Silicon Valley's Train To Nowhere? (Episode 1 - VTA Light Rail)
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
- San Jose, California is the capital of Silicon Valley, the world's most technologically advanced region (among the most expensive). Surely Silicon Valley's light rail transit system would be amongst the world's best ... right? Join me in my first official video as we delve into every single station and analyze their relationship with the communities around them, to see if they're really a transit-oriented development.
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Music by teodholina, QubeSounds, LesFM, FASSounds, Music_Unlimited from Pixabay.
Stock Photos/Videos from Pexels.
Sources:
(Minster and Clarke, 1985)
www.city-journal.org/san-jose...
web.archive.org/web/201503212...
www.vta.org/blog/affordable-h...
www.santaclaraca.gov/home/sho...
www.vta.org/sites/default/fil...
www.vta.org/projects/tamien-s...
www.siliconvalley.com/2022/03...
sanjosespotlight.com/silicon-...
www.vta.org/projects/eastridg...
www.census.gov/quickfacts/fac...
data.vta.org/pages/ridership-...
transitmap.net/vta-san-jose-2...
I love finding young channels with high quality transit content. As a San Jose resident there is a serious lack of east west rapid transit routes. I wish El Camino Real/Santa Clara St and Stevens Creek had true BRT at least. I don’t know how good BART II will be in fulfilling this role. You’ve earned a sub, keep it up.
Yeah I’m hoping BART’s extension would at least try to solve that issue! I guess we’ll have to wait 10 years to see
@@todgod I am not optimistic given what happened with the Millbrae BART extension: the costs were so high and ridership so low that BART nearly bankrupted SamTrans until they negotiated a "divorce". Given the astoundingly low ridership at Milpitas, I am betting on similar outcome for the San Jose extension.
@@fatviscount6562 I don't think so. The biggest problem with the current BART segment at Milpitas and a little beyond, is that the travel direction is really only northbound, and southbound/westbound on the light rail. Locally, Downtown San Jose is the busy direction, but the relatively slow "rapid" bus connection isn't going to cut it as a major transit solution for most passengers. Hell: Many people looking at regional transit options may not even know it exists.
What'll likely happen when the San Jose extension opens, is that stations like Milpitas see a notable increase in ridership from people using Milpitas to travel towards the stations in San Jose, as well as a small but noticable increase in ridership from stations up the line from passengers going down to San Jose.
Whether the San Jose extension will be as succesful as BART Hopes remains to be seen, but the underperformance issues of the extension to Milpitas and beyond are very specific to that extension and the travel directions available on mass transit there.
@@AutoGamerZ_
Also keep in mind that the Milpitas station opened during the pandemic, and Bart ridership as a whole has been dwindling. Who knows how it would have fared during “normal” circumstances.
Time will tell over the next few years if ridership will return and/or surpass previous numbers.
As long as NIMBYism blocks true high-density housing blocks, the not-so-rapid mass transit will lack the mass part due to lack of population density along ALL the stops. Rail only makes sense in packed corridors, sorry but we are lazy and won't walk more than 9 minutes for a station; or any destination for that matter..
good stuff! one thing that baffles me is how far away the airport station is from the actual SJC airport. In seattle, the light rail stop is directly connected to the seatac terminal.
also, Cahill park is an incredible spot. used to play ultimate frisbee there at bell
Oh yeah I didn’t even mention that the connection to the Airport from the light rail station is via a local bus 😐
@@todgod lmfao. At least Phoenix has an airport people mover connecting Sky Harbor Airport to the light rail station at 44th Street/Washington. The other way to use transit to go to the airport is taking the 13 bus (a local bus route) to terminal 3.
They wanted a people mover from the tram to SJC but it seems too much of a cost.
seatac has a connection to linkrail but the walk to there could be nicer and shorter.
I grew up in San Jose. Urban Planning major here. My house was about a 20 minute walk equally from either the Virginia or Tamien stations and a 15 minute walk from Race station. I used the light rail through all 4 years of high school and would get on at either Virginia or Tamien and get off at the Ohlone-Chynoweth station. The OC station, as we called it, is an extremely purposeful station as I believe the majority of its riders are high school students that go to Gunderson High, which is about a 10 minute walk underneath the freeway overpasses on the other side of OC station. That high school attracts students from farther parts of the city like Downtown, North SJ and even East SJ due to the light rail access it has. I’m now learning that the OC-Almaden line was abandoned. I’m sad but not surprised! The point of that line was to connect the OC station with the former Almaden station. The Almaden station didn’t have much going on around it other than some 3-story apartments and a parking lot next to a lake. Felt kinda rural tbh. Whenever I didn’t feel like walking the 20 minutes to Virginia or Tamien light rail stations to get to school, I would catch the 64 bus line that stopped in front of my house, take it to the Almaden station bus line terminus, transfer onto the light rail and get off at OC. It served its purpose but I can see why that line was abandoned. It was about a 5 minute ride from end to end. I spent a lot of time riding the VTA system and have been to every station throughout my teen years and your impressions are pretty spot on.
I have a plan to give that spur to the old express Yellow and loop it around at St. James.
For most people, getting to a light rail station is a pain. When I lived in San Jose, my workplace was located right next to the Component station. As someone who has never owned a car, I was hoping to have a pretty straightforward commute to work on VTA. However, every place I lived in San Jose required either a significant walk or weird bus journey to light rail. Many people I spoke to at the time who tried to use the light rail gave up because driving to the station took long enough it did not feel worth it.
