Council was asked to decide, on June 18, whether the southern terminus of
Stierlin Road should continue to feed into an onramp to Central
Expressway, or whether the onramp should be closed.  Closure would enable
a really nice cycletrack and pedestrian path between Central and Stierlin
to be built, heading through the new apartment development that Prometheus hopes to have approved in the fall.  Council decided to close the onramp, citing the need to take advantage of this unparalleled opportunity to
build the first segment of a safe, convenient "active transportation" link
from downtown to points north, including North Bayshore.

Many residents in the blocks northwest of Central and Moffett opposed the
onramp closure, citing its convenience given the current backup on
southbound Moffett during peak times.  Others objected to drivers'
speeding down narrow neighborhood streets to get to the onramp, sometimes making it impossible for residents to get out of their driveways.

To expedite access to westbound Central if the onramp were closed, a proposal had landed on the table, and gained Staff's approval, to add a dedicated right-turn lane to southbound Moffett as it approaches Central Expressway, lessening the number of cars backed up there.  However, most members of the public (and then Council) supported this option even if the onramp were left open.  There was no study of the possibility of not widening Moffett but simply turning the  current westmost lane into a dedicated right-turn lane, an alternative  that members of MVCSP thought would also accomplish traffic-taming goals.

Concerns about long-standing issues of pedestrian and bicycle safety at
that intersection, magnified by the planned addition of a dedicated
right-turn lane, convinced a majority of Councilmembers that the details
of intersection design should be examined by B/PAC as soon as possible.

Recently, a San Francisco delegation visited Mexico City to study its world-class bus rapid transit system. Come find out how “true” BRT works and what the proposed BRT projects in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland can learn.

+ Matt Haynes/ Fehr & Peers
+ Steve Fisher/Valley Transportation Authority
+ Shari Tavafrashti / SFCTA

URS Corporation
100 W. San Fernando Street,
3rd Floor, Room 340
San Jose, CA 95113

Free to the public
Okay to bring lunch

http://www.spur.org/events/calendar/%C2%A1hola-brt-real

(Image courtesy of Flickr user EMBARQ Brasil)

Merlone Geier Partners submitted the following document to the City on May 20.  It had its first Development Review Committee meeting on June 5.

To access this document, please click on the link below (the document name).  This will take you to a new window on a Dropbox site.  If you select DOWNLOAD, you can get the document without setting up a Dropbox account.

MGP-052013.pdf

Intuit's proposal for several new buildings in North Bayshore appeared before the Development Review Committee today.  During the summer they will update the design of the parking structure.  Here's a complete overview of the project, presented to a City Council study session in April:

Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning has won the Local Champions Award as part of the Santa Clara County Housing Action Coalition's 20th Anniversary Celebration. The award goes to an organization that has made a positive difference in the community and exemplifies excellence in grassroots organizing.  In this connection, you are invited to attend a free reception at Madera Apartments in Mountain View on Thursday June 13th at 5:30 p.m.

Aaron says:

"Not a bad way to be remembered, I think.  2nd charge station should have a "B" name, 3rd a "C", etc.  Hopefully they will soon be so common as to be nameless. Madera is a large, new, local apartment project that I helped lobby for, because it was to be built opposite the Mountain View Transit Center, perfect to reduce car commuting.  I asked them to include an EV charging station in the project, and to name it after me. They did!"

Way to go, Aaron!