Caltrain in the Transportation Hierarchy
We are uniquely positioned on the Peninsula to have Caltrain, the best run railroad in the country; and when you count bicycle access, the best railroad in the world. After walking, wheels (bikes, skateboards, and wheelchairs, in-line skates, and scooters), buses and shuttles, Caltrain is the element of the transportation hierarchy, that can link us over distances greater than seven miles, and into the population centers of San Francisco, San Jose, and beyond.
Samtrans subsidizes $35 per Caltrain rider and $7 per bus rider. The public sustains the large loss because transit is seen as a means of reducing congestion and pollution. However since the Clean Air Act in 1973, congestion has stayed about the same despite the huge public investment to build more roads and make it easier to drive. Congestion relief is exclusive to auto- there is no equivalent policy or standard of Level Of Service for bicycles or walking. Congestion relief has come at the expense of modal declines everywhere else in the last thirty years with walking and bicycling seeing the largest declines and transit use seeing the next biggest declines. Schools in Belmont thirty years ago had large bike racks and school buses. Today there are no school buses, 3/4 of the kids get driven to school, there are no bike racks and the parking lot has become so dangerous for the children that some of the schools have started Traffic Safety Committees.
Meanwhile ABAG and San Mateo County report that more than 50% of Green House Gases come from the private automobile, the largest reason being the huge increase in Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) we've seen over the last 30 years.
Fortuitously in the last six months rising gas prices have managed to turn modal shares around. Despite meeting many public policy goals like reduced pollution, improved balance of trade, higher transit usage, more walking trips, and significantly reduced crash fatalities, the legislature will not add higher gas taxes of the public policy toolkit. Improved data for health concern like asthma and heart diseases have tightened pollution measuring and the Bay Area is out of compliance with air quality standards in 2008. Instead of addressing air pollution the legislature passed a law outlawing the construction of schools within 500' of a major road because the damage to kids lungs was permanent. Belmont schools like Central Elementary and Nesbit Elementary however are within this zone, grandfathered into pollution, since they were built before the law.
At the Transit Camp in 2007 issues like transit connection, arrival information, and reduced transit commute times were raised as important issues if we want to increase transit usage without resorting to a gas tax. Transit problems with connectivity and access have been known for a while- its why Caltrain added bicycles service. Caltrain is also looking at other solutions like shared bike and shared car programs. Caltrain is also working on arrival information with the Next Bus locator. But how do we get to reduced transit times? Many European, Asian, and Latin American cities have implemented Rapid Bus Service to reduce transit times. Double tracking and bus bike only lanes like Geary Street in San Francisco are other options.
Presently crossing traffic along the main transit corridors, Caltrain and El Camino Real, make it difficult to impossible to get Bus Rapid Transit. City and County Association of Governments only agreed to the Grand Boulevard Initiative on El Camino Real if auto througput remained at present levels. This forestalls Bus/Bicycle Only Lanes and creates a barrier for other modal groups on the most essential arterial in the county. To prevent congestion cities also zone out services reducing the ability to walk. For example Belmont doesn't allow doctors near El Camino Real to prevent traffic on Ralston. Given the different insurance plans that doctors fall into people who live near El Camino Real and Ralston are forced to own a car or plan an entire day around going to the doctor on transit.
Traffic in turn slows down bus service, congesting not just auto traffic, but other modes, too. For example the four lane El Camino Real in Belmont opens up into a six and seven lane El Camino Real in San Mateo. However the narrower shoulder lane is not wide enough to share between a parked car, a bicycle, and a bus and in places is not wide enough for a bus and parked vehicle.
Implementing grade separation is extremely expensive. And recent events show that money is another scarce resource like clean water, clean air, salmon, etc. We have to be slower (meaning using less fossil fuels) and smarter (meaning re-use the infrastructure we have) to enable us to reduce Green House Gases and improve mobility options for zero CO2 modes.
Reworking the landuses can ensure that transit times improve relative to auto times. If Caltrain controlled the landuses within a 1/8 mile (studies say this is the distance an average American will walk) radius of the station it could ensure grade separation with K-bars, Transit Oriented Development with unbundled parking, services along the corridor to benefit the captive customers, and housing that reflects demographic trends instead of the present requirement of two or three cars garages per residence (the condo development on the corner of South and Ralston, three blocks from the train and bus center at Ralston and El Camino Real, was required to have three cars per unit). Redoing the corridor within a 1/8 mile radius would also ensure income to Caltrain from lease revenue and mixed use development (included services) that reduce auto trips on the corridor. Caltrain in turn can do significantly more to meet region pollution goals by allowing captive clients to have full service access with a walking perimeter.
