Spring into Green at DeAnza College, Cupertino California

New Terminal at Mineta San Jose
International Airport

Spring into Green at DeAnza College

The following is some thoughts presented this morning at DeAnza College's Spring into Green event with a panel of other professionals.


Climate Change, Air Pollution, Toxic Roadway Runoff, Oil Depletion, Keystone XL Pipeline, Fracking, and on and on. We would all agree that these are key issues today that need to be addressed. We, dealing with all things environmental agree, that we should be at least technically conversant on these issues but instead of directly discussing these issues I'd like ask you a few questions.

• Who owns the San Jose Airport? (google search)
• Who owns San Jose Diridon Station? (wikipedia)
• Who owns Cupertino city streets?
• Who owns the tracks on which Caltrain and Amtrak run? (Caltrain / Amtrak)

San Jose Diridon Station

Now I would ask you if you somehow came to this country from another solar system, which system Air, Auto or Train would you think would be at the top of the transportation food chain.

Yes, Air and Auto. When one entity spends over $1.5 Billion on its infrastructure you will get nice facilities, neatly designed with facilities that are convenient for travellers. But after spending over a billion dollars on a new passenger terminal and a seven story parking garage we still do not have direct transit service to the airport?

When you have a street system that is owned by one government agency competing with passenger rails systems which are prioritized below freight such as corn and cars, which system do you think will get noticed, get used?

Before I continue however, two more questions.

• What year did the Japanese Bullet Train or High Speed Rail begin Operations?
• What year did Japan sign a surrender treaty with the US?

   In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its 3000 series SE "Romancecar" train, setting a world speed record of 145 km/h (90 mph) for a narrow gauge train. (Wikipedia). So in 12 years Japan, after picking itself from the rubble of the war, sets a world record and by 1964 build a complete bullet train system. With no postwar resources it still devoted its political and financial will to build a world class system. Can you guess what other event happened in Japan in 1964?  

Advocating for Change 

In my experience working to advocate for alternative transportation; working for change in our current system, not only has my perspective changed, but my thinking and methods have changed as well.  In the 1960's mainly do they War in Vietnam and some well publicized environmental disasters, Americans sought to change the system by a variety of confrontation methods; and they worked for large national issues.

For example Critical Mass was a way for San Franciscans who rode bike to say we matter. However their methods were confrontational with such tactics as secret routes, corking of intersections and confrontations with police.

With the advent of peer based and cyber social systems, change can take place without the confrontation but by learning how to frame you position to sell it to groups of strong opposition, by staging fun community events, incentivizing participants, using digital technologies to break up tasks and allowing for collaboration. 

  

Here are some examples of soft change or in other words "winning hearts and minds":

• Bike Party: This once a month bicycle fiesta on wheels has grown and has brought San Jose some cachet as a hip bike city. There are now "Bike Parties" in most northern and Southern California cities, as well as Baltimore, Boston, Denver, and even in Seoul, Korea and our nations capitol. All based on the San Jose Bike Party model.
• Bag Ban: Using the grown field of  "choice architecture" San Jose initiated a ban on free shopping bags, but instead of making it an onerous law with no choice involved, the city prescribes that you pay 10 cents for a bag. In my experience demand for bags has gone done around 97% and with almost no complaints. The program known as "Bring Your Own Bag" has saved not only the cost disposing of the bags but improving the health of our waterways and watersheds as well.
• From Blight to Bright: Governments loved to build things, maintaining them is a whole different thing. Politicians would rather poise for pictures with shovels and scissors than deal with the mundane obligations such as maintenance. General street maintenance along with non-emergency police services are hard to come by. By using the broken window theory we have organized groups of volunteers to go out and clean up blighted areas. Now land owners are starting to take notice and are cleaning up their own properties, improving the community, getting more residents out walking and bicycling.
• Open Data and Civic Hacking: We are currently putting together a group of data nerds who will seek to open transit, municipal budget, and transportation data in a standardized format to allow third parties to develop apps, hardware/appliances, to make it easier to take transit or understand your city. Imagine with an open data standard that you could sit in a pub with an eye on a transit appliance which would display the "next bus" on the wall reducing wait times at transit stops.
• Using carrots and sticks: Getting rid of minimum parking requirements, unbundled parking, bundling transit passes with San Jose Sharks tickets, parking rates based on vehicle weight and size, one way mini car sharing, eco passes, smart phone apps, market based parking, free bike sharing for the first 30 minutes, no validated parking but discounts to pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users, etc.

