money needed to maintain all this growing infrastructure base could not be recouped by the low yields (nowadays we call this sustainable) on a tax base reflected in the form of bedroom communities and urban sprawl. Many of these projects would not pencil out, or pay for themselves; and this was before Californians (not Mayor Reed or Jerry Brown) decided to severely restrict cities ability to maintain it all by passing Proposition 13 in 1978. So since 1978 cities have had to become very creative to tax these essentials of suburban living; investments in sewer pipe, pumping stations, wide Almaden neighborhood streets, or cul-du-sac living of the Evergreen area.

These leaders threw away the old tried and traditional rules of building cites and went on to build over 4,000 miles of municipal roadways. Now the potholes are coming home to roost (oh well I tried), or the archers arrow has returned to earth only to strike the shooter in the head.

As I have mentioned in many a post we, and many other California cities were built in the postwar era without a thought to how we would maintain these roadways. We have $303 million in unfunded road backlogs. We need around $100 million per year to maintain the system. We have no room in the general budget for repair. What funds are used to fix potholes, at about $16 million per year come from federal and state sources. We are now starting to receive the benefits of the recently enacted $10 vehicle fee but these amounts are nowhere near enough to cover the repair and maintenance of our roadways. State and federal gasoline taxes do not directly finance our maintenance program. Those funds are for building and maintaining  the federal and state highway systems.

Yes we do have a huge pothole problem, a problem that many has grown immensely in the last few years. However until residents and motorist realize how complex, how expensive, and how poorly funded our roadway system is, the problem is just not going to get any better anytime soon.

The chickens have come home to roost.



Megabus returning to the west coast?

Megabus coming to the Bay Area

My good friend Richard over at Cyclelicious informs me that he spotted a Megabus in San Jose this morning. He says that he spoke with the bus driver who stated that they are doing some test runs in the area. Megabus first launched its U.S. fleet in April of 2006 and currently serves 80 cities across North America.

When the system was running through San Jose I was very impressed. On one occasion I got a $3 ticket and the ride only took around 6 hours from Los Angeles' Union Station to San Jose's Diridon Station (see map). That works out to less than 1 penny per mile at about 60 mph pace!

Megabus used to run a San Francisco to Los Angeles Union Station route about four years ago. The bus used to make a stop right at Diridon Station. So before your groan and compare Megabus to Greyhound bus lets go over some major differences.

Try the new Megabus phone app.

• Megabus is a British based company that currently has bus stops in 37 states and the province of Ontario. 
• Buses are new and immaculate, most are double decker style with on board wi-fi, at seat plug-ins
• Unlike Greyhound they own no property but rely on cities allocating convenient bus stops in high traffic areas.
• Ticketing is all done online.
• The unique feature of Megabus is that the first ticket for a run is always $1 and goes up from there, making the bus line very affordable.
• Unfortunately Megabus does not carry bicycles on board or in the luggage compartment.

 Megabus is extremely popular amoung students in the heavily traveled Washington DC to New York to Boston corridor, competing with Amtrak's Acela train.

 Megabus also has a mobile phone app which you can find using the QR code located on the right. They have an app for both the iPhone IOS systems and the Android system.

I'll try to keep you posted on any details.

Thanks for the heads up, Richard!

Well I pay taxes and....

"I pay taxes and...."

At a public meeting last month a woman in the audience shouted out "Well I pay taxes, I pay taxes for the roads and bicyclists don't". Well here is a breakdown of roads and the agencies that maintain them, courtesy of the California Transportation Commision.

As you can see gasoline (excise) taxes which are collected at the pump only pay for a small amount of the roadways we drive on, about 17%. This is not counting for the fact that gasoline taxes do not cover the complete cost of maintaining our roadways.

Roadways in cities and counties are paid by property and sales taxes which are not dependent on automobile ownership or useage. Therefore cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users also pay for the roads they use.

http://www.catc.ca.gov/reports/2011Reports/2011_Needs_Assessment_updated.pdf
California Transportation System Needs Assesment.

http://www.sjcog.org/docs/pdf/media/shortfall,11-6-11.pdf


California’s 58 counties and 4,803 cities own and maintain 141,2354 miles of local streets and roads. This is an impressive 82 percent of the state’s total publicly maintained centerline miles (see Figure 2-6 below). About 146.4 billion vehicle miles are traveled on this street network annually. That’s approximately 45 percent of the total miles traveled every year in California.