This is what breaks my heart about the Component station (and most Orange Line stations). Putting the light rail in the middle of a big road, and then having riders walk over big parking lots, just seems to take a heavy toll on rider experience. I work close to Champion station, and as far as I know, I'm the only person at my work to take the light rail.
The nearest light rail station to my house is the station at work! Even if I somehow took the trolley, once I get there, the station is about a 10-15 minute walk over to my building. Fine at 9 in the morning in July, really tough when it's middle of January when it's 45 degrees and raining.
Hi Jarod, this is Emily. Such a coincidence to see your comment here. Hope you are doing well.
As a San Jose native, I can say this video is extremely well done and a very accurate explanation of the issues that it has.
I once took the light rail to that Somali restaurant when I was doing regular business trips to California -- it was so good! Glad it's still around.
I remember back in the late 1990s as a car-free transit enthusiast. I managed to convince my manager (in San Jose) to try taking the line to work at Netscape (by Middlefield station). He was eco-conscious and wanted to do the right thing.
He arrived at work and basically said, "Eli, I'm glad I tried it once. But I can't justify a 75 minute train trip when it takes me 15 or 20 minutes to get here by car."
Nice! I didn’t know that place was around for a while! Thanks for sharing :)
Fundamentally while the Valley is car-centric, it paradoxically has awful thoroughfare layout. I once worked on Middlefield about 1/2 mile from the VTA station. As the crow flies my office is a mile from CalTrain, yet there is no way of driving there in under 15 minutes.
Jubba! A personal favorite of mine
I definitely understand how you feel regarding the light rail being in the median, and that's why I like the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. The HBLR, which runs through Hudson County, NJ stretching from North Bergen to Bayonne with a total length of 17 miles and three routes (though one only runs on weekdays; Hoboken Terminal to Tonnelle Ave), uses a combination of old rail and new exclusive rights-of-way for most of its length, with some grade separation in certain areas. It shares a lane with cars on a portion of Essex Street in downtown Jersey City but for the most part, it doesn't operate with other traffic. It provides connections to the PATH (subway between NJ and NYC) at three stops, NY Waterway ferries, and NJT rail at Hoboken Terminal! It's legit
I'm a regular rider at the Downtown Campbell station (living nearby). This is the kind of station VTA needs a lot more of, with good density around it and accessibility. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new mixed use development near Bascom station will get more riders and encourage future business.
From looking at the construction I think the Bascom station is gonna be a huge development so I imagine there would be a good change in ridership
@@todgod Absolutely agreed. The Bascom Station project has been a long time coming and I'm glad to see it going along at such a massive scale. Sadly, it's a pity about some of those stations in North San Jose though. Really, density is the key here. For every active station like Campbell, Mountain View and Paseo de San Antonio, you have dead stations like Cisco Way and Bayshore. It's like what Alan Fisher said recently about Denver's stations: you need destinations that people will want to go to. Put this together with safer, more dedicated bike lanes, and you could have a good network. Thanks again for highlighting San Jose's system for us!
@@todgod I'm working on the analysis for the TOD station Bascom!
@@mdhookey I agree but the question still remains on whether or not it will fix the overcrowding
Good density is low density.
I used to commute to with Bart and transfer to the orange line. The orange line had decent ridership, mostly commuters working in tech. I’ve also taken it to 49er games at Levi’s and it was packed with fans. From my experience, a lot of people don’t tap before riding so ridership numbers might be lower on paper. To make the system better, we need better tsp, more frequency, and more transit-oriented-development.
Good video. I live a couple blocks from the Fruitdale VTA Station and used to ride it to Diradon Station, then transfer and take CalTrain into San Francisco. The problem with the light rail is that the entire Santa Clara Valley is really just one big suburb divided into many cities with single family homes dominating the landscape. In fact, San Jose's housing stock is 80-90% single family homes which was mandated when the city was built out in the 50's and 60's. Until more high density housing is built, the light rail will never be more than an anomaly. Silicon Valley is still extremely car dependent...
I’m glad you made this vid as it opens my eyes to real world examples in my backyard that I was unaware of that work really well when implemented with communities in mind! Please post more!
Absolutely Tony! Thanks :)
Hello young channel with a few hundred subs. This is the type of content that I like. Pls make more. Sincerely - someone who just subbed
Thanks Jonathan! I’m already starting to work on my next episode ;)
I live in south San José and the state of VTA here is depressing
20:35 To give you an idea how long ago 2002 was, RUclips, Facebook and Twitter didn't even exist yet when those trains were considered new.
Side note: This is an interesting video to watch as a lifelong resident of the Silicon Valley. I used take the VTA LRT all the time during the mid-late 2010s as a university student and I can tell you covered all the problems I've had with the system. The unfortunate part about Silicon Valley is that it's very car-dependent and where I live is no different.
And the trains will be there when they are long gone.
Great stuff! As someone form Cupertino that hung out a lot across all of San Jose, taking the VTA bus, it was really pleasant to watch someone critic the urban planning in the South Bay.
As another armchair urbanist, it’s great that you show the transit oriented development of higher density housing, but the challenge of these places is that if they do decide to build more densely it’s mostly with residential housing and not mixed use. It would be cool if you went to some of the more dense neighborhoods and see what you can find on Google Map, within a 15min walk radius of the station.