Giving landuse control to transit agencies can follow the example of Universities. Universities in CA control the landuse decisions around the campus and can appropriate property, like San Carlos Ave (San Jose State) and El Camino Real (Santa Clara University) from the city and state, in both cases to make the walking experience safer for students on campus. Transit agencies should control the landuses within a 1/4 mile diameter of the station front for slow systems like Caltrain and BART and two miles for HSR.
Without these landuse controls other modes have a hard time competing and getting access with cars. And why walking, which is our signature form of transportation on this planet, ends up being called alternate transportation.
Instead of bonding to raise matching funds for federal dollars we should:
- Turn landuse control in the designated area over to the Transit Agency so that the agency has a sustainable revenue stream.
- If necessary, bond or tax for a complete system and eliminate gasoline as a funding source since it doesn't fund anything that's controlled locally. The gas tax is returned to the states by the Federal Government and comes with its own set of restrictions including maintaining low congestion levels to increase driving rates obviously at the expense of other modes that are necessary for the transit agency.
Connecting the Bay Area and around the state via Caltrain.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/38059
Caltrain connection plan takes off, By Mike Rosenberg
Published Monday, April 14, 2008, by the Peninsula ExaminerSan Mateo County -- A $45 billion plan to connect virtually every part of the Bay Area by train has officially left the station, and the first stop on its four-decade journey is to determine who's on board.
Caltrain has launched a $200,000 project to assemble a team of the largest passenger rail systems in the Bay Area to acquire countless miles of tracks from private freight lines. The agency's ultimate goal is to use the private lines to stretch out each of the rail systems, including BART and Caltrain, to connect each passenger line and create a seamless route not only across the Bay, but to Sacramento, the Central Valley and even as far south as San Diego.The team formation is the first step in the regional rail plan passed by the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission late last year. The project, transit officials said, will help offset surges in road congestion, environmental impact and oil consumption associated with the 40 percent Bay Area population growth of an extra 10 million people when it is expected to be completed by 2050. A second Transbay Tube beneath the Bay has been proposed in the plan.
"Ultimately, this is going to help whether you ride a train or you drive," said MTC spokesman John Goodwin.
Caltrain will serve as the negotiating team captain and will recruit other passenger agencies during the next nine months. Assembling a team of passenger systems to negotiate with freight railroads -- which own most of the Bay Area's remaining right of way -- will be more efficient than if each individual passenger system attempted to purchase track on its own, Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said.
Caltrain has two significant ventures associated with the plan: electrifying its trains by 2014 and building a track across the Dumbarton Bridge area by 2012. The electrification plan would allow trains to start and stop quicker while saving the agency significant funds. The Dumbarton project would send Caltrains to Union City where the system could connect with BART, ACE and Capital Corridor trains.
BART's largest planned extension is to San Jose through the East Bay. The line would extend to the San Jose Diridon station, where it would connect with Caltrain and possibly the proposed California high-speed rail train that would run between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and later between Sacramento and San Diego.
"It's about beefing up the existing systems," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson.
The plan will arrive at its next stop at the end of the year after Caltrain and its team of passenger rail lines finishes a strategy to negotiate with the private railroads.Driven to Despair (PBS)
With gas prices spiking and home values crumbling, the American working class dream of a cheap commute to work from ever-appreciating houses on the fringes of suburbia has become more like an American nightmare.
For the full report, see:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/driven-to-despair/watch-full-report/103/
http://www.bayrailalliance.org
http://www.bayrailalliance.org/caltrain_electrification
http://www.bayrailalliance.org/caltrain_metro_east
C.A.T.S.M'eo recognizes Bay Rail Alliance as a key partner in securing a sustainable Caltrain presence on the Peninsula.
- Landuse control for Caltrain within a 1/4 mile of the station area.
- Electrification of Caltrain
- Caltrain Metro East.
- Connect the Bay Area by train and around the state via Caltrain.
- No bumps for bikes on board.
- Never be late with arrival info on your cell phone and at the stops. http://www.nextbus.com/predictor/newUserWelcome.shtml
- Bike sharing, bike parking, and Zimride to help complete the last mile.