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Uploaded: Friday, October 19, 2012, 1:36 PM
Council finally sees Shoreline traffic fix ideas
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by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff
Photos
 
| Dedicated shuttle lanes, futuristic people-movers, park-and-ride garages and new bikeways are among the transportation options being studied for Google's neighborhood as the city faces a wave of office projects there.
In a study session Tuesday, Oct. 16, Council members heard a presentation from city consultant James Lightbody, who is trying to figure how the city might accommodate as many as 48,000 employees in a North Bayshore developed to the limits of the 2030 General Plan. It is an area north of Highway 101 where 17,000 jobs now exist and roads are near full capacity.
The measures will have to be unusual, as North Bayshore companies estimate that 39 percent of their employees already use alternative modes of transportation to get to work. At full build-out, and at current rates of car use, road use could jump 300 percent. And North Bayshore's roads can only be modified to accommodate 25 percent more traffic, Lightbody said.
"2030 is too late, solutions need to be in place immediately," said council member Ronit Bryant. "Everyone needs to be working equally hard and it can be done."
Lightbody has been working with Google, Intuit, LinkedIn and other North Bayshore companies in coming up with a menu of transportation improvement for North Bayshore, some of which may be adopted by the City Council early next year.
"The sense I get is businesses really want to solve transportation and solve it in a really creative way," said Marianna Grossman, director of Sustainable Silicon Valley, which has organized private meetings for North Bayshore companies to discuss options for transportation improvements.
Options include dedicated Highway 101 ramps for high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) that connect to dedicated HOV lanes in North Bayshore, guaranteeing that employee shuttles wouldn't get stuck in traffic. Lightbody estimates they would cost $150 million to $500 million, possibly paid for with regional and federal transportation funds.
Employee shuttles and other transit already appears to be in wide use by North Bayshore employees who live more than 30 miles away. Google estimates that its shuttles are used by over 80 percent of the 2,700 Googlers who live in San Francisco and work in Mountain View. Overall, about 25 percent of North Bayshore employees use transit. Lightbody says that number will have to nearly double to 48 percent.
There's a "parking intercept" concept, which places parking garages on the outskirts of North Bayshore in order to reduce traffic inside the area, an idea that had mixed reactions. Then there's the possibility of a Transportation Demand Agency, which could provide incentives to those who chose not to drive, and charge parking fees to those who do.
Various transit systems are being studied, including light rail and futuristic automated pod cars that carry groups, known as "group rapid transit" or GRT. Lightbody said Google is also depending on its growing fleet of self-driving cars to help at some point, as the robotic cars can park themselves away from congested lots and be shared easily by people in different locations.
And of course, there's bicycling, which Google and others want to continue to promote, Lightbody said. While many Googlers famously use bikes to get from one building to another, Lightbody estimates that only 7 percent of North Bayshore employees commute to work by bike. He proposes an increase to 13 percent.
Surprisingly, the largest share of car commuters by far is among North Bayshore employees who live in Mountain View and surrounding cities. Over 40 percent of North Bayshore employees live within 10 miles, and the large majority of them drive to work.
Resident Cliff Chambers encouraged the council to do some "market research" about those nearby commuters to find out what is really going to shift their commuting habits. "Perhaps though focus groups, surveys," he said.
Bicyclists Janet laFleur , who commutes through the area, said the city should be be "very aggressive" in building new bike infrastructure in order to encourage people "who are aren't comfortable riding to go out and do it."
Resident Greg Coladonato called for a dedicated bike bridge over Highway 101 along Shoreline Boulevard, one of two roads into North Bayshore.
"I'm not a timid or a novice bicyclist," Coladonato said. "But it is scary trying to change lanes in rush hour with cars on both sides of you. The bike lane on Shoreline disappears for a while and then reappears and you have to somehow get over there without getting killed."
Bryant and council member Margaret Abe-Koga expressed interest in a Shoreline Boulevard bike bridge. "I would look at something like that," Abe-Koga said. "I think it can be done quickly and that's the kind of solution I'm looking for," Bryant said.
LaFleur is not a fan of the intercept parking idea. "It really disturbs me. It keeps all traffic within Mountain View. I don't think it will help me get to my work" by bike, she said.
"Intercept parking is not a solution, it just shifts the problems to somewhere else," Bryant said. "In Portland, when the university wanted to grow, they had to do really exciting things to grow. We are the best, we need to find the best solutions."