This will show us if there are actually things for people to do when someone comes out the station. And I believe to live near a station you need a car, because again it’s more residential development and not mixed us.
Again, great stuff, and would love to see more critical analysis based on the frequently asked questions around smart development!
Keeping all of this in mind and I’m taking notes, thanks!
Time for us to flex about the Pyongyang tram network: During the Japanese era, Pyongyang was one of three cities on the Korean Peninsula with a tram system, the other two being Seoul and Busan. However, the system in Pyongyang was destroyed thanks to US/UN bombing attacks. The remaining two in Seoul and Busan survived the war but were eventually discontinued too when motorcars became more common in 1968. And so it was decided to rebuild the Pyongyang tram system completely. The first line opened in 1989, and the system currently has four lines. The fourth line to open is actually a shuttle between Samhung station on the Metro and Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
This was created because there used to be a Metro station (Kwangmyong) under the palace but when Kim Il-sung passed in 1994, the palace became sacred grounds as a mausoleum, and so the station closed and this tram line replaced it in 1995. Unlike the other lines, this line uses 1940s VBZ Be 4/4 Type Ib rolling stock from Zurich.
Wow a dictator likes trains how surprising
Great stuff. I’ve loved looking at maps, transit maps, train stations, airport layouts, and urban development since I was a kid.
This content adds richness and detail that I’d otherwise miss.
Thanks Manny! Same :)
I helped start the VTA 40 years ago. I finally rode it 2 years ago from Winchester to Levi's Stadium. Cheap and extra entertainment from transit police checking tickets. The fence mentioned along the tracks is for safety. I drove to the station as a tourist. People still get killed along rails from 150 years ago. Nice video.
Wow thank you! Honored you stumbled upon my content, sir.
Ah, so it's your fault, then. Let me guess, you moved on from VTA's Light Rail system to help design California's high speed rail, right? They share the traits of being utterly useless and good ideas completely ruined by politicians and bureaucrats.
As someone who lives in a town where we got some of the ex-VTA trains (Salt Lake TRAX) it was interesting to see where they came from. Keep it up!
Glade you did this video, I have been saying this for years, "Trains to Nowhere", and when you ask them to provide info about up-grades, none
Grew up in the South Bay all my life, road VTA primarily in high school & college where I went to San Jose State. With all its shortcomings, I am thankful this system exists. I have since lived in other TO countries (Japan and Germany) and it's easy to look down on VTA (and even other bay area systems) in comparison. I am just hopeful that the urbanist movement is growing, more support for development comes easier. Ever since moved back from abroad, I have been so sick of our dominating car-oriented culture.
Keep up the great work!
The biggest issue with VTA light rail is that they went with existing rail corridors and stroad medians instead of blowing through opposition and building directly to where the density already was. They claimed that they would build a ton of TOD and that it would be fine. And then the NIMBYs entered the chat. Basically, everything was blocked and almost nothing was built. Without the density to justify it, the system is essentially orphaned. It simply does not have the riders it deserves.
They've started building more TOD at the stations now. And the city of San Jose realized that it has to allow density close to stations. This is taking a very long time to get off the ground. But the state stepped in with regulations forcing cities to approve housing. So give it another decade or two for all the crazy development downtown and around the stations to be built. Then it will reach its potential, finally.
Old Ironsides exists for streamlining operation at Great America. Orange line trains and/or additional trains ending there will not block the Great America station platforms for turning, but clear them right away with all turning business delayed a block. That way handling at Great America is maxed. Operation wise Old Ironside is like having a 3rd/4th platform, but without the additional cost of widening the station and overly complex routing.
Lockheed Martin is maybe named after the company, but it's major purpose is linking up with the buss lines at the next door transit center - also, it's in the middle between LM, Google offices, Juniper and other companies in walking distance. That station does peak at rush hour. Same is true for several other stations called 'boring'. TOD is way more than just apartments and shopping going to work is the bread and butter job for transit. Without none would be build.
What's also hilarious was that when I was working in the bay, when we had to submit drawings for permitting we had to bring in a USB to give them a document. Corona finally forced them to go digital. This is silicon valley and we JUST started submitting drawings online.
Great video! What makes me very sad is that the River Oaks stop is by VTA headquarters, and very, very few VTA employees use their own service to get there. Most drive in and use the generous employee parking or free park and ride space out front. Even with unlimited rides and a train to the front door of the office, employees either can't or won't use light rail. Something needs to change in the region, but it's not just smart redevelopment in North San Jose. From the agency on up, SJ needs a mindset change!
Exactly! SJ's philosophy and approach to city planning needs to change desperately!
@@todgod No, it doesn't. San Jose is a primarily suburban single-family home city. It does not need more density and it certainly doesn't need more people. There's too much congestion and not enough water and electricity for the people who live here now. Build your high rise apartments somewhere else.
@@wallyballou7417 I've noticed the thousands of people living in shanties around our creeks and under overpasses. It would be nice for those people to live in dwellings, instead of makeshift tents amid squalor and filth. You can keep your detached house, but don't fight others' attempts to make our community livable for everybody else.
Speaking as a Transit Employee, the LAST place one wants to be before/after work is to be cast with the same lot of passengers who’s the source of your headaches. Lately I’ve been carpooling with other Employees but once I have one of my own, best believe it’s well-deserved solace!
