1.
Bay Area Rapid Transit
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Bay Area Rapid Transit is a public transportation system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The rapid transit elevated and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in Alameda, Contra Costa, BART operates 5 routes on 104 miles of track connecting 45 stations, plus a 3. 2-mile automated guideway transit line to the Oakland International Airport which adds an additional station. A spur line in eastern Contra Costa County will utilize other rail technologies, with an average of 433,000 weekday passengers and 128.5 million annual passengers in fiscal year 2016, BART is the fifth-busiest heavy rail rapid transit system in the United States. The systems acronym is pronounced Bart, like the name, BART is operated by the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, formed in 1957. As of 2017, it is being expanded to San Jose with the consecutive Warm Springs, some of the Bay Area Rapid Transit Systems current coverage area was once served by an electrified streetcar and suburban train system called the Key System. This early 20th-century system once had regular trans-bay traffic across the deck of the Bay Bridge. By the mid-1950s, that system had been dismantled in favor of highway travel, a new rapid-transit system was proposed to take the place of the Key System during the late 1940s, and formal planning for it began in the 1950s. Some funding was secured for the BART system in 1959, passenger service began on September 11,1972, initially just between MacArthur and Fremont. All nine Bay Area counties were involved in the planning and envisioned to be connected by BART, before the system began revenue service, serious problems in the design and operation of the Automatic Train Control system were observed. Three engineers working for BART, Max Blankenzee, Robert Bruder, BART management was dismissive of their concerns, so the three took the issue to the board of directors. All but two of the directors voted in February 1972 to support management and reject the safety concerns, management retaliated against the engineers, firing them in March 1972. The IEEE later filed the first amicus brief in its history to support the engineers. The California Society of Professional Engineers reported to the California State Senate in June 1972 that there were serious safety risks with the ATC. Legislative analyst A. Alan Post, opened an investigation immediately, an ATC failure caused the train to run off the end of the elevated track and crash to the ground, injuring four people on-board, and drawing national and international attention. The “Fremont Flyer” led to a redesign of the train controls. The California State Public Utilities Commission imposed stringent oversight over train operations, the legislative analyst issued the first of three “Post Reports” in November 1972. The report was “sharply critical” of BART, finding that the ATC system was unreliable, the ATC program was mismanaged, and “no solution was in sight. ”The report accused BART of paying excessive fees for engineering services. BART’s general manager called the indictment of safety in the Post Report “not only disappointing, telephone calls were placed manually between stations, instead
2.
California County Routes in zone G
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There are 21 routes assigned to the G zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The G zone includes county highways in Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, County Route G1 is a road providing access to Fremont Peak State Park. County Route G2, more known as Lawrence Expressway and Quito Road, is a busy 9. 7-mile long north–south link through Silicon Valley in Northern California. The majority of G2 is part of the Santa Clara County Expressway System, G2 runs from the Quito Road overcrossing of SR85 in Saratoga, north along Quito Road. G2 is not signed along this section and is not commonly recognized as existing along this 2 lane road by either locals or mapmakers, the Quito Road portion is also maintained by the City of Saratoga rather than Santa Clara County. As the road leaves Saratoga and enters San Jose, it widens to a 6 lane county-maintained expressway with a concrete island divider, the Lawrence Expressway section from just south of Saratoga Avenue is more readily recognized as G2. Local residents almost exclusively refer to G2 as Lawrence Expressway, the road continues north, with access usually restricted to major intersections which are controlled via traffic lights. Lawrence Expressway continues northeasterly and junctions with I-280 and Stevens