Abe-Koga disagreed. "Intercept parking, I think it could work," she said. "Location is critical. We have this vector control site off Moffett Boulevard" at Highway 101. "We have been looking at using it for some kind of revenue stream. Maybe that is the site we use. We could charge for parking to get revenue."
Council members called for solutions that would benefit local residents as well as North Bayshore companies.
"North Bayshore is the city's North Bayshore, not just the company's North Bayshore," said Mayor Mike Kasperzak. "We do need to take into account recreational uses."Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by John, a resident of the Castro City neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 2:10 pm This is a non-issue. Let's move on to bigger and better things like high rise apartments
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Posted by resident, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 2:11 pm If most of the employees live locally (Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Sunnyvale), then those tremendously expensive highway projects will be a waste of money. The city needs to look at ways to move people around the city more efficiently. Bike lanes and shuttle busses can be implemented quickly and cheaply.
How about extending the Stevens Creek Trail into Cupertino and extending the Permanente Creek Trail into Los Altos? These projects can be completed for a tiny fraction of that $500 million proposed freeway ramp, and in a tiny fraction of the time.
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Posted by Sparty, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 2:44 pm I heard those things are awfully loud
They ride as softly as a cloud
Is there a chance the track may bend??
Not on your life, my Hindu friend
What about us brain dead slobs?
You'll be given cushy jobs
Where you sent here by the devil?
No good man I'm on the level
The ring broke off my pudding can
Take my pen knife my good man
I say its Spiringfeild's only choice
Throw up your hands and raise your voice
MONORAIL!! MONORAIL!! MONORAIL!
But Mainstreet's still all cracked and broken!
Sorry, mom, the mob has spoken!
MONORAIL! MONORAIL! MONORAIL!
Mono- DOH
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Posted by Al, a resident of the Martens-Carmelita neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 2:50 pm How will self-driving cars solve traffic problems? If they drop off the worker at Google and then drive somewhere else to park, there will be even more vehicle-miles driven and traffic will get worse, not better. It may solve a parking problem but not a traffic problem.
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Posted by Bettina, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 3:05 pm VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION: If you ever visit almost any University Campus in CA, you will see most of the students use public transit or bike and walk. WHY? Because it cost a lot for a student to park a car. These companies should be rewarding their employees not use their cars or charge them for the privilege.
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Posted by Cyndi, a resident of the The Crossings neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 8:36 pm I think you will find with some people who live locally, driving is unfortunately the only option because they have other obligations to fulfill in combination with getting to and from work, for example, dropping or picking up their kids from daycare/school. We live in Mountain View, and could easily get to work by bike or walking in North Bayshore, only 2.5 miles away, but our kids go to public school 3.5 miles in a the opposite direction so we have to drive them there in the morning before going to work, and pick them up as well. My husband walks or bikes when he can, but it's just not an option on most days if you want to use your time efficiently.
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Posted by Janet Lafleur, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 9:53 pm @Cyndi Driving may be the best option for some people. The idea is that we should make it easier for people to choose other options so not everyone is alone in a car on the road. The way things are now, very few people are comfortable doing anything other than driving alone.
That's a shame because for many people, biking and walking can save time because they don't need to drive to the gym after work to get some exercise. It takes me 50 minutes to get to work on Caltrain + a bike ride, which takes longer than the 20 minutes it would take if I drove to work. But I get 25 minutes of exercise and 15 minutes of work on the train so it makes sense for me. I want other people to have that option.
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Posted by Cyndi, a resident of the The Crossings neighborhood, on Oct 19, 2012 at 10:23 pm @Janet. I completely agree with you and was not missing that point. I am very pro walking and biking. I am simply pointing out that some people may WANT to bike and walk, but can't because of other circumstances (for example, the fact that we don't have school buses in this area).
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Posted by former MV resident, a resident of another community, on Oct 19, 2012 at 11:39 pm "Options include dedicated Highway 101 ramps for high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) that connect to dedicated HOV lanes in North Bayshore, guaranteeing that employee shuttles wouldn't get stuck in traffic. Lightbody estimates they would cost $150 million to $500 million, possibly paid for with regional and federal transportation funds."
Does that last line bother anyone else??: "... possibly paid for with regional and federal transportation funds." WHY isn't GOOGLE and these other companies paying for this??????????? I'm sure they've got WAY MORE $$ in their coffers than the City of MV!!!!! Sheesh!