To add to your comment about Lick Mill station, the city is going to allow additional 1,500 units to the 4,500 units planned today due to the state's RHNA requirement. The development you showed in the video is going to be incredible with one 22-story and one 20-story towers with approximately 750 units and almost no parking. Right across the street they're planning for a grocery store and a beer garden plus most developments will have first story commercial fronts.
Overall, I am pretty optimistic about VTA's long term future. If we can get through the slog of today's strained financial situation I think the LRT will be upgraded and expanded as time goes on with the amount of developments going on right next to VTA light rail stations. In general, modern developments here do almost everything right with the exception of parking requirements whereas older suburbia is some of the worst I've ever seen
I ride past the Lick Mill station all the time, and I'm thrilled to hear this. The Orange Line has a ton of potential and "theory" behind it: a stop right on the stadium, a stop at the Great Mall, and endpoints connecting Caltrain to BART, what's not to love? But right now, it all feels dramatically underutilized, mostly going past parking lots for business parks.
Luckily, San Jose recently got rid of parking minimums. They are the biggest city to do so. Hope that helps get rid of the concrete wasteland
@@inotterwords6115 the orange line could be much better but there are also some problems with it which artificially depress its usefulness. One is priority signaling at intersections which it currently doesn't have afaik. The train will often stop at a bunch of lights constantly. The second problem is that detour down Java. It slows down the system but it might be useful in the future due to the moffett park specific plan being worked out by MV
@@eragonship4929 I think I have personally experienced a train stopping for me to cross a pedestrian crosswalk (with my bike). Yes, even though I enjoy taking transit, it does often feel like it's meant to take a backseat to the needs of drivers on that road.
The north segment of the Green line, where it goes WAY up and around all the businesses near moffet field really eliminates that line's primary benefit as a quick way to get to Mountain view because it goes so far out of the way. It was one thing when at least a few people would get off at those stations, but now with all the work from home very few people go into those offices anymore, and its a gigantic detour for no reason. Also wastes tons of time at night when nobody goes there either. It would be really nice if they made a bypass for the big loop in the business park for weekend/evening
Hamilton Stop is for access to Pruneyard and also Courtyard by Marriott which is significantly cheaper than downtown hotels but with quick access to downtown (15 min). There are incentives for employees to use Public Transport - Many companies offer stipends. 85 & 87 stops are very loud - every gotten off Bart on Dublin/Pleasanton Station in the middle of 14 lanes on 580!?!
It's interesting you call out the downtown stops as the heart of the system. Since I commute from Capitol to Metro Airport (transfer to bus), these stops drive me nuts. The stoplights and slow speed really eat up the time. I would love to see solutions to speed up trains through downtown (actual gated crossings, really good stop light pre-emption, whatever). I have a soft spot for VTA overall, since I use it so often. It's an actually useable integrated system, which is saying a lot. San Jose is a true metro area and it honestly needs a true metro train system, not just light rail. The BART extension definitely isn't going to solve that if you still need another hour of transit time to reach your final destination within the overall city area.
I actually find the southern spur to Santa Theresa to be pretty useful. Since it's in the median, there is no stoplights to contend with and the trains can get close to 60mph between stations. I see quite a few people board and deboard during commute hours at Capitol. It's really satisfying to fly past the gridlocked traffic on the 87 during rush hour, which is a pretty good incentive to use transit all by itself.
I can jog from Paseo De San Antonio to Santa Clara station faster than the train can get there even without hitting a red, its pitiful.
Instant sub. Gotta love the RUclips algorithm. This is beautifully put together. When I think about the Silicon Valley I picture lines of cars, I NEVER imagine there would be such good transit alternatives and housing projects along the way.
@17:40 I now realise we have a few of such platforms on the Paris métro and regional transit network. Both are "surrounded" but major motorways. They absolutely suck.
@18:58 This is truly depressing.
I'm impressed by your thorough analysis. I used to take VTA from Mountain View Caltrain to Santa Clara Convention Center quite often. It was a long, slow ride but better in some cases than driving from SF. The cars were quiet, clean and uncrowded. By the way, I also got off at Old Ironsides sometimes. It was a little bit closer to an event center just to the north of the Hyatt Regency, though the Convention Center stop would have served almost as well.
Fantastic video; I've been thinking about this for a long time and I'm so happy to see this discussed in a video.
I totally agree with you regarding Branham station, as it is a solid 20 minute walk from my house, which is a PAIN in the ass. It really is built for park and ride, and more often than not, I ask my parents to pick me up from the station, which defeats the point entirely.
Not sure why it exists to be honest
There used to be two stations between Middlefield and Downtown Mountain View stations: Whisman and Evelyn stations.
VTA closed Evelyn station in 2015.
Some of the light rail stations such as Old Ironsides are there to provide connections to bus lines.
These VTA cars are extremely shaky and I take them only because it’s one stop to Mountain View downtown.
BTW, this channel is just unreal! Such a great content, please keep doing this.
Thank you Oleg!! It means a lot :)
Woah. Awesome video!! Can’t wait for more
That slow segment in North Sunnyvale has a lot of high-density development planned. Sunnyvale's Moffett Park Specific Plan calls for turning the office parks into mixed-use neighborhoods centered around walking, biking, and light rail. There's no doubt that it's an awkward winding route, but the cities are (finally) interested in focusing their growth next to light rail. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Does the land use just need to catch up, or does the light rail just have too many fundamental flaws to succeed?