In none of these instances were technical environmental terms used such as fracking, ozone depletion, or destruction of riparian habitats. Change was incentivizing good choices or fun behaviors that create positive environmental change in the community.

I have listed some video and book resources for you to follow up on.

Thank you.

Additional Resources
Books

• Don't Think of an Elephant - Know your issues and frame the debate - George Lakeoff
• Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service--A Year Spent Riding across America - James McCommons
• Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile - Taras Grescoe
• The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways  - Earl Swift
• The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream- Christopher Leinberg
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities - Jane Jacobs
• The Economies of Cities - Jane Jacobs
• The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape  - James Howard Kunstler
• Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness - Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

Ted Videos
James Kunstler: How bad architecture wrecked cities
Jason Roberts - TedxOu How to Build a Better Block
Chuck Mahron - Tedx1000Lakes - The important difference between a road and a street

College Courses

Business Administration
101 Land Use and Development
102 Fundraising
111 Accounting for nonprofits
112 Federal and State Reporting Requirements
121 Financing Public Infrastructure (See Transportation 121)
122 Seminar - Corporate Social Responsibility

Civil Administration
101 Intro to Government
102 Intro to City and Municipal Government
103 City Council Rules and Administration
104 Working with City Staff

Communications
101 Issue Analysis and Research, and Reporting
102 Public Speaking
103 Social Media
104 News Media
105 Public Relations
106 Reaching out to younger and non-traditional constituents
107 Issue Framing - Not speaking to the choir

Criminal Justice
101 Public Safety - Police
102 Public Safety - Fire and other Emergency Services
103 Gangs and the community

Economics
101 Regulation and Behavioral Economics (The Shopping Bag Lab)
102 Market Based Parking (The High Cost of Free Parking)
103 Fiscalization of Land Use
111 Incentivizing Developers with fees, mandates, and options
112 City and Park Maintenance - Public Private Partnerships
121 Seminar - Big Box vs. Traditional Retail and the return on investment
122 Seminar - Food Trucks, Street Vendors, and Pop-ups and community revitalization

Information Systems
101 Website Administration
102 Front-end Website Administration - Wordpress
103 Front-end Website Administration - Drupal
104 - Back end administration with CiviCRM
111 Open Data and Civic Hacking Lab

Political Science
101 Issues and Advocacy
102 Community Outreach
103 Issue Campaigning
104 Elected Official Relationship Management
111 Electioneering and Campaigning
112 Legislative and Political Analysis (City, Region and State Level)

Public Administration
101 Roberts Rules of Order
102 Board Administration
103 Corporate and Board Governance
104 Non-Profit Administration
111 Regional Public Administration
112 Membership Management and Engagement
121 Public Accounting and Budgeting
122 Taxation - Property, Sales, Income and Fees

Tourism, Event and Park Management
101 Event Management and Accounting
102 Sponsorship Management and Negotiation
103 Event Promotion and Partnerships
104 Volunteer Coordination

Transportation and Infrastructure
101 The New City and Multimodal Systems
111 Public and Private Transit and Mobile Applications
121 Financing Public Infrastructure

Urban Studies
101 Placemaking
102 Complete Streets
111 Basic Real Estate Development
112 The Sharing Economy - Car, bike, office, and tool share
121 Traditional Real Estate Development and Business Districts
122 Transporatation Hub Development

Hedding Street to get new asphalt, new bike lanes, and new trees

Our City Forest

I had a nice chat yesterday with Rhonda Berry from Our City Forest yesterday on 'the Ave.' in Willow Glen (thanks to Top Nosh). Rhonda has been doing amazing work as founder, president, and CEO since they started about 20 years ago.

As part of the Hedding Street improvements that are currently being worked on, Our City Forest will be planting trees along the street from the county administration offices in the west to around 13th Street to the East. These trees will benefit the neighborhood well by cleaning the air of particulate matter that is a byproduct of all the traffic as well as reducing summer temperatures.