Conservatively, this network is valued at $271 billion. Figure 2-6. Breakdown of Maintained Road Centerline Miles by Agency Table 2-2 shows the breakdown of lane-miles by functional classification, for local streets and roads and for unpaved roads. Arterials or collectors are categorized as major streets or roads, while residential streets and alleys are categorized as local streets and roads.

Roadside memorial brings back memories.

Four year memorial for
Maria Acosta DeReyes

While cycling down Santa Clara Street yesterday, I noticed this makeshift memorial at the south-east corner of 7th St. and Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose. I instantly recognized the corner as one that was the site of a hit and run incident several years ago.

Just after deciding to go car free, friends and family would mention to me how dangerous it is to ride a bike so I started a Google Map highlighting accidents that would appear in the local newspaper.

We often read in the newspaper about the homocide rate. If you go to the San Jose Police Department's website you can even map crime statistics. But you will never see a map that shows fatality and casualty rates, property damage amounts, or the number of hit and run crimes. They seem to be hidden from most city websites.

This was an article I scrapped from a news article at the time;

Woman, 69, killed in hit-and-run crash in downtown San Jose

San Jose police are looking for the driver of a gray or blue sport utility vehicle who fled after striking and killing a woman Saturday morning on East Santa Clara Street at Seventh Street.
Maria Dolores Acosta Dereyes, 69, of San Jose was walking northbound on South Seventh Street when she was struck while crossing East Santa Clara, officer Enrique Garcia said. Witnesses told police she was in the crosswalk when she was hit. She was declared dead at the scene.
The SUV, driven by a man in his 30s or 40s, had been traveling southbound on North Seventh Street and was making a left turn onto East Santa Clara. It did not stop after striking the woman, and was last seen traveling south on South Eighth Street. The car probably had damage to its front end, police said.

At the time I was never able to determine if the hit and run driver had been caught. Do you have any information on this crime. Your help would be appreciated. 

Rest in Peace, Maria.

(The map contains as many accidents resulting in a fatalities that I could track in the Silicon Valley in 2008. Feel free to scroll around the map.)


View 2008 Fatal Vehicular Accidents in South San Francisco Bay in a larger map

My new phrase for the day - Drive-Thru Highway

Now entering Drive_Thru
Highway. No Bicycles or
 Pedestrians allowed.

Since I don't go to (choose from below):

1. Big Box Stores
2. Auto Oriented Retail
3. Strip Malls
4. Concept Malls

I don't get out to these places much but today I came across a double lane McDonald's Drive-Thru; right next door to a Pollo Loco Drive-Thru. We sure are innovative here in the Silicon Valley.


Just to prove that it is just like a real highway this highway on ramp comes with real traffic monitoring cameras. I can just imagine at rush hour they might even issue a Sig Alert. 




3 Cameras to cover the pile up
on the Drive-Thru Highway.
Two on the left, 1 on the right.

 As you can see from the photo taken from one of the lanes of the DT Highway there are no fewer than three cameras following the action down below. Maybe there are even sensors in the roadway.









Wait, too many fry pits.
 Is this the Drive-Thru for
Panda or Pollo Loco?

 The Plant - Curtner and Monterrey Rds., San Jose, CA


View Larger Map

Detroit needs a new app - hooking our youth back on cars



By dmjarvey

 Monday, Streetsblog writer Anne Lutz Fernandez published a post titled "Getting Young People Back Into Cars is Auto Industry Job #1". During these tough economic times when California college students are protesting large tuition increases, its easy to see why owning a car is far from financially realistic. But Lutz also highlights one other factor. The utility of the automobile is being challenged by the smartphone.

Every morning, rain or shine, outside of my local coffee shop sits a group of aging car buffs, most of whom are retired who swoon when any classic car rolls by. Classic in this case refers to any car that was completely made of chrome and steel and built before smog control devices were dreamed up by some Sacramento legislator. Overhearing their conversations, I listen as they tell stories of their first cars; how they fixed them up, modified them and raced them. These cars provided them with identity, access to jobs, to fun with their friends, and to dates. The cars connected them to their world.