Very accurate video! After experiencing other TODs abroad, I root for the Silicon Valley’s to improve. I ride VTA once in a while, only to regret the lost time since the trains really lead to nowhere. Totally spot-on that some segments are soul-less. Major hope is to improve ridership by converting underutilized parking lots into mixed developments/housing. Thanks for the time putting this video together! Subscribed!
East San Jose native here! I've driven down E Capitol Expressway toward Eastridge Mall plenty of times. Eventually I started to realize that it would be a perfect extension for the orange line, I mean there's already a rapid bus that goes through, just put a light rail in the median, right? Lo and behold, there are now plans to do exactly that lol.
Out of all my friends, I'm the most interested in public transit, but I also live the furthest from it all. It's something like a 30 minute walk to the nearest bus stops, and a 40 walk to the nearest light rail by the orange line's Alum Rock station... There used to be a bus line that was a 5 minute walk from where I live, but it got removed not long after I moved here in the 3rd grade.
For folks like me, the park & ride stuff is basically a necessity unless I want to add an entire hour to get to and from home each time, or move out to an overpriced development. I need to figure out what the bike parking situation is like near my local stations, but it's pretty hard to trust the drivers around here. And even then, it'd probably take 10-20 mins to bike there to begin with. Car dependency is sooooo wonderful, I love it here.
Can I let you in on something? I also grew up in the East Side, near McKee road, and I have vivid memories of going on the orange like up to the Great Mall as a little kid. I can’t wait for future generations to see a train from Eastridge in a community that has been so disadvantaged and redlined. Being equitable starts with great transit access so that people can live, work and play from home without having the burden of having a car.
When this first opened we said it was built to allow IBM employees to go to Great America.
Once “completed” we took the kids to the museums. One stop. Never paid.
It seemed there was always well let’s say an unusual person on each train.
I feel so seen, thank you for this. Been living in San Jose for the last 6 years, and this video does a great job of explaining all the issues/irony of having such a poor public transportation network in the supposed tech capital of the US.
Rarely mentioned is the negative effect VTA has on street traffic. Mr. Diridon sold the idea of extending VTA to Mountain View by assuring us that a grade separation would be built to prevent VTA trains from stopping traffic as it crossed Central Expressway, a major north-south artery. But shortly after the project was approved, Diridon declared the grade separation too expensive, shifting the funds to another part of VTA he favored.
So now, 40 years later, we have the daily spectacle of VTA trains with 10 riders stopping cars and buses carrying 100 people on the Expressway for a minimum of 2 minutes for each train. The traffic delay is bad enough, but what’s worse is the increased pollution as cars that had been cruising fuel-efficiently at 45mph must stop, idle for a while, then accelerate again once the train goes by.
Wow this is awesome! I've always wanted to make something like this, but always got put off by the amount of effort it'd take. So props and thank you to you for doing the work. Look forward to more of these, for say, BART and Caltrain?
I think Caltrain would be the next system that I’d cover. Thank you for the compliments!
I watching and subscribe to a lot of transit channels and it just finished watching yours. My first video. Subscribed. One of the best commentaries out here on RUclips. Keep it up
Thanks! 😁
Tremendously well done. I would seriously love to see you do this in other cities. The simple insights you provide on the neighbourhoods are really interesting.
Stunningly well made, engaging and informative video on an interesting system!
I used to commute from Great Mall to North 1st St (basically where you showed at 8:48). It was about 8 minutes by car, 20 minutes by bike, or 45 minutes by VTA light rail.
I live in San Jose and find the function of VTA's light Rail to be one of the most disappointing options out there for MTOD (Mass Transit Oriented Development). Eastridge, while in theory has a lot going on where the mall sits needs to be at the southern or western end of the mall and not the eastern end of the mall, funnily enough. There's a bunch of apartments and a baseball park that sit right on Interlude and Quimby intersection. There's also quite a few food options including Filipino and Vietnamese food spot on the western end of the mall. On the eastern end of the mall, there's really only low density housing in the nearby grocery store's neighborhood and fast food places. The unfortunate part of this area is the walking distance between the expressway severing the mall and the areas of interest, though Lake Cunningham park is another green area to walk to of you're willing to take the risk of dealing with Capitol Expressway & Tully Rd. Ironically, there's another two car dealerships close by, which when combined with the Reid-Hillview airport would probably be better served with autos. The only way that eastern Eastridge would make sense right now is if the rest of the neighborhood gets converted into medium-density housing, or of the line would eventually extend much further south through the Expressway.
If there's any area that would benefit from additional MTOD with VTA Light rail, the neighborhoods would have to be through Monterey Road. Much of the character of Monterey Road has medium density housing and some strip malls that could definitely use decongestion. There's also The Shops at Vietnam Town and Little Saigon that could be a huge point of interest that characterize the Vietnamese expat community here in San Jose and could be a stop or destination that could be a point of interest for many unfamiliar with the Vietnamese community.
I adore all of these ideas. Ideally I’d love to make speculative videos proposing where the light rail can go to
VTA is coming up with a contract to buy new rail cars next month. The prevailing attitude in the 80s and 90s was that Santa Clara County needed transit to relieve traffic. So the idea was that they would build light rail and highways at the same time. Trying to "balance" the two just meant that the car continues to dominate everything. Still, the freeway segment isn't the worst spur of the system -- it's still a fast way to access downtown San Jose and SJSU. Plus, VTA is working with developers to build in the station parking lots.
