In response to community pressure to prioritize transit beyond BART,  Mayor Liccardo issued a memo proposing full $1.65 billion in un-accounted for funds to serve transit-dependent residents, and $0 – nothing at all – to fund needed capacity enhancements for Caltrain.

Mayor Liccardo has in the passed supported urbanism, growth in denser areas, and mode shift to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  This proposal will fail to achieve these goals. Let the Mayor know your thoughts here:

Without Caltrain capacity increases, and a transit ridership growth goal San Jose won’t meet the needs of the more than 100 tech companies downtown, the growth goals for the Downtown and DIridon areas, and the city as a whole, and will fail to achieve the city’s environmental goals.

Spending robust amounts on frequent, speedy, reliable bus service is important and needed.  But Liccardo is proposing to continue a strategy where rail services (BART and Caltrain) are perceived as being for the well-off, while bus services are seen as serving primarily people who are too poor to afford a car, or who are unable to drive (elderly, youth, disabled).

This strategy to appeal only to transit-dependent users would fail to achieve San Jose’s job and housing growth goals and environmental goals, and would fail to achieve VTA’s ridership goals. San Jose’s growth goals are based on increasing density in downtown and urban village areas.  To avoid causing gridlock, it’s important to have more transit of all sorts – not just BART, and not just rail.   People who are moving downtown because they value living in a walkable place and a car-free life need transit of all sorts.

The strategy would fail to achieve San Jose’s environmental goals. San Jose won’t be able to shift from 80% to 40% driving if the *only* people who use bus services are transit-dependent.  Achieving the environmental goals requires *more* people using transit. It’s important to provide better services for people using transit today, and to expand ridership.

One of the reasons that our transit system in the Bay Area is crummy is that we think about rail and bus services as separate systems. In parts of the world with good transit, there are backbone rail and rapid bus routes, with connecting feeder routes, and a price structure that allows people across the economic spectrum to get around without a car.

Send a note to the Mayor, or if you can, come on Tuesday at 2:30 to speak up for Caltrain and a great transit system.