But as the author mentions young people now connect through the Internet, and the Internet is no longer a modem, a dial-up, sit down and wait affair. The Internet; their Internet is seamless, instantaneous, and ubiquitous. It is the Internet that gives young Americans their connectivity, not cars. Young people (and baby boomers) also prefer to live in urban areas forgoing the feeling of isolation found in the suburbs ("The Death of the Fringe Suburb" New York Times 11-25-2011). This change of status from car to phone has contributed to the decline in teen driving rates.

So Detroit, and in speaking of Detroit I mean the auto industry in general, has figured out that it is not high gas prices, not environmentalists, not transit and high speed rail that has dented sales of cars to young Americans, but the smartphone. Yes, it is the smartphone, or the iPhone that is changing the way this demographic sees freedom and connectivity, and Detroit is waking up and taking notice.

Yesterday morning the headline in my San Jose Mercury News business and technology section (yes I still read a newspaper, mainly for ceremonial reasons) was all the evidence I needed. The headline read "Toyota looks ahead to a 'smartphone on four wheels'". In the article Toyota President Akio Toyoda, speaking at the Tokyo Motor Show introduced a concept car called the Fun-vii that "works like a personal computer and allows drivers to connect with others with a tap of a touch-panel door." Now I not really sure what he meant by the personal computer comment, I mean no one under 25 years of age even will admit to using a "personal computer", but I get the idea. If you can't sell your car as a car, well sell it has a smart phone.

The auto industry has, somewhat late, begun to realize the need to lure these young shoppers back to the showrooms. And this is where they have an advantage. Although somewhat slow to respond to the trend,  industry will always respond to change faster than government and governmental agencies. Even with the renaissance of the central city, young residents will require better transportation options; better bus systems, bike networks without gaps, bus rapid transit, connectivity to the airport, and cities that recognize pedestrians on par with automobiles. Without real attention given to alternative transportation modes we may see young people abandoning their car-free and car-lite lifestyles in favor car-centric neighborhoods.

Time will tell.

Another Bay Area transportation agency to push for more pothole funding

In what has become a domino effect around the San Francisco Bay area, another transportation agency has decided to put a ballot measure to the voters to help fix crumbling roads along with a package of transit improvements, pedestrian, and cycling projects, and in this case a $400 million contribution to bring BART to Livermore. The proposed measure plans to double the current county sales tax portion dedicated to transportation from .5% to 1%, making it the second county in the state, after Los Angeles to seek a 1% solution.

Like other local agencies, the concern is that a failure to act will create an ever escalating backlog of projects while road deterioration accelerates with each passing year. The measure is expected to raise over $7.7 billion in new

Blast from the Past - Thinking of the Current Transportation System as a Health and Safety Issue

This was originally posted on my sister blog - One Less Car in the Silcon Valley. I am reposting here due to the recent increase in pedestrian and cyclists casualties. I hope to have more updates and comments later. Notice the links to fatal Silicon Valley accidents at the bottom of the post. I used to geo-track these statistics to get a sense the most dangerous Silicon Valley roadways.

All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

You've got to say, 
"I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!" 


Three vehicular events in the Silicon Valley area this weekend highlight the fact that we are all subject to property damage, trauma, critical injury and even death from vehicles.  With this weekends death of a solo driver in Los Altos, a hit and run pedestrian accident in downtown San Jose, and a hit and run accident involving two cyclists, we need to stop and seriously consider the pain and suffering these events cause.

I am acquainted with Ashley (Ashleigh), through work and we share several mutual friends.  Ashley was riding with her boyfriend  this weekend when she was struck by a car that drove into the bike lane.  As I have written before, death and injury has visited family members, a favored author (David Hallberstam's tragic death near the Dumbarton Bridge), three high school friends, a college friend, and bike riding buddies.  Many years ago, while riding my bike, I witnessed a accident victim's final seconds as the blood from his head flowed onto the asphalt, on that early spring morning.  I was stunned and helpless.  Unable to move the truck that had just slammed his head to the ground and was now pinning his body to the roadway, all  I remember was the color of  his face, and how it seemed to change color the more his blood drained from his motionless head.

Several years after witnessing speeding and erratic behavior by a driver on a southbound San Diego Freeway, I came upon the prostrate body of the driver in the middle lane; motionless as we drove by, suddenly making the connection that the driver had met his end in his own horrific way.