Books I've Read List - September 2012

Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Futre
of Passenger Rail Service

Here is a list of what I have been reading the last year with some on my wish list. The list reads from those that I have most recently read to those which I read up to about a year ago. (As of September 25, 2012)

Books I've Read since January 2011


Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, Steven Johnson
An Economist Gets Lunch - New Rules for Everyday Foodies, Tyler Cowen
Discovering Your Innner Economist  - Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Denist, Tyler Cowen
The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic -George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling
Caltrain and the Peninsula Commute Service : Janet McGovern
27 Powers of Persuasion : Chris St. Hilaire 
City Comforts - How to Build an Urban Village : David Sucher
Open Road- A Celebration of the American Highway, Phil Patton
Oil on the Brain - Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank - Lisa Margonelli
Pedal Power - The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life : J. Harry Wray
Linchpin - Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin
Meatball Sundae - Is Your Marketing Out of Sync, Seth Godin
Tribes - We Need You To Lead Us, Seth Godin
Purple Cow - Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable,  Seth Godin
Highways to Heaven - The Auto Biography of America: Christopher Finch
Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, James McCommons
Getting There - The epic struggle between road and rail in the American Century : Stephen B. Goddard
The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right, Atul Gawande
Here Comes Everybody - The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, Clay Shirky
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, Taras Grescoe
Going Local - Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age - Michael H. Schuman
Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities, George Kelling and Katherine Coles
On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life : Amy Walker
As One - Mehrdad Baghai
Open Leadership - How Social Technology can Transform the Way you Lead : Charlene Li
The Neighborhood Project : Using Evolution to Improve my City, One Block at a Time, David Sloan Wilson.
Rebel Bookseller - Why Indie Business Represent Everything You Want to Fight For, Freom Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities - Andrew Laties
Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City : Anthony Flint
What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures : Malcolm Gladwell
Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.
Don't Think of an Elephant, George Lakoff
The Elements of Influence: Introducing the Playmaker's Standard: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand, and Buzz : Alan Kelly
Grassroots leaders for a new economy : how civic entrepreneurs are building prosperous communities, Douglas Henton, John Melville, and Kimberly Walesh.
Ignore Everybody : and 39 Other Keys to Creativity, Hugh MacLeod.
Microstyle : the art of writing little, Christopher Johnson.
Behind the dream : the making of the speech that transformed a nation, Clarence B. Jones and Stuart Connelly.
Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping : Paco Underhill
What Women Want - The Global Market Turns Femaile Friendly : Paco Underhill
The Call of the Mall - The Geography of Shopping :Paco Underhill
Changing places : Rebuilding Community in the age of sprawl, Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie
Two Billion Cars: Driving Towards Sustainability, Daniel Sperling
The Organization Man : William "Holly" Whyte (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces : William "Holly" Whyte
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America : Thomas Freidman
The World is Flat - a brief history of the 21st century : Thomas Friedman
Bowling Alone - The Collapese and Revival of the American Community : Robert Putnum
A Whole New Mind : why right-brainers will rule the future, Daniel H. Pink.
Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life, Tom Lewis
What the dog saw and other adventure stories, Malcolm Gladwell
Divorce Your Car: Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile, Kate Alvord
Unless it moves the human heart : the craft and art of writing, Roger Rosenblatt
Home From Nowhere : remaking our everyday world for the twenty-first Century (reread), James Howard Kunstler
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape,(reread) James Howard Kunstler
Blink - The Power of Thinking Without Thinking : Malcolm Gladwell
World Made by Hand : James Howard Kunstler

