San Jose BPAC meeting notes
January 11 Meeting of the San Jose Bicycle and Pedesitrian Advirsory Committee
Pierluigi Oliviero announced that his office is a sponsoring movie in March. The documentary titled "No Impact Man" highlights the lifestyle changes of the Breven family of New York as the give up modern conveniences to reduce their carbon footprint. The film highlights cycling in New York City.
Manuel Pineda, the acting Assistant Director of the Department of Transportation presented the Transportation element to the 2040 General Plan. San Jose General plan is a blueprint for growth for the next 25 to 30 years. He estimated that the plan will be approved by the city council in the summer of 2011. The main issues of the transportation element is to:
- Plan for People not just cars.
- Meet the needs of business that drive innovation.
- Reduce vehicle miles traveled and green house gases.
- Provide adequate land for new job and housing growth.
- Create walkable and bike friendly "neighborhood villages".
- Create complete and vibrant regional "hubs"
Manuel also highlighted the Bicycle Master Plan 2020 goals.
- Expand Bikeway Network from 250 to 500 miles.
- Increase bike trips from 1% to 5%.
- Reduce bike collision rate by 50%.
- Add 5,000 bike parking spaces.
- Achieve "Gold" Bike Friendly Community Ranking.
Land Use and Transportation Goals
- Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled.
- Reduce Green House Gas Emissions by reducing driving (VMT) and fuel efficiencies or alternative fuels.
- Manage Congestion.
- Increase Population and Jobs with no Increase in Driving. Absorb growth through mode shift.
Transportation Policies include the support of higher density, mixed use and pedestrian friendly development for specific planning areas, facilitation of a City wide multimodal transportation system and the link of land development with transportation improvements.
A key component of both San Jose General Plan and the recently approved Bicycle Master Plan is "Mode Share". Mode share refers to the breakdown of trips by primary type. So a (multimodal) trip to the Caltrain station would be logged as a transit trip. This obviously complicates matters since a trip to the Caltrain station by car is a completely different trip than a walk to the station. But for now this is how trips are analyzed.
| Mode | 2008 | SJ Bike Plan 2020 |
SJ General Plan 2040 |
| Drive Alone | 77.8% | --% | 40% |
| Carpool | 9.2% | --% | 10% |
| Transit | 4.18% | --% | 20% |
| Bicycle | 1.2% | 5% | 15% |
| Walk | 1.8% | --% | 10% |
| Other | 5.8% | --% | 5% |
| VMT per Capita | 14.9 | -- | 9.3 |
VMT in thousands of miles (1,000)
These numbers based on peak morning travel times. Other includes but not limited to telecommuting, other wheel vehicles, whether human powered or not, and non-registered vehicles.
Staff also made a presentation introducing the standard use of Sharrows in San Jose.
Also the committee heard presentations regarding Safe Routes to Schools on Park Ave. as a well as trips reductions achieved through Portland's Program known as "SmartTrips". See also the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center case study on SmartTrips.
Lastly, the city issued their Annual Bike Lane Work Plan Development Report for fiscal year 2009-2010, which includes both existing work and possible new projects (per newly approved Bicycle Master Plan) such as, Bike Boulevards, physically separated bike lanes, and colored bike lanes.
Next meeting is the second Monday in February on the 8th floor meeting room at City Hall. Meeting time is 6:00 PM.