Mountain View Voice guest opinion
June 17, 2016
In Mountain View we love our downtown. My neighbors, family, and I enjoy walking to Castro Street, where we can select from a wide variety of delightful restaurants. When I tell elected officials elsewhere in our region that I’m from Mountain View, they rush to volunteer the name of their favorite Mountain View eating-place.
But Castro Street doesn’t do so well as a thru-way. When the trains are running, traffic backs up in all directions. As Caltrain electrification and high-speed rail bring even more trains, traffic could get much, much worse.
Fortunately, there is a solution that will improve traffic, enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety, and strengthen the vibrancy of our downtown. Closing Castro to auto traffic at the railroad tracks is one part of that solution.
We learned a long time ago that having people delayed in traffic is a poor way to get them to try the restaurants and other retailers where they find themselves “parked.” Walking the sidewalks works better, and in this day and age many people use the internet and mobile phones to surf the landscape, picking out destinations and making reservations from the comfort of their homes or cars.
Here’s my vision for re-plumbing downtown mobility:
- Close Castro Street at the railroad tracks, and connect Evelyn across Castro. If possible, connect Evelyn to Shoreline Boulevard, and even run Evelyn under Shoreline. Use the space freed up on the north side of the tracks to harbor the shuttle buses that connect the Transit Center to the northern half of town, routing them away from the neighborhoods they currently disrupt.
- Eliminate all grade crossings for vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians. Provide round-the-clock, well-lit, ADA- compliant pathways for bikes and pedestrians under or over the tracks, Central Expressway, and even Moffett Boulevard. No one should have to walk across tracks to catch the northbound Caltrain or light rail. Let’s face it: The Chamber of Commerce’s proposal to continue relying on crossing gates does not pass the safety test.
- There is an ancillary benefit to removing all grade crossings. The ear-splitting train horns, which many of us hear late into the night, would go away.
Finally, move the Transit Center to the west, building it as a gateway at the end of Castro Street, connecting to and enhancing downtown. Now it’s simply a parking lot where one can catch a train or bus. I envision a multi-level Transit Center that includes stores, restaurants, protected bicycle parking, bathrooms, and bike-ped grade separations that just seem like part of the building. We’ll need longer platforms and level boarding to accommodate the new trains. Maybe, with quieter trains and no horns, we can even create housing on upper floors.
And yes, we’ll still need parking and boarding platforms. In the long run, the Transit Center could serve more than Caltrain, light rail, and the public and private buses. It should anchor our proposed elevated link to North Bayshore, tie into a Highway 85 corridor transit system, serve as a ride-sharing/van-pooling hub, and perhaps even serve as a station on high-speed rail.
This approach not only would save us money by avoiding the need to burrow a full roadway under the tracks, but it would implement the hottest concept in transit funding: value capture. The rent or other payments from uses that occupy the new Transit Center could not only help fund the construction and operation of the center itself, but could help defray the ongoing costs of the transit system.
If we think carefully and creatively, we can turn the challenge of impassable traffic into an opportunity to improve mobility, enhance safety, and strengthen our downtown.
Lenny Siegel is a member of the Mountain View City Council.