Santa Clara County grew up around the car. Now traffic is stalling economic growth, social equity and quality of life. How can we get the South Bay, its people and its economy moving in a more sustainable way? SPUR's new report offers seven strategies to expand the range of transportation choices.
With the extension of BART into Silicon Valley, San Jose has a unique chance to shape growth around its first station, at Berryessa. Developing land uses that support BART ridership will be key to the success of Berryessa Station — and the future of the area around it. Substantial planning has already been done, but there are still opportunities for improvement.
San Jose’s City Council approved the Diridon Station Area Plan (DSAP) after a five-year process. The DSAP focuses on dense mixed-use growth in a transit-rich infill location, includes needed improvements to the pedestrian and bicycle network and commits to better transportation management planning. However, close oversight will be important moving forward to ensure that Diridon Station becomes the transit-rich hub it was envisioned to be.
San Francisco is once again poised to be a pioneer in urban agriculture policy. In June, Supervisor David Chiu introduced an ordinance that create California's first urban agriculture incentive zone and allow property owners who contract their land into urban agricultural use for at least five years to receive a property tax reduction
Why is it taking so long to retrofit our car-oriented cities to make them more walkable and bikeable? In part, it’s because of an antiquated engineering concept called “auto level of service” or LOS. Here’s how LOS came to control our built environment — and what the State of California is doing to release the hold this little-known metric has had on our cities.