Santa Clara County Transportation Digest

As Palo Alto's car-free street experiment on California Avenue enters another year, the city is asking residents to envision what an attractive retail district should look like.

The law was prompted by an audit revealing that up to 35,000 parking placards in use were in the names of deceased people.

Seeking to transform parking lots into generators of clean energy, state Sen. Josh Becker has proposed a bill that would offer tax incentives for companies to build solar canopies on their properties.

The Valley Transit Authority will move forward with its plan to force out the owners and tenants of two buildings in downtown San Jose to make room for the future BART extension.

Bicyclists rarely get excited about new car dealerships, but the one currently proposed for the former site of Ming's Restaurant would come with a rare amenity: a new bike path to the Baylands.

With e-bikes growing in popularity, Palo Alto officials are racing to keep up with the changing legal landscape and impose new rules aimed at protecting sensitive habitats.

San Jose resident Greg rides VTA bus route 73 to his job at a local winery. Last week, the bus never showed.

Bay Area residents with a vehicle made before 1999 can receive up to $1,200 as part of a buyback program to improve local air quality, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced.

A light rail train yard and station may soon shelter homeless residents in San Jose. Councilmembers are considering temporary housing sites at two VTA locations—Cerone and Cottle—to increase the interim housing stock, as homelessness in the city continues to climb.

Jose Landin has co-owned Mexico Bakery since 2003, and the chain has become a downtown San Jose staple. But this location and several others could all be gone soon.

Now that downtown parking permits are available for purchase, time limits on parking will be enforced beginning Nov. 7.

Castro Street pedestrian mall is one step closer, while traffic-calming stoplights are installed.

Mountain View's Castro Street pedestrian mall is one step closer, as traffic-calming stoplights are installed.

Four of the deadliest stretches of road in California are in Northern California, according to a study by the website MoneyGeek. The report, which analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, includes stretches of freeway in San Jose, Berkeley, Richmond and Sacramento.

Palo Alto has two years to come up with a plan to deal with the Caltrain bridge over San Francisquito Creek; repairing the 120-year-old bridge will take place just as Caltrain is slated to increase its trips because of electrification.

Milpitas just got SMART. The acronym stands for Simple Mobile Access to Reliable Transit, which will provide app-based mini-van transit on weekdays. Milpitas mayor Rich Tran says, “By moving more people in fewer but more productive vehicles, we are catalyzing a generational shift in how people get around Milpitas.”

The previous mandate began April 28 and expired last week on July 18 ­– the second time it’s been lifted in three months.

An autonomous driving unit of vehicle Toyota Motor has leased office space in Stanford Research Park—a total of 154,600 square feet at the office hub, located at 900 Arastradero Road in Palo Alto.

Assemblymember Marc Berman announced he is pulling a bill that would eliminate VTA’s board of directors, and instead requesting a state audit. VTA chair Chappie Jones supports the move.

San Jose planning officials are split on a proposal to eliminate minimum parking requirements for new building projects and what it could mean for the future of the city.

Santa Clara will hold a virtual community meeting on June 1 to hear about potential bicycle and intersection improvements near the Civic Center.

According to a recent report from Energy Innovation Policy and Technology, in many states, electric cars are cheaper to buy than traditional gas cars.

A dangerous bend on Highway 17 in Los Gatos, dubbed Laurel Curve, is notoriously deadly for wildlife attempting to cross the busy throughway. But after a decade of prep, work has begun on a wildlife underpass for at-risk species, such as mountain lions.

When the Metropolitan Transportation Commission board of directors met last month to endorse rail projects for federal grants, one Peninsula city was left out. Palo Alto did not get any projects on the regional agency's list.

Backers of California’s High Speed Rail project haven’t had much to celebrate, given soaring costs and scaled-back service, but a new poll shows a solid majority of voters still want to move forward and finish the job.

A slight decline in the state’s average gas price, from $5.919 to $5.910 on March 30, could spell promising news in the weeks ahead. Southern California, which has been hardest hit by the spike in prices, could see a drop of between 35 to 75 cents per gallon in the next few weeks.

In a sharply divided meeting, the Los Altos City Council voted to eliminate street parking on El Camino Real in favor of bike lanes. The three councilmembers in favor of the lanes said they had a “moral imperative” to improve safety after a 13-year-old was killed at El Camino Real and Grant Road.

Gov. Gavin Newsom released a proposal to help Californians dealing with high gas prices, while also lowering the cost of public transit. Under the $11 billion proposal, California car owners would get a debit card worth $400 for each car (a limit of two vehicles, but no income cap).

The Biden administration will allow California to set its own rules on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks, rebuffing a Trump-era decision.

Gov. Gavin Newsom says he’s working on a plan to help Californians cope with rising gasoline prices. The Democratic governor said during his State of the State speech that he will work with the Legislature to provide relief for drivers.

Highway toll lanes debuted on the Peninsula this month, bringing an array of signs and lane markings on U.S. Highway 101 between state Route 237 in Mountain View and Whipple Avenue in Redwood City.

The California High Speed Rail Authority announced Feb. 8 that efforts to create a high-speed rail line connecting north and south will cost another $5 billion more than anticipated.