TO: TRANSPORTATION AND FROM: Bicycle and Pedestrian
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE Advisory Committee
SUBJECT: BART Silicon Valley Extension DATE: 3/24/25
Status Report
______________________________________________________________________________ Honorable City Council Members,
Your Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) would like to submit the following comments on the "BART Silicon Valley Extension Status Report":
1. We support and look forward to the extension of the BART system through downtown San José to the City of Santa Clara.
2. Please ensure that during the tunneling of the extension, there is minimal disruption to our underserved neighborhoods’ traffic lights, bikeways, and crosswalks, and that this project’s interactions with our city’s pedestrians, wheelchair riders, and bicyclists are as safe as possible.
3. Last August, Grant Brokl and Erin Sheelen gave us an update. We learned that bike lanes, a shared use path, and bicycle facilities will be key elements of the new stations, as well as making sure that these stations’ interaction with their adjacent roads will be as safe as possible.
4. We appreciate that intersection signal improvements will be made at the new BART stations to facilitate pedestrian access; elevators will be large enough to accommodate cargo bikes; and all stations will have 190 to 270 bike parking stations. Given the new budgeting constraints, we ask you to do whatever is needed to ensure that these elements remain part of this project.
5. If this isn’t being done already, we ask that the “Reimagining Santa Clara Street” initiative be coordinated with VTA on the timeline and construction of the Diridon Station.
6. Please enable BART’s Silicon Valley stations’ bicycle parking areas to resemble the train stations our members have visited in other nations. On weekdays, they have many hundreds of commuters parking their bicycles at them. We respectfully request that every effort be made to connect bikeways from our City’s most traveled streets to BART’s new stations and more bicycle parking either be added to these stations, or adjacent to these stations.
7. Because these stations will connect commuters to AMTRAK, CALTRAIN, and VTA options, safe way making to these stations and adequate bicycle parking will convert many motorists from stressful bumper-to-bumper work commutes to a greener transportation option and will help our city achieve its Climate Smart Plan goals.
These comments were appoved unanimously at the March 24, 2025 BPAC meeting.
Sincerely,
Aarshdeep Kahlon, Chairperson