Creek Boulevard over a complex shared separated grade crossing, Lawrence proceeds under I-280 before immediately rising over Stevens Creek. Lawrence Expressway continues north into Santa Clara and widens to 8 lanes with an HOV lane occupying the far right lane, Lawrence Expressway also has another separated grade interchange with El Camino Real with Lawrence Expressway passing over El Camino Real just prior to Lawrence Expressway entering Sunnyvale. Lawrence Expressway also passes under Central Expressway on a separated grade interchange, the US101 interchange was upgraded in the early 2000s to include traffic light control on G2. G2 reaches its terminus at the end of Lawrence Expressway at the SR237 Freeway. The physical road continues north as Caribbean Drive, the designation G2 existed to the 1950s. The route replaced what was originally called Lawrence Station Road, from Mountain View-Alviso Road in the north to Stevens Creek Blvd. on the south, roughly paralleling Saratoga Creek. Crossing Stevens Creek, the route was originally called Doyle Road, the section between Doyle and Saratoga Avenue at Quito Road was originally orchards. G2 was first signed as a Santa Clara County Route in 1962 as construction was completing on sections of the upgrade to an expressway, County Route G2 was originally planned to link up with SR85 when it was built. At the time of G2s inception SR85 was in the planning stages. G2 is unsigned from SR85 to Saratoga Avenue along Quito Road, North of Saratoga Avenue Lawrence Expressway is currently signed as G2. In the 1990s Lawrence Expressway was widened north of I-280 to 8 lanes to accommodate an HOV carpool lane, the section of Quito Road between Bucknall Road and Saratoga Avenue in Saratoga is slated for expansion to 3 lanes in the fall of 2006
3.
Milpitas, California
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Milpitas /mɪlˈpiːtəs/ is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the end of State Route 237. With Alameda County bordering directly on the north, Milpitas sits in the extreme northeast section of the South Bay, bordering the East Bay, Milpitas is also located within the Silicon Valley. The corporate headquarters of Maxtor, LSI Corporation, Adaptec, Intersil, FireEye, Viavi and Lumentum, KLA-Tencor, SanDisk, Flex and Cisco also have offices in Milpitas. The population was 66,790 at the 2010 census, Milpitas was first inhabited by the Tamyen, a linguistic subgroup of the Muwekma Ohlone people who had resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for thousands of years. The Ohlone Indians lived a life based on everyday hunting and gathering. Some of the Ohlone lived in villages within what is now Milpitas, including sites underneath what are now the Calvary Assembly of God Church. Archaeological evidence gathered from Ohlone graves at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in 1993 revealed a rich trade with tribes from Sacramento to Monterey. During the Spanish expeditions of the late 18th century, several missions were founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, during the mission period, Milpitas served as a crossroads between Mission San José de Guadalupe in modern-day Fremont and Mission Santa Clara de Asis, in present Santa Clara. Jose Maria Alviso was the son of Francisco Xavier Alviso and Maria Bojorquez, both landowners had built prominent adobe homes on their properties. Today, both still exist and are the oldest structures in Milpitas. The seriously eroded walls of the Jose Higuera Adobe, now in Higuera Adobe Park, are encapsulated in a shell built c.1970 by Marian Weller. The Alviso Adobe can be mostly in its original form with one kitchen addition made by the Cuciz family after they purchased the adobe from the Gleason family in 1922. Alviso Adobe History Park is to be opened, after the restoration of the adobe and outbuildings is completed, as an educational museum with historic items, trees, buildings. In the 1850s, large numbers of Americans of English, German, the Burnett, Rose, Dempsey, Jacklin, Trimble, Ayer, Parks, Wool, Weller, Minnis, and Evans are among the early settlers of Milpitas. These early settlers farmed the land that was once the ranchos, some set up businesses on what was then called Mission Road between Calaveras Road and the Alviso-Milpitas Road. By the late 20th century this became known as the Midtown district. Yet another influx of immigration came in the 1870s and 1880s as Portuguese sharecroppers from the Azores came to farm the Milpitas hillsides, many of the Azoreans had such locally well-known surnames like Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Nunes, Spangler, Serpa, and Silva
4.