The Death and Life of Great American Cities (reread), Jane Jacobs
The Economy of Cities, Jane Jacobs
Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs
The Nature of Economies, Jane Jacobs
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics, Jane Jacobs
Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life : Alan Deutshman
Outliers - The Story of Success : Malcolm Gladwell
Traffic - Why we drive the way we do, and what it says about us : Tom Vanderbilt
Soft Energy Paths - Towards a Durable Peace, Amory Lovins
Brittle Power - Energy Strategy for National Security, Amory Lovins
Winning the Oil Endgame, Amory Lovins 
Stick Your Neck Out - A Street-Smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond : John Graham
Your Innner Economist - Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist : Tyler Cohen
Freakonomics - A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything : Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
The Privitization Decision: Public Ends, Private Means : John D. Donahue
The Great Inversion and the Future of the American city : Alan Ehrenhalt
A pattern language - towns, buildings, construction : Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein
Introduction to logic and critical thinking : Merrilee H. Salmon
Joyride: Pedaling Toward A Healthier Planet : Mia Birk
The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition : James Howard Kunstler
Two Billion Cars - Driving towards sustainability : Daniel Speriling
Wow Wal-Mart is Destroying America, and What You Can Do About It : Bill Quinn
Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities : Jeff Mapes
Triumph of the city : how our greatest invention makes us richer, smarter, greener, healthier, and happier, Edward L. Glaeser.
Last Child in the Woods - Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder : Richard Louv
Drill here, drill now, pay less : a handbook for slashing gas prices and solving our energy crisis, Newt Gingrich with Vince Haley.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference : Malcolm Gladwell
The Black Swan : the impact of the highly improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Memoir Project : a thoroughly non-standardized text for writing & life, Marion Roach Smith
The Science of Fear - How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain : Daniel Gardner
The Storytelling Animal : how stories make us human, Jonathan Gottschall
Cadillac Desert - The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner
Special Events and Festivals : how to plan, organize, and implement,Angie Prosser and Ashli
Brew to Bikes - Portland's Artisan Economy: Charles Heying
Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability : David Owen
The New City State - Change and Renewal in American Cities : Tom McEnery

And Prior
Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Reckoning, David Halberstam (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Fifties, David Halberstam
The Ecology of Commerce - A Declaration of Sustainability, Paul Hawken (Age of Heretics -Biography)

On my reading list:

Doing More with Less, Burce Piasecki
The Icarus Syndrome - A History of American Hubris, Peter Beinhart (recommended by Chuck Marohn of Stongtowns.org)
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways : Earl Swift
Small is Profitable - The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size, Amory Lovins
Reinventing Fire - Bold Solutions for a New Energy Era - Amory Lovins
Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation, Richard Sennett
Placemaking, Charles Bohl
The Quest - Energy Security and the Remaking of the Modern World - Daniel Yergin
The High Cost of Free Parking : Donald Shoup
ReThinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking : Eran Ben-Joseph
Better Together: Restoring the American Community : Robert Putnam
The Witch of Hebron: A World Made by Hand Novel : James Howard Kunstler
Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation : James Howard Kunstler
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century : James Howard Kunstler

Railroaded: The Transcontinental Railroads and the Making of Modern America : Richard White
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger : Marc Levinson
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York : Robert Caro (Open Road Biography)
Stealth of Nations - The Global Rise of the Informal Economy : Robert Newwirth
Now Your See It - How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn : Cathy N. Davidson
America The Philosophical : Carlin Romano
Small Town Rules - How Big Brands and Small Business Can Prosper in a Connected Economy : Larry J. Molitz & Becky McCray
The Nonprofit Board Answer Book - A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives
No Way to Run A Railroad - The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Derailed - What Went Wrong and What to Do About America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America's Passenger Trains : Joseph Vranich
The Powers That Be : David Halberstam 
The Best and the Brightest : David Halberstam 
Supertrains: Solutions to America's Transportation Gridlock : Joseph Vranich
Bold Endeavors - How our Government Built America and Why it Must Rebuild Now : Felix Rhoyhatyn
Moving Millions - An Inside Look at Mass Transit : Stan Fischer
Stuck in Traffic - Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion : Anthony Downs
Breaking Gridlock- Moving Towards Transportation That Works : Jim Motavalli
Making the Car Pay Its Way: The Case of Minneaapolis Roads : John Biley, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
The Pressue Boys: The Inside Story of Lobbying in America : Kenneth Crawford
The Interstate Commerce Omission: The Public Interest and the ICC : Robert C. Fellmeth
The Pavers and the Paved - The Real Cost of America's Highway Program 1971 : Ben Kelley
The Motorization of American Cities : David J. St.Clair
Superhighways Super Hoax : Helen Leavitt
The Automobikle and American Culture 1986 : David Lewis
The Going Rate - What it Really Costs to Drive : James J. McKenzie World Resource Institute, Washington DC
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 David McCullough
The Economics of Competition in the Transportation Industries : John Robert Meyer
The Era of Thodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America : George E. Mowry
Railroads - The Free Enterprise Alternative : Daniel Overbey
No Way to Run a Railroad: The Untold Story of the Penn Central Crisis : Stephen Salsbury
Building the American Highway System: Engineers as Policy Makers : Bruce E. Seely
The Interstate Commerce Commision and the Railroad Industry: A History of Regulatory Policy 1991: Richard D. Stone
Silent Spring : Rachel Carson
Suburbia - It's People and Its Politics 1979 : Robert C. Wood
The Prize - The Quest for Oil, Money and Power : Daniel Yergin (Age of Heretics -Biography)
On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors 1979 : Patrick J. Wright (Age of Heretics -Biography)
What Are People For - Essays : Wendell Berry (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Voluntary Simplicity - Towards A Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, Duane Elgin  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
A Grunch of Giants : Buckminster Fuller  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, Robert Heilbroner  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
Let Them Call me a Rebel - Saul Alinsky, His Life and Legacy : Sanford Horwitt  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Glory and The Dream,William Manchester  (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Laws of Money, Michael Phillips (Age of Heretics -Biography)
The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped, Anthony Sampson (Age of Heretics -Biography)