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Posted by Garrett, a resident of another community, on Oct 20, 2012 at 8:27 am Options, not everyone wants to walk, bike, drive or even take public transit for one reason or another. eople are willing, they might just do, or traffic will get so bad the options are there. We just have to find the efficent options. Kids going to school, restore funding for school buses. In the 20's Mtn View had a shipping port with ferry service. Super Bowl in 2016 or 2017, Niner games or A's games. Maybe? Options, other then spending 500 million dollars on highway improvements that will take so.many years.
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Posted by Steven Nelson, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Oct 20, 2012 at 9:41 am I guess I'm far from the maddening crowds. Many of these options are forward thinking relative to what we have now. (I agree with Garrett and others about $ and old thinking on freeway lanes) In particular - dedicated bike bridges and bike commute throughways. These would tie into the rest of the city and provide exercise, energy efficiency, low cost (1/10 of car solutions), and much less impact on the environment. THERE ARE SCADS of bike commuters out there compared to when I was bike commuting from the middle of town to Palo Alto in the late 1980's.
Bettina (ML) YES. If every employee within a 10 mile radius [or service area} was given a free transit shuttle pass there would be money to negotiate this with the VTA. In Santa Cruz this is the method to get to UCSC (for most off-campus students and many staff).
A "Traffic Mitigation District" (or New Transit Alternatives District), funded entirely by the property owners and companies at Shoreline will prevent the CONTINUED diversion of school tax money by this thriving business district. Shoreline is not poor - after 50 years it needs to start paying its own way and not divert the standard 1% property tax just for it's own use. Using education operational funds for business district 'traffic mitigation' is
very unwise.(and IMO borderline ethics. The traffic consultants are entirely funded by diverted education/county property taxes)
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Posted by Janet Lafleur, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Oct 20, 2012 at 9:49 am @Cyndi Whenever we talk about improving walking, biking and transit, people always say "not everyone can do that" which sounds like an argument for not making the improvements. Of course these modes won't work for everyone. In fact, driving doesn't work for everyone--the old, the young, the poor, the disabled--and yet our non-driving options are unpleasant and/or inefficient. If you couldn't drive, what would you do?
We need to give people options beyond driving alone, especially for short distances. Right now, the non-driving options are very limited. The fact that the vast majority of people choose to drive shows that.
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Posted by agree with Janet, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Oct 20, 2012 at 10:26 am I agree with Janet Lafleur. When the city builds a bike path, they don't expect everyone in the city to use the bike path. However, if just a few percent of residents use the bike path instead of driving, then there will be a significant reduction in congestion that benefits everyone.
Now that the city has identified where the demand is (crossing over Hwy 101 from different parts of the city), they need to work to address it. $500 million freeway projects are too expensive and too slow to be the answer.
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Posted by Matt L, a resident of another community, on Oct 20, 2012 at 12:54 pm I'm a former Googler and a downtown Palo Alto resident. I'm thankful that I didn't have to drive in to campus by Shoreline regularly.
Google has recently started running more local shuttles - for example, they're running one that terminates at Palo Alto (University) Caltrain. It's not a perfect alternative versus driving, but it's a start.
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Posted by Marti, a resident of the Martens-Carmelita neighborhood, on Oct 20, 2012 at 1:26 pm Hey, maybe the "Monorail" idea is worth looking into... It works other places, why not Mountain View?
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Posted by Cyndi, a resident of the The Crossings neighborhood, on Oct 21, 2012 at 9:27 am Janet, you continue to miss my point. I am not arguing against funding at all! Yeesh. I was merely pointing out that people who are making the transit decisions need to take into account the whole picture of people's lives, not just the Point A to Point B commute.
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Posted by Donald, a resident of another community, on Oct 21, 2012 at 9:32 pm Cyndi, about your kids getting to school you said "we have to drive them there". I don't believe that, I believe that you choose to drive them there. I understand the constraints on people's lives, but they also need to understand how their choices affect the health and safety of other people. When you choose to drive for your convenience it degrades the air quality, increases congestion and decreases safety for others.
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Posted by Otto Maddox, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Oct 22, 2012 at 11:09 am Oh please.. you all are ignoring the obvious solution here.
DO NOTHING.
That's right.. do nothing. Once the traffic gets bad enough people will find alternatives on their own.
Mitigating that traffic just means that takes longer to happen.
I for one do not want to pay one penny towards this. Let the companies that do business out there figure it out with their special tax zone.
