There is another way this lane dedication by VTA hurts traffic. If VTA were truly responsive, they might actually provide services which would reduce car trips from residents among the neighborhoods. Right now the only usable service is along El Camino Real, from the 22 route. There are lightly usable routes that come from outside the area and cross El Camino Real, headed to NASA Ames for two of them. One comes from Foothill College down El Monte and one takes a crazy route from Deanza College, both headed to Ames.

VTA could operate more of the local shuttle routes such as the city is sponsoring with Google's help, and those could connect with service along El Camino Real in multiple places, unlike now. Instead of designing services that combine vehicles on the road beyond El Camino Real, VTA proposes to increase service on 522 with only two stops, which is an existing rapid bus service which is lightly used. They claim there's more need for that.

So in our area, you get little bus service unless you are leaving town! And then, only if you leave from one of 2 stops on El Camino. Is that responsive local transit service?

Wow. @Amen is the first ive seen make an excellent point! VTA is such a failure in MV that the city needs to rely on Google to actually service the community. Most successful mass transit provider in the area? Stanford.

Anyone dumb enough to rely on the promises of the people that brought you Light Rail deserve this City Council

In response to Angry Voter's original post, I would posit that the threat of children getting hit by cars in most Mountain View neighborhoods is caused by poor road design. Almost all residential streets in Mountain View, other than the really small ones in Old Mountain View (such as Loreto or Velarde) are far too wide, which encourages speeding. Most of these roads also have really wide intersections that allow for fast, sweeping turns by cars which further puts pedestrians and cyclists at risk. These roads were generally designed in the 1950s through the 1970s, in a time when engineers emphasized fast auto-mobility over everything else, and it shows.

The most effective thing the City can do to protect our kids from auto crashes is to redesign our streets and intersections to calm auto traffic. The most effective thing residents can do is to push our City Council and City staff to make this a priority.

I love the look at the wide streets, but as long as people like to drive as fast as possible, fatal accidents are inevitable. I agree with the above comment that something needs to be done. With ever increasing density, I would vote for dedicated bike lanes to help act as a barrier between cars and pedestrians, which would also shrink the width of the road.

For roads that are being used to bypass El Camino, the installation of speed bumps would help tremendously. But not the rounded ones like on Church St. Rather, use the thin sharply shaped ones that will really jar the automobile and driver . Problem solved.

VTA is having another meeting tomorrow, for their board, as pointed out by someone above. Buried in the meeting material after the VTA Budget Fantasy section is the summary of the reaction to the Draft EIR for BRT Route #2. They need board approval, eventually, for modifications to create the final EIR. I uploaded the DEIR summaries here. The attitude of the VTA staff is most distressing. Everyone against dedicated lanes should take a look at these 18 pages. Here it is: Web Link

I've seen kids get hit by cars 2x in this area and near misses are frequent. The road design has remained unchanged in decades in this area from drivers trying to rush through. Rolled stop signs, aggressive positioning (darting in front of someone else), and speeding were the causes in the incidents I've seen recently. Incidents that will increase greatly if traffic starts pouring off a grid locked ECR looking for an escape.

Recall Rosenberg and Showalter for a safer MV!!!! Protect your kids!