With almost two years of a car free lifestyle under my belt, people often ask me; "isn't bike riding dangerous?  I'm to afraid to ride my bike.  I think I'll just go to a spin class instead."  First, bikes can be dangerous, but not many people fail to consider the large number of car accidents every year; whether classified as solo vehicular accidents, alcohol related accidents, accidents due to youth and inexperience, or just sheer and utter stupidity.  We seem to just accept, "as if that's the way it's supposed to be.   

"We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone." 

Ask anyone who rides or walks and they will tell you horror stories of the streets.  Freeing yourself from the cocoon of your car you notice more.  In the two years since my own accident, I have witnessed four accidents involving a car running a red light ( myself  a victem as well).  Of those four, I was the first responder on three of them.  One involved a person trying to flee the scene.  Six victims required medical attention.

 In the two years since giving up my car in favor of a lifestyle involving cycling, walking and public transportation as a means of mobility, I have kept tract of most of the accidents involving cars, whether solo, with other cars, with bicycles, or pedestrians.  Also motorcycle accidents; which seem almost to be predictable in rider age and accident location are document.

We strikes me and also troubles me the most however is the continued increase in hit and run accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.  I have read somewhere that it may approach 50%.  That would be one out of two accidents involve a vehicle leaving the scene; an absolute disgrace on any measure of moral, ethic, or civic responsibility.

Anyway here are three Google Maps so far that I have put together.
(Blue - Vehicle, Red - Pedestrian, Yellow - Motorcycle, Green - Cyclists) Dot in the marker represents a fatality.

2007

2008

2009

The looming showdown in surface transportation funding

Or "How I learned to stop worrying and love my car.

Although presidential candidates in the last election tried to ease the pain of the gas tax by temporarily suspending it (the federal excise tax that is), the problem is that desperately needed funds derived from a gas tax have less of an effect with each passing year. The last time the state of California raised the state excise tax was 21 years ago. Although the total miles driven by California's has begun to peak the addition of alternatively powered and fueled vehicles (hybrids and electric) on the roadways means that gas tax collection is going done far faster than our use of the roadways. 

In a recent Los Angles Times opinion column "It's time to raise California's Gas Tax" (see links below), the author highlights comments by the current state treasurer and governor.

"California's infrastructure was designed for 25 million people, but we're fast approaching a population of 40 million.We've got a lot of needs, but we're never going to be able to finance them with the General Fund," State Treasurer Bill Lockyer says. "It's too big a price tag."

"I surely didn't expect California to grow like it did," Jerry Brown told me last year as he was starting to run for governor again. "We had tremendous growth. And when you have growth, you've got to build: energy, water, roads, transit, schools, jails."

But the Democratic candidate added a caveat: "We need a design change. We can't just keep paving over. We've paved over the San Fernando Valley. We've got to use the land better. We've got to use our energy better — the natural resources, the wind, the sun, geothermal."

The big argument has always been that the huge investments required to build roadways designed mostly for solo vehicle trips are funded by the oft used term "user fees". Gas taxes and highway trust funds gave us the illusion that each mile driven was more than covering the cost of our massive expansive roadway system. But the highway trust fund is nearly insolvent, and state, regional, and local governments are finding that user fees do not even come close to building and maintaining roadways.

That gap has been cobbled together with a patchwork (depending on the funding level) of general fund revenue, sales taxes, payroll taxes, vehicle registration fees, and property taxes. Just last November, Santa Clara County residents approved Measure B, which would add a $10 vehicle registration fee to each auto. This fee would be apportioned to each Santa Clara County city passed on roadway miles and population.

In a recent post I highlighted a presentation this week that San Jose's Director of the Department of Transportation needs $1 billion over the next 10 years just to keep his city's roads at an average maintenance level. Only about $2 to $3 million of the $100 million needed each year will come from the city's general fund. Measure B funds mentioned above will only contribute about $5 million each year. The rest of the funds which will come from State Proposition 42 funds as well as other grants will only total approximately $15 - 20  each year for the next 10 years, leaving an $80 million dollar shortfall each year.

Just to maintain the city's roadways at the same levels over the next 10 or 20 years will require additional revenue. San Jose city staff have recommended a parcel tax to cover these expected roadway maintenance shortfalls. Additionally it was mentioned in the tail end of an article yesterday in several Bay Area Newsgroup papers that a regional gas tax is being considered ("Bay Area transit agencies could save $235 million a year, analysts say"). Although traditional gas (excise) taxes are raised at the federal and state level (and in Oregon at the local level), this would be the first time that a regional gasoline tax will be initiated.