Very well done and researched video
I'd love to do some sort of update video when these developments are finally built! So hyped as a native San Josean!
wow~ this is a quality video! you really did your homework. thanks for your effort and sharing it with us.
Thank you!
great RUclips channel, and love the video. looking forward to new videos! :)
such a great analysis! growing up in the western santa clara valley i rarely took the vta light rail since it's non-existent there (would love to someday see light rail down stevens creek or a similar arterial) -- as such, really appreciated the detailed station-by-station walkthrough!
Absolutely amazing amount of info in here. I took light rail for some time, but didn't realize how ridiculous some of these lines/stops were until now 🤣
Great video, would definitely watch more like this!
Thanks, Ryan! More to come :)
wow really good video idea, well executed too. this could actually be useful to the VTA as well. i would love to see this for other rail systems!
Old Ironsides has a couple uses, it connects with a couple bus lines to link with the rail and it has a pocket track that allows for a few trains to stage for the Levi Stadium events.
I live in a TOD in Dublin off Bart. Good to see a RUclips channel focusing on how bad the existing transit and infrastructure is in the bay area. I'm looking forward to more videos from you
Let's not go that far. The Bay Area has stellar transit for a US megaregion. It's true that most of our systems simply ignore safety and cleanliness. That needs to be dealt with and they have been making some very shy moves in that directions that we should all be cheering on and encouraging.
But make no mistake, what we have in terms of public transit in the Bay is a gem! Yes, it's not a perfect system. We need to build and improve a lot more. But this one of the best systems in the US. Such as it is, it's a great base to start building up from. While we critique we shouldn't lose the forest for the trees.
What we have is genuinely and objectively great by comparison. We just need to make it great in absolute terms now.
Having lived at one of the complexes at River Oaks, the only restaurants are part of the apartment complexes and weren't great choices. The real shame is that there were no grocery stores at any nearby stop. I didn't work at an office on any light rail line. Even the Great Mall stop required a long walk across a vast parking lot so wasn't attractive in summer or winter. We rarely took the light rail despite being very interested in using public transit, having come from Hong Kong.
Between Mountain View and Whisman, there used to be a station at East Evelyn Ave and Pioneer Way. There's a huge re-development effort getting started with some of the land immediately adjacent to it, I hope to see them bring that platform back into service for that area!
They closed it because of low ridership and because they didn't have enough room to double track it with the platform
Great video, thanks for sharing! :]
I live in the southern part of the city, near the end of the blue line, and I completely agree with everything you said in this video, the system is usually unreliable.
Now imagine replacing the street running parts with elevated sections and then switching to automated GoA4 operations then extend the lines to turn them into giant loops
One could dream, right?
Minor nitpicks: Downtown Mountain View isn't a cross-platform transfer; there's a level crossing (over one of the VTA's tracks) between the VTA and Caltrain. Baypointe does offer timed (I think) cross-platform transfers between the blue line and either direction along the orange line.
I remember reading that the Almaden spur was built because there was existing freight right-of-way there - I'd guess they built it because it was easy, rather than because it was especially useful to anyone.
The Almaden spur served Westfield Oakridge Mall and had a considerable park and ride at Almaden for people coming off of the Almaden Expressway. Initially to cater to those P&R passengers there was peak hour through service into downtown, and the plan was to eventually have the line be fully integrated with all-day service through to downtown.
However, stupid planning on the VTA's part prohibited the line from ever being succesful: The way they layed out the surounding bus network, combined with starting off with shuttle operations meant the line always competed with bus lines, that were often similarly frequent but offered more extensive coverage, often further out and came closer to peoples homes, even if the buses were slightly slower. Combine that with the branch being too short to have enough coverage to generate passengers from without top-tier attractions along the route, and it was doomed to fail.
Peak Hour through service into downtown only lasted 2 years.
The Almaden line's allignment itself actually isn't all that bad: It was the closest stop to any of the Westfield Oakridge Mall entrances, and its seperated right of way was fast compared to the buses. It just should've been a segment in a longer line: It had excellent potential for future extensions down the Almaden Expressway if greatly expanded regional coverage was desired, or Almaden itself could've been cut and the line could've been rerouted down Blossom Hill Road instead, if the city would've wished for an opportunity for major new transit oriented development on underutilised land along said road.
@@AutoGamerZ_ I even met some mall workers who rode from the Oakridge station too.
I've actually used VTA over my last three jobs to get to work and it's actually quite convenient, despite taking a LONG time. I've run the gamut from just taking VTA Light Rail by itself, to taking VTA to Tamien or Mountain View for Caltrain connections (the lines used to be Mountain View/Winchester and Alum Rock/Santa Teresa), and now I take VTA to the Milpitas BART station to commute into SF. I live next to the Penitencia Creek station, so it's allowed me to completely forgo having a car most of the time.
That said, I think I've only ever used it for work commute. If I need to go anywhere else, I usually get somebody to drive me or rent a car if I need to buy a lot of stuff. But it's pretty rare. It's always good to hear of future extensions on any of these lines. I'm happy that I could theoretically get to any of the three airports in the bay area without a car, even if it requires some planning ahead of time.
I grew up in San Jose and used to take the light rail to San Jose State from the Blossom Hill station. If I remember correctly, when the Cottle station was built none of those apartments were there. You had Kaiser in one corner, a golfing range in another corner, and an IBM plant in the other. The plant has since been torn down and replaced with commercial and the housing you see now.
