4/3/01 Status Report Cities21.org Page Mill Corridor

Cities21 received media coverage in early 2001 from KTVU, Bay TV, Chronicle, PA Weekly, PA Daily, and Stanford Daily. We have followed up and continue to follow up via many small meetings with various folks at Stanford, Palo Alto, SVMG, HP, Roche, EPRI, MTC, VTA, neighborhood groups, Sierra Club, Bay Area Transportation & Land Use Coalition, Bicycle Solutions, Citizens for Personal Rapid Transit, Technology and Society Committee (TASC), State Assembly staff, Santa Clara County Supervisors staff, and transportation consultants (Lea+Elliott, Jakes Associates), transit technology companies (Taxi2000, ULtra, Knolle Magnetrans), GIS professors at SJSU, and planning/architectural firms (Mogavero Notestine). We are very thankful to all the folks who have taken the time to meet with us, share advice, and offer encouragement. These contributions have greatly strengthened our evolving PowerPoint presentation. As part of the effort to strengthen the proposal, we are attempting to fund two small research studies to forecast advanced feeder mesh transit and plan transit villages in the corridor.

Here's what Joe Kott, City of Palo Alto Transportation Chief, says about Cities21: "Who said that innovation is easy? Nevertheless Palo Alto is known worldwide for giving new ideas a thoughtful hearing. We will need a lot of what you might call "civic courage", though, to help us out of our worsening car congestion problems (and with them other public "bads": air pollution, degradation of residential quality of life, marginalization of healthy modes of transport such as walking and cycling, rising consumption of nonrenewable energy, etc.). Thanks for your courage in pursuing this vision!"

THE PARADIGM IS BROKEN

There are a number of terrific Smart Growth efforts underway in the Bay Area: BART transit villages, Mountain View Light Rail transit centered development, state Senate Bill SB 910 (fines cities for not producing enough housing to support jobs), etc. Unfortunately, these efforts are dwarfed by the projected population growth in the 9 county Bay Area of 1.1MM residents over the next 20 years (Santa Clara County is projected to add 260,000 new jobs). Foreseeable Smart Growth efforts can absorb only about 10% of this growth. The rest of the growth will perpetuate sprawl. Bumper to bumper traffic congestion delays will increase exponentially. The Cities21 proposal may be a bit hard to stomach at first glance, but the consequences of sticking with the current Smarter Growth paradigm are dire.

MAINSTREAMING

The Corridor proposal can currently be classified as a "fascinating proposal" advanced by a non-profit. We hope to transform it into a "mainstream study," owned by the triad of Stanford, Palo Alto, and Page Mill companies. We would like the triad to take our proposed studies over NOW, but are not expecting this yet. Cities21's ultimate goal is to fade into the background. We are advocating a half day Corridor Symposium for influencers this summer.

ADVANCED FEEDER ASSISTS OTHER COMMUTE MODES

Advanced feeder transit makes all other forms of transit serving the Corridor more efficient. Once a single drop anywhere in the Corridor is made, then all commuters may easily take feeder to any office in the Corridor. This increases coverage and eliminates the need for multiple bus stops within the corridor. VTA's express service (102, 101, 104); the planned El Camino (VTA 22,300) preferential busway; the Dumbarton Express (augmented/ superceded by Dumbarton Caltrain); VTA 88, 24 ; and SamTrans KX, PX, RX all become more efficient. Dramatically higher levels of carpooling and subscription express bus service are enabled. Caltrain electrified baby bullet with limited express trains stopping at the future University Avenue Station Intermodal Transit Center are boosted by the Phase II Stanford Campus feeder loop which connects to the Corridor feeder loop. Phase III advanced feeder connecting Dumbarton Caltrain and Moffet Light Rail with the Corridor via Oregon Expwy provides still further improvements.

SERVICE AREA: 40,000 PEOPLE

The January S.F. Chronicle article listed the Stanford Research Park employee population as 23,000. Cities21 defines the Page Mill Corridor as a larger service area, including all of VTA "Employment Center #2" from the VTA Fall '99 Commute Service Study, which has 32,000 employees. In addition, "adjacent employment areas" which include CA Ave retail, Agilent, Frye's, and the Gibson super block SouthWest of Beckman Coulter are included. The Stanford Research Park has significant square footage to be built out which will increase population still further. Advanced feeder will also serve adjacent residential areas. Some PA citizens have suggested placing a station as close as possible to Baron Park in the Varian parking lot. So the population the proposed feeder will serve is 40,000 people, not 23,000. We believe 8,000 out of 40,000 will ride the feeder.