Superhighways Superhoax, Helen Leavitt (Open Road Biography)
Interstate: Express Highway Politics 1941-1956, Mark Rose (Open Road Biography)
The Last Landscape, William "Holly" Whyte  (Open Road Biography)

From Blight to Bright in Willow Glen

Dallas of Bay Area Cargobikes meets
with some community volunteers
before the event start.

A dedicated crew came out yesterday morning to show community support for the northern half of Willow Glen. The goal was to create a pedestrian and bicycle connection from the growing residential community near Lincoln Ave. just north of Freeway 280 to the increasingly popular Willow Glen Business District (see map below).

I put this event together to get more residents to walk or bike to Willow Glen instead of taking the light rail to downtown Campbell. If residents don't feel that it is safe, clean, or health to walk the mile long route the won't be spending their money in the Glen.

This first event was modest but there will be others this summer. We will be asking volunteers from the cycling community to lend a hand in the future.  Thanks to all those that came out.

88 containers of trash and garbage
 were cleaned up in addition to
containers of oil, and mattresses

View Willow Glen - Lincoln Ave. From Blight to Bright in a larger map

From Blight to Bright - A Cycle Centered Community Cleanup morning in Willow Glen

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association to launch “from Blight to Bright”; a series of community led beautification projects

Community Cleanup to encourage local residents to walk to “The Avenue”

Photo:BikePortland.org

The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association is hosting the first in a series of community cleanup days this summer on June 9, at 9:30 am until 12:30 pm. This event seeks to highlight the importance of the growing residential communities to the north, along with the increased need for safe and clean areas to walk and bike. From Blight to Bright will include residents from the Elements Apartment Community along with participants in San Jose’s monthly Bike Party rides; helping to move tools and debris by bike.

“With budget cuts severely limiting city services, we felt the Willow Glen community should help out” said Richard Zappelli, Vice President of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association and tireless community advocate. “We have received tremendous support from our members, the Elements Apartment Community, and our District 6 City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio.

The bicycling community has also responded by offering some of their ‘work” bikes to help move food, tools, and debris. As many residents and visitors of Willow Glen are aware, “The Avenue” is clean and well landscaped due to the efforts of the Willow Glen Business Association and financial support from the Willow Glen Community Benefit Improvement District.

---

When: Saturday, June 9th, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Where: A 1,900 foot section of Lincoln Ave. from Coe Ave. north to Parkmoor Ave. (see map)
Meet at: The Elements, 1201 Parkmoor Avenue, San Jose, CA, for breakfast, tools and assignments. (see map)
Transit available: Light Rail line 902 at Race Street Station, VTA Bus 65 on Parkmoor. With a 12 minute walk from Stevens Creek Blvd. to the north, routes 81 and 23, and with a 24 minute
walk from Coe Ave. to the south via VTA route 64 (see map)
Tools: We will have some tools but feel free to bring your own brooms, hoes, and gloves. See registration via link below. Also if you have a bike trailer that would be great.
To register (to get a count for food and tools): Click here

Shopping bags and transit trips

What do shopping bags and transit trips have in common. Well from recent experiences here in the Capitol of the Silicon Valley; plenty.