All in all, you can expect the costs of our expensive and aging roadways to go up. It's just that the costs, in the form of property, sales, and other taxes will go up but those costs won't necessarily be born solely by the users.

What are your thoughts on this subjects? Any comments.

It's time to raise California's gas tax - Los Angeles Times - 10-27-2011

Bay Area transit agencies could save $235 million a year, analysts say - Contra Costa Times - 10-27-2011

San Jose's DOT Director discusses the state of the city's roadways and how to repair them - One Square Mile -10-27-2011

Transportation for America - The Fix we're in for; The state of our bridges

San Jose's DOT Director discusses the state of the city's roadways and how to repair them

Last month the City of San Jose's Director of the Department of Transportation, Hans Larsen spoke to a full crowd of residents at the monthly Willow Glen Neighborhood Association meeting. Hans gave a presentation outlining some of the many challenges facing his department given the city's fiscal constraints. San Jose with a population just now surpassing 1,000,000 residents currently has 4,182 lanes miles of roadway to maintain.

The bill to fix this amount of roadway is now about $100,000,000 per year or $1,000,000,000  (thats $1 Billion) over 10 years. With the cities general fund being decimated by pension costs, only $2-3 million is the most that is available from this source. Federal, state, and regional monies are available but this will only total around $15 million per year. Of this $15 million $5 million dollars are proceeds from last November's Measure B that was passed by Santa Clara County voters. Funds from this measure will be available in the next fiscal year. This fee which is a flat $10 charge, is collected from every registered vehicle. The proceeds from the fee will be apportioned to Santa Clara County Cities (based on population and amount of roadway) as well as to the county's Roads Division. San Jose portion per year is expected to be at around $5 million.

This underfunding of repairs and maintenance is estimated to contribute to the growing backlog of necessary maintenance. Yesterday Director Larsen presented this scenario to the San Jose City Council urging the city to inialize a parcel tax to fund the growing gap in the maintainence deficit.  The proposal is to raise an additional $60 million over 10 years by way of a parcel tax. The city will be closely watching San Francisco's November 2011 election to guage that city's appetite for increased spending on roadways. The city of San Francisco is putting Measure B (the Road Repaving and Street Safety Bond) on the ballot to improve their own roadways and finance sizeable streetscapes as well.  Director Larsen's propsed parcel tax is estimated to average $300 to $400 per parcel.

San Jose mulls new parcel tax to fix city streets (San Jose Mercury News October 26, 2011)

San Jose Department of Transportation presentation to the Willow Glen Neighborhood Assn.

Originally a Power Point Presentation it has been uploaded as a pdf file with some mistakes in rendering the image.

MTC - The Pothole Report: Can the Bay Area Have Better Roads?

California State Propostion 42 - March 5, 2002 (passed 69.1%)

Santa Clara County Vehicle Registration Fee - Measure B (passed 51.93%)

San Francisco upcoming election for Measure B (San Francisco Department of Public Works)

Powerful auto dealers flex muscles, White House blinks



Hayward, CA
One of the many abandoned
auto lots I encountered on
 a recent bike tour in the East Bay.

 In a September 15, 2011 Wall Street Journal article titled "Dealers Oppose Gas Rules, the author describes a renewed sense of power from a recent backdown from the White House. The article opens by stating,

The nation's politically influential automobile dealers, emboldened by the Obama administration's recent retreat on tougher smog regulations, are revving up a lobbying effort to block fuel-economy rules proposed by the administration

This week over 400 automobile dealers will descend upon Washington to block and delay the introduction of rules seeking to improve the nation's fuel efficiency standards on automobiles for at least one year. Congressional member Steve Austria (R., Ohio) sponsored legislation that has already been approved by the House Appropriations Committee that would delay the drafting of the new rules for another year.

The Republicans claim that proposed Obama regulations will burden business at a time when unemployment continues to hover above the 9% level. Democrats although seeking to increase fuel efficiency standards while improving air quality through the new regulations have seen the administration back down twice before. NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) has previously succeeded twice in getting congressional Democrats defy Obama on key automobile related legislative votes.