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Posted by Andrew, a resident of the Sylvan Park neighborhood, on Oct 22, 2012 at 1:22 pm Donald, you can believe whatever you want, but your beliefs are not absolute truth. If you are not aware, for the last 3 weeks 3 students of Graham school were hit by cars on their way to school. And without school buses any normal parent will think twice before letting their child to bike to school.
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Posted by Garrett, a resident of another community, on Oct 22, 2012 at 2:59 pm How running ferry service into Mtn View via the old Southport Terminal at north end of Moffett Field.
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Posted by Garrett, a resident of another community, on Oct 22, 2012 at 4:07 pm So sorry I meant to say how about. Anyway we can run buses, shuttles or build a rail line. From MV station to Ferry Terminal, build for a fraction of freeway, road, ramps improvements
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Posted by Bill Mark, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Oct 22, 2012 at 9:46 pm How about just charging a $1.00 toll for every car entering the north shoreline area? (A "congestion charge", like that used in London). All cars would need to have fasttrak.
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Posted by JW, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Oct 23, 2012 at 11:28 am Stanford issues free Caltrain passes and VTA passes to their employees to encourage them not to drive. It costs Stanford, but it's worth it because they have to cap the number of cars in and out daily. Google could easily cough this up. At Stanford there are also huge perks for giving up your parking pass. That being said- requiring parking permits to park at these businesses might be the first step.
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Posted by Garrett, a resident of another community, on Oct 23, 2012 at 12:24 pm I use to live in England, traveled to London quite a bit, this was before they started charging to enter the city zone. M-25 which circles London, I lived beyond and to the south. Getting to London was easy, bus, train or drive into London, pay big money to park. What I did was either the train or drove just past the M-25, parked and took the tube, rail or bus. Now London is far different then Mountain View, the bay area doesn't have a center area where everyone or most people work. London is run by the Greater London Council which overseas the planning, transit and everything that is London.
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Posted by tommygee54, a resident of the Rex Manor neighborhood, on Oct 23, 2012 at 3:56 pm Hey I agree with Garrett in Mtn. View running a Ferry Service. AND that same Ferry Service can run up and down the Peninsula. If Seattle can run a Ferry Service, so can we here in Mtn. View. I have been suggesting this idea to the city council for years...
Also concerning the Poem by Sparty, the 7th line reads "Where you sent here by the devil?" That is grammatically incorrect. The first word in this sentence should be spelled as "WERE...". WHERE is used to describe that a person is going somewhere or has been somewhere, as in "WHERE have you been?" Conversly you would not say; "WERE have you been..." Hopefully I have helped many with this correction...
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Posted by Mountain View Mom, a resident of the Shoreline West neighborhood, on Oct 25, 2012 at 2:50 pm With all of the comments here, I think there is one small group that is being forgotten. And it is small, so it may not be of great importance to all the people headed to work at all the tech companies in that neighborhood, but we are still significant! I am talking about the ONLY residential community on that side of the freeway; the residents of Santiago Villa. Granted, they aren't located in the heart of Google-land, but I live there and I work in Palo Alto. My direct route (when I don't have school carpool) is Shoreline, Charleston and E. Bayshore Rd. On one hand I feel so blessed that I am not stuck in 101 San Jose to San Francisco traffic, but I also have a kid in school on the other side of town, so biking to work is not an option for me. I am so tired of inconsiderate drivers that are in a such a hurry that they tailgate me all the way because they would rather do 50 in a 35 down Bayshore than 30 in a 65 on 101. And do I have to remind them that this is also currently a 'work zone'? If they think they can bully me into speeding, they can think again, because not only don't I want the ticket, I don't want the fine that is doubled in a work zone.
I am also tired of the people that aren't willing to wait, like the rest of us on Charleston as we head towards the light at Rengstorff. They speed through the center turn lane and cut in front of everyone INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC.
And most aggrivating of all, is concert nights at Shoreline! If I have to go to MVHS or, God forbid, I have to make a quick stop at Safeway on my way home I end up sitting in Shoreline traffic for 40 minutes just to go a mile and a half!
Of course, the argument is, I chose to live there. Yes I did, but I think that (1) the police really need to crack down on the free-for-all drivers through Google-land. That right there might aid in weeding out those that only use it as a short cut off the freeway, and (2) this one way in, one way out is a load of bull and the city needs to figure out how to add more arteries leading in to the heart of their silicon treasure!
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