[External Email. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. Learn more] This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Outlook
FW: Item 5.1 tomorrow - 101/Zanker/Skyport - vote no
From City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Mon 9/8/2025 1:26 PM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>
From: Karen Gauss < >
Sent: Monday, September 8, 2025 1:20 PM
To: The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan <[email protected]>
Cc: City Clerk <[email protected]>; District3 <[email protected]>; District4 <[email protected]> Subject: Item 5.1 tomorrow - 101/Zanker/Skyport - vote no
Some people who received this message don't often get email from . Learn why this is important Hello Mayor Mahan and Councilmembers Cohen and Tordillos,
My name is Karen Gauss and I'm a member of the VTA BPAC, and a County Roads Commissioner.
Please vote no on item 5.1 on tomorrow's city council agenda. The 101/Zanker/Skyport project is not what residents want.
We DO NOT WANT:
An overpass that is 4 lanes wide - 2 lanes are plenty
Intersections that are 6 lanes wide - build at a human scale, please Outdated intersection design. The elements of a "protected intersection" and "Complete Streets/All Ages and Abilities" are missing.
What RESIDENTS REALLY WANT:
Zero traffic fatalities
Safe Routes to School. More housing may come to this area with children crossing N 4th to get to Bachrodt Elementary School. an 8 year-old and an 80 year-old should both be safe and comfortable in newly built environments.
Infrastructure that supports transit, walking and biking Infrastructure that fits in with the surrounding context. Zanker Road and N 4th Street are both one lane in each direction. N4th St received a road diet 6 years ago.
A new connection across the freeway without exploding VMT Protected intersections, short crossing distances, and protected bike lanes Please speak up about the design of this project and vote no to funding it in its current state.
Thank you very much,
Karen Gauss
resident of D3 Japantown
Honorable Mayor and City Council,
We request that you not advance the 101/Zanker Interchange project to final design as it is. It heavily favors cars and only gives token treatment for people biking and walking, and it does not meet the city’s stated goals of being Climate Smart, Transit First, and bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.
Please send this project to SJ BPAC so that DOT and the public can make this 101-Zanker Interchange Project safer and more inviting for people that are not in cars.
Other recent and upcoming interchange projects, including 101-Trimble-De la Cruz, 101 and Blossom Hill Road, and the Winchester-280 interchange, add comfortable, separated shared-use paths that avoid conflicts with the high-speed vehicular traffic that makes most freeway interchanges a stressful barrier to active transportation.
Let’s take the time to make this interchange right while it’s still on paper, instead of building as proposed and then spending more millions and more decades trying to correct barely-usable facilities after the fact.
Here are some specific items that need to be fixed:
● This project is on MTC’s Active Transportation Network. The required MTC Complete Streets Checklist hasn’t gone through BPAC yet, and waiting until after the environmental phase might be too late to ensure all requirements are met.
● The All Ages and Abilities infrastructure is not carried through the entirety of the modified streets. In particular, the high-volume intersections along Zanker, Bering, and the northbound 101 ramps lack the needed safeguards to reduce turning speeds and provide other crossing protections. Grade separated options that avoid the northbound ramp should be provided for those who would prefer comfortable travel over direct travel.
● This project advances single-occupancy vehicle car transportation to the near-exclusion of anybody else. It has 9 lanes at some points! San José’s infrastructure already favors automobiles, and under-serves people who walk, bike, and ride public transit. Our vehicular investments should be more humble, and our transit investments more ambitious.
● On the overcrossing bridge the bikeway treatment is the bare minimum for Complete Streets. Off the bridge the bike lane treatment is less than the bare minimum. All the high-speed roads being reconfigured by this project need protected bikeways and intersections.
● Many surface streets would be affected in ways that produce more of what San José is working hard to retrofit. For just one example, Bering Drive would be widened from 4 lanes to 6 or 7 high-speed car lanes, but between Brokaw and the northbound ramps it has ZERO bike lanes, except for a BIKE LANE POCKET at the intersection! This doesn't make sense. Making room for protected bikeways and grade separation needs to take priority over making room for 2-3 extra car lanes.
● The intersection of N. 1st and 101 is included in the project area, but vague "improvements" there will not speed up transit significantly, and will do nothing to improve this challenging place to bike. If N. 1st is to become a usable option when the Guadalupe River Trail is closed for flooding or construction, sidewalk and bikeway installations should be performed in conjunction with the ramp closure.
● The protected bikeway widths don’t meet the Caltrans preferred minimum of 7 feet.
Raised bikeways should be even wider than that, because it will be impossible to widen them later on to accommodate future growth.
Please send this project to SJ BPAC so that DOT and the public can make this 101-Zanker Interchange Project safer and more inviting for people that are not in cars. Approval should be conditional on it being a complete All Ages and Abilities design.
Let’s take this opportunity to make this interchange a connection, not a barrier.
Thank you,
Jordan Moldow
Anthony Rossetti
Betsy Megas
Eamonn Gormley
Haojun Li