Toyota's Mea Culpa - fund industry safety research

Toyota announced on Wednesday that they will be partnering with leading universities in automotive safety studies. Toyota is stepping up research partnerships with several U.S. universities to study increasingly important safety issues facing the auto industry. This was prompted by public and congressional backlash after series of deadly accidents caused by stuck accelerators (later proven to be caused by poorly designed floormats). Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) announced that they will spend $50 million over the next five years to "better protect the most vulnerable traffic populations, including children, teens, seniors and pedestrians."

This announcement comes after congressional, media, and public scrutiny on the heels of the widespread safety and quality issues during 2010. Toyota has vowed not only to take on the cost of the research but also to share it with others in the auto industry. It is interesting to note the new found willingness on the part of Toyota to not only bring their research out in the open but their willingness share it with the industry after spending $50 million for the academic partnerships. Given Toyota's previous reluctance to share safety data this is a big departure from the past.

In the Wall Street Journal version of this story reporter Neil Boudette picks op this gem of a quote;

"Twelve teens die each day in accidents," said Tina Brunetti Sayer, an engineer at Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center, the group set up to work with outside institutes in North America. "That's 5,000 a year. This is a group that really needs help in learning to drive."

Did you catch that, "this is a group that really needs help in learning to drive." The engineer assumes that all teenagers drive and secondly that these deaths could be stopped or mitigated by giving driving education "help" to these teens.






Here is an abbreviated list of the universities that Toyota will be collaborating with allong with the reasearch outline.

The Transportation Active Safety Institute at Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis

· Pedestrian Pre-Collision Systems (PCS) Test Scenarios

A five-year study to develop testing protocols for automotive PCS designed to prevent pedestrian-related car accidents. The study will draw on available crash data in NHTSA databases and original vehicle testing to develop more sophisticated and realistic test scenarios for PCS with the goal of improving pedestrian safety.

Note: In the Wall Street journal article the author additionally states that; "Indiana University and Purdue University also are developing radar and camera technology to prevent collisions with pedestrians"

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

· Posture, Body Shape, and Seatbelt Fit in Senior Drivers
An 18-month project to study the relationship between age and seated occupant posture, body shape, and seatbelt fit. The project seeks to determine if senior drivers and passengers sit differently in the vehicle, to characterize exterior body shape changes that occur with age, and to understand how these factors influence seat belt fit. The statistical models resulting from the study can be used to better understand senior occupant kinetics and injury patterns in a crash event.

Wake Forest School of Medicine

· Advanced Automated Crash Notification

A one-year partnership to develop vehicle computer systems that not only notify first responders in the event of a collision, but also predict the likelihood and severity of occupant and driver injuries.

Note: This sounds like an medical engineering nightmare. Sensors in your car will determine the extent of your injuries and relay this information to the first responders. This however will not be avaiblable to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

Wayne State University School of Medicine

· Driver Distraction: Cognitive Model & Validation

A three-year collaborative study to better understand the cognitive aspect of driver distraction. Combining research in the fields of driver behavior, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, the project will advance the auto industry’s understanding of a phenomenon that has been widely blamed for many accidents and injuries on U.S. roads and highways.

Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center Announces 10 New Projects and Six New Partnerships With Leading Academic and Research Institutions

Totyota Teams Up For Safety Studies - Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2011

Fatality Statistics - NHTSA FARS National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration - Fatality Analysis and Reporting System

Location:Civic Center Dr,Santa Clara,United States

Cash For Clunkers Approved!

Had to take a photo of this car while riding


by this morning. The sign on the windshiel says "Cash For Clunkers Approved.

The car was parked at a Shell station at the corner of Stelling Rd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. Can't figure out what the direct connection to the Shell Station.


-- Post From My iPhone

Population and Vehicle Density Correlation

This was a little fun I had playing with a graphical representation of the amount of land converted to parking; assuming a density of 6,000 residents per square mile (Sunnyvale, CA). I came up with just under 25% of the land would be needed to park cars, on average. This does not assume land needed to move those cars. I haven't gotten there yet.

The land here in the Silicon Valley only 50 years ago used to be full of orchards now parking lots have taken there place.

Parking Requirement Calculations (Google Docs)

The larger square represents one mile square. Notice how the old orchard roads were one mile distant. Now these "one mile roads" make for perfect suburban arterial roads. The smaller red square represents one quarter of a square mile.




View Asphalt Jungle in a larger map