Cities, Counties, and Countries

There will be many news stories generated by the announcement of the details of President Donald Trump's proposed budget next month. In advance of the announcement, the campaign to preserve funding for the electrification of Caltrain is working with advocates around the state and country to preserve a nearly $650 million grant agreement scuttled by the Trump Administration in February.

The Silicon Valley Bike Vision report shows what peninsula cities are doing right, as well as what they could do better to improve conditions for bicyclists and encourage more people to ride. It serves as a vision of what bicycling could be like, and provides a general roadmap on how to get there.

Caltrain has bought itself some time — at the price of up to $20 million.

Going by the results of a public meeting at Oak Knoll Elementary School in Menlo Park last Monday, San Mateo County traffic engineers have no options left to correct a dangerous five-lane stretch of Santa Cruz Avenue that runs from San Hill Road to Alameda de las Pulgas.

Construction on San Jose's huge North San Pedro plan is well underway. It removes a one-way, four-lane S-curve segment of Julian Street just east of Highway 87 and restores several blocks of the city’s original street grid.

Deadlines are near for several Board and Committee positions in San Mateo County. Applications are due today for two vacancies on the SamTrans Board of Directors, while the City/County Association of Governments seeks volunteers to fill four vacancies on its 15-member Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (C/CAG BPAC), due Nov. 14. Caltrain is taking applications for six of the nine seats of its Bicycle Advisory Committee, due Dec. 2.

The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)'s proposed 30-year Measure B half-cent sales tax is bloated with billions of dollars in highway traffic expansions. If Santa Clara County voters pass Measure B on November 8, $1.85 billion would be lavished on highway projects while less than half that amount would go to bus, light rail, bicycling, and walking improvements combined over the next 30 years.

Update: Caltrans officially announced the opening of the island end of the path will happen at noon on Sunday [PDF]. The press release includes a map of the shuttle route, which will run every 30 minutes between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekends and holidays. And here's an explanatory video they made.

On Tuesday evening, the Palo Alto City Council directed staff to continue contract negotiations for replacing the city’s existing 35 bike-share bikes with 350 new SoBi "smart bikes". Unlike today's Bay Area Bike Share bikes, SoBi bikes are equipped with an on-board lock so they aren't dependent on fixed docking stations to operate. Customers can find the bikes using a GPS-based phone application, and can finish a rental by locking the bike to any city bike rack.