How is your commute?

Have been requested via email to repost in a bit more detail of what I mean with those three root causes to our traffic congestion…some remembered presentations to neighborhood associations and at SMUHA….

Similar to presentations to clients trying to explain those root causes that they are directly responsible for…jobs here on the Peninsula and no bedrooms (affordable and volumes) here on the Peninsula too satiate those new hires from out of the area

Best to start with images from the International Space Station of The San Francisco BayArea.

http://img.qz.com/2014/10/sanfrancisco.jpg Best on showing the Peninsula from SF to South SJ, East Bay and of particular importance…the three bridges that are the conduits for commuters form their bedrooms on the East side of the Bay to their jobs on the Peninsula. The scale is exact to the actual, as it is a picture of the actual. Notice where the ‘dump’ all of those commuters onto the Peninsula. Those cities are in the Bull’s Eye of all commuter traffic. San Mateo is the biggest Bull’s Eye…and feeds 101/El Camino/92/280. Bay Bridge has +255,000 vehicles per day, and SM/Hayward Bridge has +500,000…. Monday-Friday (CalTrans info from 2015 meeting at Mullen’s office). They did not have Dunbaron (sp?) Bridge info

http://www.layer5.us/pics/fb/night_overlay.jpg Night overlay and shows where both the jobs and bedrooms are. Highlighted by the night street lights and arteries (roads & car lights)
http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2013/01/san_francisco_bay_area/12487314-1-eng-GB/San_Francisco_Bay_Area.jpg This one is huge and when blown up, indicative of the topography of our area

Just taking the SM/Hayward (92) bridge traffic of +500,000 vehicles per day times five days has +2,500,000 vehicles per week that dump onto San Mateo and it’s road ways.

Just take a look at 101/92 in the morning…congestion going WEST with little to no traffic congestion going EAST. During the evening, it flips to congestion going EAST and little to no congestion going WEST.

They are leaving their bedrooms on the EAST side of the Bay for their jobs on the WEST side of the Bay in the morning commute and flipping during the evening commute leaving their jobs on the WEST side going back to their bedrooms on the EAST side.

So those who deny any new bedrooms on the WEST side (Peninsula side) of the bay have denied a solution to the traffic congestion they complain bitterly about. Not just the high end bedrooms developers prefer, as they make more money, but the whole range as we live in a complete system where there are those who can afford high end and then the rest of us who make up our ‘system’…or at least I live in a holistic system of life…

Adding more traffic lanes will only increase the queue that will be filled up quickly as they continue to build more and more affordable and volumes of bedrooms ‘over there’…force to commute via their cars because #3 root cause is that our public transit isn’t good enough for them to abandon their vehicles to take public transit…

For every new ‘affordable’ bedroom built over here on the Peninsula…is potentially removing one maybe two vehicles from the commute traffic

There are several ways to partially solve the traffic issues now and in the future:

1) Direct large tech and biotech companies to build housing on their own campus, as Facebook and Google are doing. The housing needs to be accompanied by a small grocery/drug store and other necessities.
2) New large companies that cannot provide housing on their own campus or buy a housing nearby, should not be allowed to move here – they need to start their businesses somewhere else.
3) If possible, vote for people that “Make current residents' lives matter” not future residents.
Don't vote for people like Jerry Hill and Kevin Mullin for they have really done an U-turn on protecting our local residents from over development and siding with real estate, union and developers' interests and have voted to erode our local control ordinances. Also vote for city council members who will protect our local interests.
4) Limit new construction to fewer units/acre.
5) There are many things that are extremely difficult to mitigate like traffic, water supply, sewer/storm drain capacity and garbage capacity so overbuilding will only overburden existing facilities.
6) Save a trip by purchasing online. Gas and time savings, in most cases more than pays for the difference and reduces frustration and traffic.
7) Attend local elected officials Town Meetings – speak your mind about overbuilding, traffic etc.
8) Remember, for those that are planning on moving out because of the traffic etc., and have lived here for a long time, if you sell your house you may have to pay a substantial capital gains tax.

Coralin Feierbach, former Belmont CA mayor

I have two cars but leave them parked often. Thursday I walked for groceries and a few other supplies near my home. l often take public transit when it makes sense. I have several options. When I have to go to the city for work I take a shuttle to CalTrain and I am in the City within 45 minutes. I respond to emails or do work on the train. Yes, I live in San Mateo and you can do it if you plan.

Just look at those poor folks stuck on 101 and 92 heading for Dublin or Tracy. if we housed them here we would all be better off. Less air pollution, less traffic and a safer community.

Also...too many are stuck in "The Nixon Era" of cars, cars, cars as the basis for everything, including planning

The solution is not just addressing 'cars' or an LOS metric, but moving into the 21st Century of VMT on PW's type of mentality...and the need to move Planning away from the 20th Century LOS...to VMT or better yet Form Based Code Planning...that is the fastest growing planning metric in the country

Before retiring, commuted to anyone of my five offices. From Sunnyvale, to Cupertino, to Santa Clara, to San Francisco, to Milpitas and working from home. Typically a 32 mile one way…or more as had to go to several campus’s each day

Today, still commute occasionally to clients offices. From S San Jose, Redwood City, Milpitas, Menlo Park, San Bruno and San Francisco about once a week, but some weeks several times

Traffic patterns are amazingly about the same, albeit with much more volume.

Design/help clients, clients acquire a firm…to the invariable question to an all too common problem that was listed in my presentation’s “Risks and Issues” section…that they never read and/or did not understand….

They finally realize their the new employees are commuting 1-2-3 or more hours one way to the Peninsula. What to do???

Showed one how they could plead the case with a city to build bedrooms for their employees…they are now planning two more bedroom communities on the Peninsula

Anyone check out what is happening in San Carlos along the rail road station ? New high density bedrooms same being built…with more in the pipe

This all goes to my three root causes. Simplistic in a way, but that is the root cause among the other root causes.

#1….Over population and will never solve that in my life time
#2….Dissociation of location between jobs vs bedrooms..so they have to commute between them
#3….Public Transit system isn’t good enough. This includes our roadways. If it was good enough, folks would NOT NEED to commute via auto’s. They could take public transit and could live even farther away…to take HSR from Tahoe to the Peninsula.

Interesting fact…MTC by accident found and coined/named a study of theirs. Even started a program, but have not heard anything about is since finding it. This to me, indicative of how just increasing the numbers of ‘new’ bedrooms (of the right kind) on the Peninsula can make a HUGE impact on commute traffic/congestion. As a small percentage of folks who get Columbus day off…has a drop in commute traffic of about 50%-70%

They call it “Make Every Day Columbus Day: Active Operational Management” and here are the links :

http://bayareamonitor.org/the-congestion-conundrum/

http://www.itscalifornia.org/Content/AnnualMeetings/2015/Presentations/TS11-3-MTC-ITSProgramGenerateRevenue.pdf Page 8 shows that congestion on I-80 & US-101 drops 50%-70% on that Columbus Day Holiday weekend and ZERO congestion during a Labor Day Holiday where more folks have it off than Columbus Day

It's Gridlock already, any elected official that thinks more housing will help is Nuts.