Richmond station (California)
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Richmond Station is an at-grade Bay Area Rapid Transit and Amtrak station located in Richmond, California. Each system is served by an island platform, the Capitol Corridor, San Joaquins, and California Zephyr stop here and connect to BART. The station was rebuilt and rededicated on October 18,2007, the Metro Walk - Richmond Transit Village is adjacent, north of the station is a BART rail yard. This station has identified as an important hub in the transportation network for metropolitan. Around that same time the Southern Pacific Railroad opened a station just south of the current station at MacDonald Avenue, BART service at this station began along dedicated tracks that paralleled the SP line on January 29,1973. Amtrak service to the station started, using the SP lines tracks, a station house for the Amtrak service was constructed in 1984. A transit village and rebuild of the approach to the station was started in 2007. A transit store opened at the station in August 2008, joining other major stations in the system, the Coast Starlight no longer stops at Richmond as of January 14,2013. The station is served by two bus agencies, AC Transit provides a variety of local and regional service. Routes 70,71, 72M,74, and 76 provide local intra-city service and also feeder service into the BART, routes 376 and 800 both provide late night service. It is the route in the All Nighter regional Bay Area network. There is also a free Kaiser Shuttle service to the nearby Richmond Medical Center, of the 74 California stations served by Amtrak, Richmond was the 16th-busiest in FY2012, boarding or alighting an average of about 773 passengers daily. List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations BART - Richmond Station Overview Capitol Corridor Richmond Station Page Amtrak Station Information Page Richmond --Great American Stations
5.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
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It is one of the governing parties for the Caltrain commuter rail line that serves the county. In 1969, Santa Clara County had three private bus companies, all of which were in financial trouble, Peninsula Transit, San Jose City Lines. The California Legislature passed a Santa Clara County Transit District Act in 1969, however, the Act did not supply any funding for the new district. The formation of the Santa Clara County Transit District was rejected in 1969 and 1970 before it was approved by county voters on June 6,1972. The SCCTD took over the operations of the three old bus companies on January 1,1973, on September 26,1974, the county Board of Supervisors dissolved the Public Works Department. Non-transit operations went into a new General Services Agency, while transit operations were placed into a new Santa Clara County Transportation Agency. In its early years the Santa Clara County Transportation District approached the task of replacing the bus fleet it inherited from its predecessors, at first the district bought propane-fueled Twin Coaches and Gilligs. SCCTD switched to an all-diesel fleet after six buses went up in flames between December 1977 and April 1978, at the time, critics referred to the buses as rolling propane bombs. On March 6,1976, Santa Clara County voters approved a half-cent sales tax, Measure A, in 1977, the primary Overhaul and Repair Facility was built at the Cerone Yard. Also in 1977, County Supervisors decided to change the bus fleet from propane to diesel, by 1979, three additional bus yards were built and commissioned into service. Another issue was improving the diversity of its workforce, in December 1978, the SCCTD approved an affirmative action plan for the Transportation Agency. After a long battle, the U. S. Supreme Court by a 6-3 majority upheld the gender component of the plan against a civil rights challenge on March 25,1987. On January 1,1995, the SCCTA merged with the county Congestion Management Agency to become the SCVTA, for convenience, the acronym was later shortened to VTA. In 1996, voters approved a half-cent general county sales tax, Measure B, the measure was challenged, but in 1998, the California Supreme Court ruled that the two measure system was valid. The tax was to be collected for ten years, in 2000, voters approved a 30-year extension of the 1996 sales tax to fund an extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit to Santa Clara. The measure was placed on the ballot by the VTA and does not include funding specifically for highway projects, the measure passed with 70% of the vote. Revenues from the tax would not begin being collected until April 2006. After 2000, due to the dot-com bust, existing revenue sources declined and VTA was forced to cut service, VTA introduced a series of fare increases between 1998 and 2005
6.