As of January 1st of this year all retail stores (restaurants excluded) are banned from issuing plastic carryout bags. Stores and pharmacies can provide paper bags but must charge a minimum of 10 cents per bag. From my own experience and also asking others in the retail industry; what is amazing is that just by charging the 10 cent minimum, customers are demanding far less of the paper bags. Just a 10 cent addition to your purchase and demand plummets. On a $50.00 purchase that's 2/10 of one percent or .2% of the total purchase. Freakeconomists would call that freaky elasticity.

Coffee Cups and Transit Stops

Contrast to paper cup usage at your favorite coffee shop and the influence on demand is not that great. How many customers do you see with reusable cups; over half? One of the reasons is that the shops don't charge extra as in the paper bag model.  Coffee shops will only give you a discount if you bring in a cup, and in the Starbuck's case only on certain cups (try bring a Peet's mug into Starbucks and your bucking company policy).

So what does this have to do with transit trips? Look at the photo above that I took at Diridon Station yesterday morning at 8:44. The large transit bus on the left is VTA line 65 bus getting ready to head eastbound (see map) and the small crowd on the right is hiding the "Downtown DASH" shuttle bus that is also heading eastbound. Both lines share exactly the same route for the first mile towards the MLK Library.

Both buses left Diridon at just about the same time. The DASH shuttle left at 8:46 AM and the Route 64 bus eastbound left the station at 8:47 AM. My quick count of the DASH shuttle was about 25 passengers and only 3 on the "64". Actually halfway on the route the "64" passed the shuttle due to a stop to unload passengers at San Fernando and N. San Pedro Streets. So we can assume that the buses left at the same time.

So why does one bus attract over 8 times the passenger as the other? Well the bus on the left has a fare of $2.00 and the one on the right is Free. In comparison to the shopping bag model this is like striking big in the lotto, not free as compared with 10 cents but free compared with $2.00.  The fact that the DASH is free creates excess demand (even the the bus is crowded, it takes longer to board and unboard passengers, and is slower overall that the 64 bus). Free (or not extra costs) greatly influences purchasing habits. I can only assume that maybe the customers on the bus on the left were going beyond the free bus route.

Fareless Squares

Before light rail and streetcars were a part of Portland streets that city had what is known as the Fareless Square where bus rides within the downtown area were free. The first time I visited the city, buses, the MAX (light rail), and the streetcar line were all free in the downtown area and was named the "Fareless Square". Now with rail a big part of downtown the program is now known as the "Free Rail Zone".

What would a Fareless Square do for San Jose?

It would encourage more people to live work and play downtown. Residents would find it easier to shop. Tourists could play and spend money at a wider variety of venues before heading to museums, theaters, and sports venues. Downtown office workers could linger downtown after work to go shopping and dining.

• In the example I gave above, with more options commuters arriving to San Jose could get to their offices sooner with less crowding.
• Tourists who normally park a car next to their destination would now be encourage to explore the city.
• More people out walking and talking transit will enliven the often morbid street scene.
• With greater transit use, there less of a need to build and operate expensive parking garages.
• Safer and cleaner downtown streets with reduced congestion and traffic volumes..

But there are obviously costs involved. In Portland payroll taxes paid for the downtown lines under the assumption that as ridership went up among residents, tourists, and workers commercial activity would increase as well. Also there would need to be an efficient way to price based on zones.

So if we take a tip from the retail bag law (and freeway usage); if its free it will get used. Any comments?


VTA Route 64 vs VTA Downtown DASH Shuttle

View Farless Square Example in a larger map

Comments on VTA Chair Yeagers remarks - January 5, 2012

Silicon Valley's push to lead the Bay Area

On January 5, 2012 incoming Chair to the VTA Board of Directors Ken Yeager spoke about his goals for the new year (complete text of his remarks). His three main themes of his speech was:

1. The ambitious transportation goals the county has over the next decade.
2. The innovative response by VTA towards those goals (efficiencies, cost containment, etc),and
3. The lack of political effectiveness that the county has given its population and employment size.

