Hearings begin on Thursday in Mountain View to discuss a controversial plan by Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority to create dedicated bus lanes throughout parts of Silicon Valley, despite fears that the "bus only" lanes will actually increase traffic on residential streets.
The "Bus Rapid Transit" proposal, reported by the Mountain View Voice, would create the lanes on El Camino Real between Palo Alto and San Jose. VTA's goal is to improve bus service on the 17-mile corridor between downtown Palo Alto and San Jose and get more people to switch from cars to buses.
The current plan would cost about $233 million to implement and require an annual operating cost of $12.9 million. The mixed-flow alternative in the entire corridor would cost $91 million to build and would come with an annual operating cost of $21.6 million, the Voice reported.
The county is estimating that having dedicated lanes would reduce the time it takes buses to travel from Palo Alto to San Jose from the current level of 85.2 minutes to 48 minutes. The time it takes to travel the 17-mile corridor by car is expected to go up from 40 minutes to 43.7 minutes.
There is plenty of criticism, however. On the article page of the Mountain View voice, several people chimed in to say the bus lanes, would just steer more traffic onto local streets.
One online commenter with the screen name of "PROTEST" wrote: "How GREAT would it be to have an organized protest of this plan, with people blocking the right lane of (El Camino Real) in key spots from SJ to Palo Alto. That would be an epic visual and a very strong message. The ensuing temporary traffic snarl would also show everyone what daily life would be like with a closed lane(s)on (El Camino Real).
Two meetings on the topic are set for Thursday in the Mountain View City Council Chambers, 500 Castro Street. The first is from 8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. and the second is from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
