It makes no sense to look at highly risky, unproven "Star Wars" solutions to provide access to North Bayshore. Mountain View already has the basis for such access --- the Light Rail System. This much maligned and grossly underutilized low tech system already exists and is paid for. Just run a short light rail shuttle spur from Ellis St & Fairchild Dr to the end of La Avaneda at Stevens Creek in N Bayshore. The light rail shuttle then can be met by shuttle buses, or riders can bicycle or walk to and from work. This is by far the most practical way, and its biggest problem would be getting NASA's permission to gain right of way over NASA land.

The light rail extension through NASA seems like a good idea, I think it could work and carry a lot of people not like the little pod concepts which seem like amusement rides

Before there was a company named Google, the City of Mountain View put down 20 million dollars to bring Light Rail to Mountain View. Has the city put any effort into extending the Light Rail from Ellis Street / 101 to North Bayshore? The Light Rail is already on the other side of 101. Extending it to North Bayshore would be an efficient way for commuters to get off Caltrain and get on Light Rail to their jobs in North Bayshore. Plus they could also choose to take Light Rail from North Bayshore to Milpitas BART. Plus, concert goers would have a way to get to Shoreline Amphitheater using Light Rail instead of their cars.

Oh good God, will this idea never die? The council needs to spend some time reading articles at the Light Rail Now website. Web Link

Isn't there already a light rail track branching off the tracks near 101 and going onto the NASA campus through a large gate? Where does it go? I've never seen the gate open nor anything on the rails.

The Los Altos Town Crier published a good op-ed on the PRT issue today: Web Link

there are tracks going onto the NASA campus but they don't go very far beyond the gates anymore. You can see them on on google maps

This is an absolute joke and a waste of time / money. If the city is serious about transit to North Bayshore then look into ways to extend the light rail. Jetsons cars are never going to happen. If some local startup wants to build it on their own, make them put $1 billion in a construction escrow account, then we can begin to start talking. Otherwise they are taking us on a ride.. and not a ride to North Bayshore, that's for sure.

I'm with Juan-let the fat cat corporations like google bankroll this. Didn't we just vote to bump up the sales tax to feed VTA?

PRT proponents never address the fact that this concept combines the worst aspects of the private automobile, i.e. low vehicle capacity, with the worst aspects of public transport, i.e. an expensive and complicated infrastructure. Back to the drawing board.

Surprise trail is not given much time in this piece. Please include information on how the Stevens Creek trails factors into transit master plan for our community. By the way, is the erosion damage to stevens creek trail construction going to get done in summer 2017 or what? We need an update.

Ray

What does @Raymond Hughan's comments have to do with this article. The issue is whether Mountain should build gadgetbahn from downtown to North Bayshore. Trails are beside the point.

Before dismissing the PRT in favor of light rail, compare the costs. Light rail projects have cost $100 million per mile ($62,000,000/km) while SkyTran would cost only $10 million per mile ($6,200,000/km) (DeBolt, Daniel. "Could investors fund city's transit future?". Mountain View Voice, April 1, 2010).

@PRT is a Joke - correct. Russel and others: M. Abrasion does not seem to realize (I hope it is just that) that PRT "Skytrain" is just ride-in-the-sky and not a real system. There have been no Alpha Tests of a small complete working system. There seem very few private investors.

"Only $10 million per mile" is just a guess and a hope while other transit systems mentioned have working examples. Extend VTA's Light Rail for a mile into NASA campus? I don't think that would take $100 - the land can be donated by the Fed Gov as part of the development process, the cost can be partially covered as a required part of 'developers contribution to traffic mitigation'.

And the guideway autonomous vehicles now have many suppliers who can show decades of operational systems working at airports etc. throughout the world. Shoreline/NASA Campus/Transit Center public transit connects are not really "rocket science!" Just good, proven early 21st century solutions are needed.

For years the Council has been talking about putting a new high-tech system in to connect to North Bayshore from downtown. This, while rents are skyrocketing and more people are living on the street.

After 6 years of using public transportation almost exclusively, I just bought a car. I got sick and tired of seeing the same people on Council, that want everyone to use Public Transportation, driving past me while I carried 80 lbs of groceries on my back while walking from the Shoreline Safeway to downtown MV every week.

While a high tech solution might make Mountain View look 'cool', who is going to pay for it? (Probably the Taxpayers a.k.a. the Preferred ATMs for Politicians).

I am confident that if there is truly a demand for service to the North Bayshore, the market will find a way to do it quickly, efficiently, and as inexpensively as possible. Uber and Lyft are better alternatives than public transit, especially if you are travelling with someone else since you only pay one fare instead of per person like the VTA, BART and Caltrain charge.

Here's another thought, since Google has de facto control over the North Bayshore anyway, why not have them provide the alternate transportation system for their employees? I hear they are working on driverless cars. Has anyone thought that these might be able to be useful for shuttling their people (and perhaps even the public) back and forth?


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

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