Ambitious transportation goals over the next decade

The county of Santa Clara has an impressive list of transportation projects over the next ten years, involving rail, transit, freeways, roads, and expressways. As Mr. Yeager mentioned the 880-280-Stevens Creek Interchange, which is one of the most congested in the Bay Area, is due for a makeover beginning in September of this year. Work is currently in progress on the Tully Road 101 interchange. At last month's VTA Board meeting the new BART extension to the Silicon Valley was formally announced.

VTA is currently in the implementation stages on a Bus Rapid Transit system through the valley as well as a new upgraded Express Bus System beginning Monday, January 9, 2012.

VTA innovations, structural efficiencies, and cost containment strategies

As Chair Yeager mentioned in his opening remarks, VTA's political and administrative efficiencies are due to its consolidated structure. Transit operations and management, which includes VTA bus and light rail service, congestion management, as well as sales tax authority are all under one roof.

VTA is not only the "bus operator" but also the name given to the umbrella organization of these three components. The transit portion is an operational entity and actually does very little construction projects. (For more detail see VTA's own description of its structure)

The congestion management (CMA, or Congestion Management Agency) portion of VTA is the bulk of the VTA umbrella organization. It acts as the local funding arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), while also coordinating road, expressway, freeway, bicycle, and rail projects in the area. It also works with cities in local monitoring regional guidelines such as Greenhouse Gas Emissions goals, VMT reduction goals (Vehicle Miles Traveled), and Complete Streets Guidelines. Complete Streets guidelines help to ensure that new roadway improvements also take into account pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, the disabled, and the elderly.

Congestion management agencies were formed by California State legislation. These agencies are organized to receive, administer, and fund projects that are from funds outside the area such as Federal and State funds.

Local sales, fuel, and property taxes to fund transportation projects are generally referred to "Self Help" funds in that they are voted on by local residents with the intent to tax themselves. In California sales tax measures are administered by the state's Franchise Tax Board which collects the taxes and apportions these taxes back to the city, county, CMA, or transit authority. As part of the sales tax initiative "self help" taxes usually include a watchdog group or committee associated with the funds. In this instance the CAC, or Citizens Advisory Committee serves that function.

Santa Clara County's VTA is administered by the same board for all three functions under the VTA umbrella. The board whose makeup is determined by a formula to ensure adequate representation from the big city (San Jose), smaller cities, and county representation as well. As Yeager states "this is not necessarily true for all counties".

To contrast with Santa Clara County San Mateo County has different organizations with different leadership, meeting in different locations. The Transit Operator, SamTrans (9 members) meets once a month with its own board. The sales tax authority also known as the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (7 members) meets each month with a different board, and the Congestion Management Agency (City/County Association of Governments) meets in a different city with a completely different board. (23 members) representing all San Mateo cities as well as county government.

With a CMA of over 20 members from a geographically disperse (bayside and Pacific Oceanside cities) county such as San Mateo it becomes increasing difficult to manage from a political and administrative point of view. Added to this fact that Caltrain (Caltrain JPB or Joint Powers Board) also shares staff and office space with these county agencies and you can see how unwieldy it can be. Only one individual within all of San Mateo County sits on all three agency boards.

Cyclists Frustrations - Case in Point

One of the many frustrations shared by cyclists in San Mateo County is this fractured structure and its effect on getting adequate bicycle infrastructure built within the county. Funds coming from outside sources (from the MTC) are administered out of the county's CMA, or Cities and County Association of Governments(C/CAG), however the self-help or funds originated by local sales taxes are administered out of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. Neither organization has a bicycle coordinator that would help administer these bifurcated funds. The two agencies are even housed in different San Mateo County cities.

VTA has created a extemely useful resource called Bicycle Technical Guidline (BTG). The BTG manual is a set of optimum standards and best practices for roadway and bikeway design. VTA was able to write, adopt, and revise this excellent resource due to adequate staffing at the countywide level. It is highly unlikely that this would happen in San Mateo County given its current transportation management structure.

