Santa Clara County Transportation Digest

While other travelers across the country have fallen victim to long check-ins, cancellations and delays amid winter weather, San Jose Mineta International Airport spokesperson Ana State said this year’s holiday travel season has been without any hitches.

This year, Milpitas banned natural gas in all new buildings, enhanced its rideshare program and looked for new ways to increase its housing. Looking ahead into the new year, the city has plans for a workplace housing project and an expansion to its Innovation Campus.

Farmland is being rezoned for industrial use, and massive warehouses are being built on spec near communities like Buttonwillow and Shafter, so goods coming through the Southern California ports can be shipped quickly throughout the western United States.

San Jose will use $12.9 million from the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program to add safety features to four transit corridors.

After establishing California Avenue as a permanent promenade, Palo Alto’s elected leaders are now shifting their focus toward revamping the city’s prime downtown artery: University Avenue.

A group of protesters sat down with interlocked arms on the 110 Freeway near downtown LA on Dec. 13, halting southbound traffic for more than an hour. Multiple people were arrested according to the CHP.

Higher-income workers are more likely to work from home, analysis of recent census data shows. Lower-income workers can face long and solitary commutes to get to work.

Three separate car crashes have taken place across Alma Street in less than a month, resulting in multiple injuries, damaged vehicles and temporary road closures.

Private company Brightline secured a $3 billion grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation toward a 218-mile high-speed rail line from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas. The line would allow people to make the trip to Sin City in a little over two hours.

The bots are coming back to town, for the third time, in an updated pilot program that once again would allow automated delivery devices on the city’s sidewalks, crosswalks and possibly its bike lanes.

An Alameda County judge ruled on Nov. 22 that the city of Oakland thwarted a proposed coal export terminal. The judge will rule if the developer who sued is entitled to $159 million in damages or moving forward with the project.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles changed its voter registration process in 2019 to put a party selection dropdown on the same page. Since then, the number of people registering as Republicans or Democrats has jumped close to 20 points.

The future of transportation arrived in San Jose via a conference centered on automated, sustainable forms of public transit for the region and beyond.

The Orange County Transportation Authority announced that work has been completed for express lanes along 16 miles of Interstate 405. The lanes, which were part of a $2.16 billion improvement project, span from Costa Mesa to the Los Angeles County line.

Sunnyvale has greenlit a new vision for the future of the Lawrence Caltrain station that will make it more convenient for residents and workers along the transit corridor.

As Palo Alto looks ahead to its next phase of bike improvements, city officials are also bracing for a bike project that they had never signed up for: the creation of an El Camino Real bikeway.

California's high-speed rail system may be more than a decade away from construction, but the beleaguered project is casting a growing shadow over Palo Alto's plans to separate its streets from its rail tracks.

A new study by Forbes shows that four cities in the Golden State—Los Angeles, Fresno, San Diego and Sacramento—are among the 21 worst cities in the United States for holiday travel. Forbes looked at a variety of factors including car accidents, hotel prices and air travel.

VTA has just made a $76 million purchase to help bring BART to Santa Clara.

Pavements conditions are just "fair" on the Bay Area's roadways, according to an annual report card from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Interstate 10 in Los Angeles will reopen Nov. 21, following a fire on Nov. 11. It had previously been feared the freeway would be closed much longer.

After years of worsening potholes and bumpy rides, plans are in place to repave El Camino Real from Mountain View through Palo Alto starting in May or June of 2024, Caltrans officials announced at a public meeting in Mountain View.

The new University Avenue pedestrian and bike overcrossing will link the east and west sides of East Palo Alto, which the highway has split for decades.

As state laws redefine minimal parking requirements, a commercial development in downtown Mountain View is proposing to nix its on-site parking plans, instead offering to pitch in $8 million for a city-owned parking structure.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority said it authorized the purchase of the transit tunnel boring machine to complete the 5-mile underground section of the VTA BART Silicon Valley extension.

Palo Alto City Council voted to permanently close California Avenue to cars.

The closure of California Avenue to traffic has sparked debate among business owners and residents, and now city staff is proposing to keep it closed for at least another year while a firm develops alternatives for its future.

In a bid to reach its sustainability and decarbonization goals, Mountain View is working on a transportation ordinance aimed at reducing drive-alone trips and parking demand in the city.

China modeled some of its climate programs on policies first adopted by California. Now, California depends on the world’s most populous country for essential materials in its electric vehicle ambitions.

One of San Jose’s most dangerous streets will be getting new safety features to protect children going to school.

The rapidly rising cost of construction materials and labor prices, along with the impacts of inflation, have boosted the anticipated cost of the final phase of VTA’s BART to Silicon Valley completion from $9.3 billion to $12.2 billion.

When Stanford University received permission in 2011 to construct of new hospitals and medical buildings, it pledged to steer its workers away from cars and toward buses, trains and shuttles—but the pandemic has disrupted these plans.