Charging Ahead: How the Bay Area Is Leading the Country on Electric Vehicles
By Sarah Jo Szambelan, Research ManagerAt SPUR we promote transit policies that help people get around without cars, but we also recognize that there will always be some amount of driving and have advocated for policies that will move us toward a future with more electric vehicles. A recent EV event hosted by the Center for Sustainable Energy gave an update on how the EV transition is progressing.
How Can the Bay Area’s Aging Oil Refineries Meet California’s New Climate Goals?
By Laura Tam, Sustainable Development Policy DirectorCalifornia’s plan to meet its 2030 climate goals proposes reducing emissions from oil refineries by 20 percent. The Bay Area is home to five oil refineries, most of them over 100 years old. What can be done about their significant contributions to local air pollution and to climate-changing emissions?
Where to Put the Downtown San Jose BART Station: Go West
By Laura Tolkoff, San Jose Policy DirectorIn the next few months, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will make big decisions about where and how BART will come to San Jose. One of the big decisions is where the downtown San Jose station should be located. Of the two options on the table, SPUR strongly supports the west downtown option. Here's why.
What 2016 Meant for Bay Area Cities
By Gabriel Metcalf, President and CEOSo much happened in 2016. It was a year that saw major progress, along with major setbacks. And the outcome of the national election raised the stakes even higher. Here’s a look at the highs and lows — and where SPUR will be focusing its energies in the new year.
Lessons for Diridon: Revitalizing Toronto’s Union Station
By Alex Shoor, San Jose Special Projects Assistant, and Laura Tolkoff, San Jose Policy DirectorOver the next few months, public agencies will be working together to set the remaking of Diridon Station in motion. During this critical period, it’s important to be thinking boldly about what’s possible. Toronto’s primary transit hub, the historic Union Station, is nearing completion of a major revitalization project scheduled for completion in 2018. Its context and complexity make it a good parallel to Diridon.
After the Ghost Ship
By Robert Ogilvie, Oakland DirectorThe fire at the Ghost Ship artists collective in the Fruitvale district was the most lethal fire in Oakland’s history and the worst in the state since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. How can property owners and the City of Oakland make places like the Ghost Ship safe without making them so expensive that they cease to be affordable?
VTA’s Big Move to Grow Transit Ridership
By Laura Tolkoff, San Jose Policy DirectorWhat kinds of changes can we make to encourage more people to use transit more of the time? The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will be asking questions like this as it launches the Next Network, a system-wide redesign intended to grow ridership, improve its fiscal footing and serve BART.
How to Spend the Bay Area’s New Transportation Dollars
By Ratna Amin, Transportation Policy DirectorBay Area voters have approved more than $10 billion in new transportation funding. The majority of the new revenue is for projects and goals SPUR supports, but if we have learned anything over decades of being involved in urban transportation, it’s that well-intentioned and well-funded projects can still fail if we don’t get the details right. Here’s what we’ll be watching closely.
Yes in My Backyard: More In-Law Units in San Jose
By Kristy Wang, Community Planning Policy DirectorLast week San Jose became the latest Bay Area city to update its in-law unit ordinances to better serve the need for housing solutions. Once illegal in many cities, this simple way to add more housing — create an additional unit in the backyard, basement, attic or garage — has become a welcome tool in the fight to make urban housing affordable.
Plan Bay Area Reveals the Need to Change Regional Planning Tools
By Egon Terplan, Regional Planning DirectorThe latest update to Plan Bay Area is now underway — and its findings have revealed some troubling flaws in the planning tools we have for managing our region’s biggest challenges: making housing affordable and maintaining our transportation infrastructure. Now that these issues have been made apparent, it’s time to ask what we should be doing differently.