Alameda County Tries a Different Approach

In an effort to streamline their agencies and make them more effective, just last year Alameda county combined their sales tax authority and congestion management agency into one organization. What used to be the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency (ACCMA) and the Alamaeda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA) is now the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC).

Santa Clara County's push for greater regional representation

The Silicon Valley, which in the past was referred to as the Valley of Heart's Delight has found it hard to shake its rural and agricultural routes vis a vis its more urbane neighbors to the north (namely San Francisco). Commerce, banking, shipping, rail, and trade along with all of the other political, administrative, and organization functions traditional found a home in either San Francisco or Oakland.

Organizations such as the regents of the University of California, ABAG (Association of Bay Area Governments), BAAQMD (Bay Area Air Quality Management District), BART, MTC, are all located in either San Francisco or Oakland. Civic and urban policy groups such as the Commonwealth Club, and SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research) are also located in San Francisco along with major media outlets in print, radio & television (see map below).

Similar to the passionate scene in the first Godfather movie where the older brother "Fredo" tells his younger brother Michael Corleone that he should have been chosen to be the family Don, sometimes San Jose and the Silicon Valle feel the same way. With 25% of the Bay Area's population they feel that like Fredo Corleone in the "I'm Smart" scene from the movie Godfather II, they "were passed over" and its not what they "wanted".

Now as Chair Yeager states in his remark with over one-quarter of the regions population and jobs its time San Jose got the respect it deserves; not just sent out to take care of some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere.


Chair Yeager is maybe the first locally elected official to publicly state that we're "smart and want some respect". If you notice the map below I have placed markers showing the offices of regional transportation and planning agencies, media offices, and leading civic organizations. With a city of over 1 million residents downtown San Jose is not home to one of these organizations. Not even the local transportation planning and transit operator is located downtown (its actually 5.5 miles to the north). Same for any media organizations. This does a city of its size a disservice. With only one major corporate headquarters based downtown the area lacks the vitality that a downtown Oakland or San Francisco has to offer.

Conclusion

So although I applaud Supervisor Yeager's plea for more political representation, somehow I get the feeling that it will only mean more more of the same auto oriented and prioritized expansion. What this area does not need is more expressway expansion (along with an increase in speed and volume), more freeway interchange expansions, which severely impact struggling neighborhoods, and more auto oriented benefits to residents who choose to live at the south end of the valley and work in the north and on the peninsula. Let's hope that this year does bring greater representation but also great wisdom at how we look at our transportation options. Happy New Year.

San Francisco Bay Area Agencies, Organization, and Media Resources

View San Francisco Bay Area Agencies and Organizations in a larger map

Urban Triage - Imported to Detroit

Recently Detroit (in this case the auto industry and more specifically Chrysler) has been using gritty images of the city of Detroit to sell cars. Using visual, musical, and deep throated vocal images of a city determined to make a comeback by building you a better car, the reality is much different.

The very product that Detroit produces has been one of the reasons for its current harsh reality. The reality is that the "Motor City" ceased to grow a long time ago. Its population peaked in 1960 at 1,849,000 and today stands at only 914,000.  That decline has left the sprawling city with thousands of abandon homes. Whole neighborhoods exist with only one or two households on a street.

With a crumbling infrastructure that is increasing expensive to maintain the city has created the Detroit Works Project to perform one of America's first cases of urban triage. The city will now make the crucial decision about which neighborhood will stay and which will be reverted to brownfield status.

In the last two years the city under the direction of Detroit Works has demolished 2,000 structures with an additional 6,000 planned demolitions in the next two years. As Rainy Hamilton of Hamilton Anderson Associates states in the PBS Newshour news segment, "it's a density issue". The city can no longer maintain roads, streetlights, and sewers where there isn't a sufficient tax base. Neighborhoods will be triaged into categories of "steady, transitional, or distressed in an attempt to order and prioritize scarce city resources. Many of the city's neighborhoods will be ceded and the city's perimeter brought in to a more manageable level.

The question is, is Detroit the only city, or just the first in what we will see to selectively prune inefficient and expensive infrastructure and development. in an effort to focus on the core.

The question remains; what parts of your city do you prune first? Cue commercial.

"With Detroit on Brink of Financial Disaster, State Steps In" - PBS Newshour

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