Also those freeways - 85 and 87 - were on maps long before they were built. They used to be giant fields of weeds running between large tracts of suburban sprawl.
Great video, really appreciated the on the scene footage at each of the stations. Would love to see more of the history behind the systems - that part of the video was super interesting. Looking forward to more great content in the future!
I was considering an apartment next to a VTA station, but after "testing" the commute to work, I found that an apartment next to Caltrain is 2x faster even though it's further away. I think VTA would be more useful if it *always* had signal priority, but the orange line is basically a bus route on rails.
Thanks, done very well and truthful
I'd love for you to analyze the SacRT light rail system, it's very similar to VTA in many regards and needs A LOT of help to build ridership
Hey, that's my light rail!
My workplace is right on this light rail line, but I'm the only person I know of at my work who ever uses it. Of course I can't exactly say why, but the land use problems you pointed out are... glaring, let's say. With each station (on the Orange line) in the middle of 4-lane street, and large parking lots between the stations and the office buildings, the entire thoroughfare seems clearly built for cars first, with the light rail treated as a second-rate option.
That station right outside the stadium is genius, though.
This feels like the essence of San Jose: poorly planned, over-budget, and inaccessible by anything but car. As a San Jose native and transit enthusiast, I was always so sad on the freeway watching the suburbs and stroads fly by. Now I live in a city center on the east coast, where transit is accessible! I appreciate how good I have it, but also how bleak it seems back home. I can only hope it will improve in the future. Stay strong San Jose! It gets better! 💛🤍💙
Great video. I wish they would have the stops in the business parks only operate during work hours M-F and after that it becomes a stop only if someone requests to get off or on. Also hope they take a look at some stations that barely get anyone to ride it and determine if it is beneficial to skip the stop all together. I wish it was faster to get to Mountain View from downtown but it takes forever with all those stops and waiting at red lights in DTSJ. Even Campbell can take a bit of time from the Santa Clara station
I work at one of those buildings near Moffet Airfield, and even originally moved into an apartment in those giant gated communities near Lick Mill station cuz I thought I might use it for work.
Then I found it takes so long to get to the station and all those onroad sections are so slow that its just as fast to bike all the way to work! You can even avoid the road almost entirely with the Guadalupe River path and the bay trail!
Granted that's physically taxing to do, but you can get an ebike for $2k nowadays and make the money back from saved gas/rail fees in a year or two.
Never thought there would ever be a vid on my hometown light rail system - thanks TOD!
Fun detail you forgot at 7:08 - about a block north of Race Station at 7:08, there's actually a school called Basis Independent!
Theoretically this could help make the TOD even more of a great place to live, but the school doesn't encourage transit ridership last i checked.
Would love to one day see you do a video about Calgary's C-Train.
I grew up in San Jose right by the Hostetter stop and the first time I took the VTA was last January. I live on the east coast without a car now, and I know I'd have a tough time ever moving back to SJ bc how poorly the public transit and TOD are 😭😭
I work in San Jose and the main problem for the light rail system is speed. It is slow. The second problem is the route network. It is "incomplete" and doesn't go to areas where people want to go. If we include places like the Valley Fair Mall, Airport, Stanford, etc. I bet ridership will greatly increase. Third, I'd suggest adding a loop line. Very few people want to take a detour all the way to North San Jose before coming back South.
When I lived in San Jose, I used to take the light rail almost every day. I took it to work, Sharks games, museums, shopping, and occasionally I'd take it all the way to the southern end and go to the Coyote Creek trail for some mild hiking. Loved it. I'm in Livermore now, and we basically have no useful public transit here.
Live near Branham and capital station… never used them and never will. Caltrain is the only thing south bay got right imo
Great video!
WOW!!! I used to love taking the Light Rail from Snell to Downtown during the weekends, wasn't the fastest way to DT San Jo but it was always an epic adventure. Didn't go to a lot of the places that I needed but going DT, I can always count on the Light Rail.
Having lived in San Jose for 50 years before leaving, the biggest issues in my mind with this light rail system is that it did not go to the airport, and if you live in the south San Jose area, getting to the north for work takes forever since you MUST go through downtown at 5 mph. I could have easily taken this train from my home to work, but it took way more than an hour for an otherwise 15 minute drive. I couldn't do it. If they had just made a direct option straight to the airport going around downtown and then back into the N first corridor, more could justify the trip, and getting to the airport in reasonable fashion would have been a draw. One time, we used it to get to Great America for the July 4th fireworks from N 1st and Component. It was a disaster. No "3 car" trains to handle the HUGE crowds after the show wanting to go south, and they were only coming every 30 minutes or so. Took 90 min to find room on a train. Then we got to the transition at Tasman to go south on N 1st. We were like sardines in the train. They had us ALL get off, walk 100 feet back up the platform, only to have the train that we just got off of pull up and open the doors for us all to get back on and assume our sardine positions again. Crazy. Lastly, and not entirely their fault, some driver crashed into the median at N 1st and Tasman blocking all rails. As sardines, we sat in the motionless train for about 20 minutes before they let us out and had us get on busses to go down N 1st. So, now we are sitting on a bus (several had already departed), and there is no driver. I go outside to talk with someone who looked official, and he yelled at a driver to get in the bus and go!!! He sits down in the seat and we sit. I asked what the issue was. He stated that he didn't know where to go. I said just FOLLOW the tracks on your left, and stop where the stations are. Off we went....FINALLY! We got back to our very nice and non-smelly car about 3 hours later to make the rest of the trek home. We swore at that point that we would never try to use VTA again. And, we didn't. It was sad, but every attempt to make it work didn't.
