A region dominated by automobile-friendly infrastructure has released a Draft EIR for a bus rapid transit project connecting central San Jose to Palo Alto via El Camino Real.
El Camino Real was the road originally used by Spanish missionaries as they founded missions throughout California. Now, that road is the focus of the latest BRT project in the Silicon Valley, destined to connect central San Jose and Palo Alto. El Camino Real runs through or nearby many downtowns on the peninsula, including San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto.
According to Jarrett Walker of the Human Transit blog, "[in] land use terms, the project corridor is ideal territory for transit—lots of employment and commercial destinations, with strong anchoring institutions at each end... the modern street was designed with a singular focus on auto travel time, as a six-lane divided boulevard. Auto and transit travel times continue to increase substantially as more people come to live and work in the corridor, and even more population and employment growth is forecast for the coming decades."
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the Federal Transit Administration released the Draft Environmental Impact Report, evaluating a number of alternatives varying in dedicated lane extent and various street configurations.
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