It goes close and VTA provides frequent and free connecting bus service. Try it sometime.
5:26 Winchester
8:40 MT View
11:57 Alum Rock
15:33 Santa Teresa
I’m rewatching this while working in downtown SF, and the first thing I noticed is just how BIG the roads are in San Jose. I complain often that the T-third in SF is between 2 lanes of traffic on either side as it means all passengers must cross the street. But looking at the Milpitas BART/VTA is a massive 8 lanes stroad. You pretty much have to cross roads with speed limits of 35mph+ but people can easily go freeway speeds. Imagine carrying groceries across these? First off you have to wait an insane amount of time before you can cross. Then you immediately have pressure to go quickly before the light switches. The built environment needs to get shrunk 1/2 for it to feel pedestrian friendly.
I wish the empty office buildings in Downtown San Jose would be turned into apartments. That would help with light rail ridership.
loved this!
One of your busiest stations owes its ridership to county government offices, courthouses, and a jail! You got to be kidding me.
Very good video on the light rail in San Jose. I road it a lot and I was even thinking of eventually making a video on it in someway(someday maybe still to start rambling about transit). And a bit on the Downtown West project I did some youth representation on it and luckily the light rail station its self and Diridon will be getting some increased capacity with the development. Let's hope they actually build the damn thing in less than 20 years.
Great video! Must have taken a ton of work! And, man, that 87 highway noise when standing on the platform is insane!! Only doable with noise canceling headphones. I get on and off and Chynoweth, even though the Branham station is closer just to avoid the noise.
Thanks Stefan! Yes I much rather enjoy Chynoweth because at least it’s not a highway median!
Waiting for the train at Lockheed Martin right now. I work right across the street at Google. Station location just right for me. 😊
Coming to think of it: I'm sure VTA also finds it difficult to attract ridership in the N Mathilda/Carribian area because a lot of the people working will choose driving (free parking!) or free employer shuttle bus (usually faster for the whole trip). I personally mostly ride by bicycle. Those company shuttles are a very two edged sword: on one hand they do provide convenient commute alternatives to employees on the other hand they don't advance the transport options for the community as a whole and in fact deprive public transit of ridership and funds. IMHO it would be better if companies helped to improve public transit for their employees but also for the community as a hole. The cities could do a lot to reduce road traffic by banning free parking.
Watching this on the VTA. 😎
Hope your ride was swell 😎
Not sure why, but this video gives me a “if Asianometry did urbanism videos”. Solid work
The Almaden shuttle was planned to go all the way to Morgan hill via Almaden Exp but funding issues prevented this so it was only built to almaden
I used to commute by that light rail system. It was one of the best commutes I ever had.
I’m originally from San Jose. It’s the best place I’ve even lived for transit lol I remember as a kid taking the lightrail to the mall and Great America with my brother and I was only 11 or 12. Moved to a smaller but walkable bikeable town in the Central Valley before moving to TN outright. I didn’t have words to describe how isolating and strange the area was until I learned about car-centric design and city planning.
Now I dream of actually living in San Jose. 😂
It's definitely making a ton of progress, especially more recently. But there's still more work to do. Downtown is actually coming along nicely. They've found a very San Jose way around the inability to have tall towers. They just permitted a whole bunch of block-seized apartment and office developments on all those empty parking lots.
But the area still needs a ton of TOD around the light rail and the existing and future BART stations. Little by little San Jose will become a pretty livable part of the Bay Area from an urbanism standpoint.
suggestion: vta should build a light metro along el camino and the alameda between mountain view or palo alto and maybe campbell
Yeah it could probably be like Guadalajara’s line 3
Hey Santa Teresa isn't that bad I learned to drive their lol. I lived on the south of Cottle as a teenager and North in the New TOD at Charlotte park. Charlotte Park should be a little more dense and needs the bridge although its still not a long walk. The main problem though is its hard to get to places people work, and the city is just so spread out. Its usually faster to sit in traffic on 85 or 87 than it is to take VTA. Last rant VTA doesn't serve the community colleges. I think it serves City college now but it used to take an hour and De Anza takes like 2 hours with light rail and bus if your coming from South or East side.
This was cool. I haven't been lucky enough to visit San Jose yet so this was interesting.
I hope someday you can travel up to look at TriMet (maybe after the red [inter]line expansion is done), though our heavy rail is VERY disappointing.
I also spent some time in Utah, which is where I first had a viable bus and light rail system to use. It's amazing to see all the things UTA has these days, though I hear from current residents that some are very disappointing. Interestingly enough, I know the Sugar House Trolley was a big debate about using the old rail spur right of way or using some sort of in-street stations. The first ended up winning, but I don't know how that's worked out in the end.
I ride the green line 4-5 times a week, and this is pretty much spot on, I will say that while the hamilton stop makes little sense, walking to the shopping plaza on the corner of hamilton and bascom is pretty convenient, crossing 17 to go to the husk of the frys electronics seems depressing, but maybe it'll be better if another retailer moves in over there
the Old Ironsides station exist because that was the terminus of the line back then.
Great video, I live in San Francisco (and use Muni all the time) but when I go down to my corporate campus in the South Bay I typically drive and go past the orange line. Always wondered about it.