AC Transit
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AC Transit is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates Transbay routes across San Francisco Bay to San Francisco and selected areas in San Mateo, AC Transit is constituted as a special district under California law. It is governed by seven elected members and it is not a part of or under the control of Alameda or Contra Costa counties or any local jurisdictions. Buses operate out of three operating divisions, Emeryville, East Oakland, and Hayward, the Operations Control Center is located in Emeryville. The Richmond operating division closed in 2011, the District is the public successor to the privately owned Key System. The Districts bus lines also serve parts of some other East Bay communities, including Milpitas, Pinole, most routes connect with regional train service, primarily BART, in addition to ACE and Amtrak, including the Capitol Corridor. While most AC Transit service consists of lines throughout the East Bay. Most of these run across the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge to connect communities as distant as El Sobrante, Bus service is also provided across the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges to the south. AC Transits primary hubs include BART stations, major shopping centers, and points of interest, most routes serve and/or terminate at BART stations, providing convenience for transit users. The hubs include, See also AC Transits page on fares and passes or AC Transits page on bus fares, on July 1,2014, AC Transit introduced a Day Pass, designed for customers taking more than two local buses in a day. The pass is good for unlimited rides on local routes from 3,01 a. m. to 3,00 a. m. Customers can obtain a Day Pass in one of two ways, Using Clipper, Customers keep cash value on their card. Once fares equalling the Day Pass price have been deducted, the Day Pass automatically activates, on subsequent rides, the card is tagged but no additional fare is deducted. On-Board, Customers deposit the amount in the farebox and request a Day Pass from the bus operator. On subsequent rides, the pass is swiped at the farebox, AC Transit fares are structured to promote the use of Clipper. Not only are local bus rides cheaper, but certain interagency transfers and day passes are easier to obtain, monthly passes are only available on Clipper. Local BART-to-bus transfer, $0.25 cash discount to and from BART with paper transfer issued at BART, applied as $0.50 Clipper discount on bus trip away from BART only. To transfer from AC Transit to another bus agency without Clipper, to transfer from another bus agency to AC Transit without Clipper, ask the other bus driver for a transfer. Notes, All fares are in USD,1 Issued upon request when full price is paid
7.
Ed R. Levin County Park
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Ed R. Levin County Park is the largest park in Milpitas, California. It is run by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department and is located in the foothills of Diablo Range east of the Santa Clara Valley. Monument Peak can be accessed through trails in the park, the parks recreational facilities include a hang gliding and paragliding area, a dog park, and horseback riding areas. Ed R. Levin County Park has two lakes, Sandy Wool Lake and Spring Valley Pond, both of them are reservoirs which collect runoff water from the hills to the east. It is home to some of the East Bay Walls, ed R. Levin County Park Official Website
8.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
9.
Warm Springs/South Fremont station
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Warm Springs / South Fremont is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Fremont, California. Service began on March 25,2017, during peak hours, weekdays before 6,00 p. m. this station has four trains per hour on the San Francisco and Daly City line. In comparison, the neighboring Fremont station has eight trains per hour running on the Daly City, during off-peak hours, both stations are served by the Richmond line with three trains per hour. The reason for only having one of the lines serve this station at any time is a shortage of available train cars. Originally targeted for 2014, the start of service was delayed repeatedly, service terminates at this station pending completion of the Milpitas and Berryessa stations. The station has a platform, overhead concourse, connections to AC Transit,2,082 parking spaces on 34 acres at ground level, bicycle lockers. AC Transit buses, not VTA buses, serve this station, planning for the Warm Springs extension began as early as 1994, and BART estimated it would cost $550 million with 7,800 daily riders by 2010. A1994 study by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission forecast 3,200 daily riders in 2010, as of 2010, construction was underway with an estimated cost of $890 million, but the final cost was reduced to $790 million. The cost of the subway segment under the lake in Fremont was reduced by 45% from the estimate of $249 million to $136 million. Service began on on March 25,2017, the extension broke ground in 2009. Construction of the began in 2011, and was expected to take three and a half years. However, the opening was pushed back from the original 2014, to fall 2015, to early 2016, to spring 2016, to summer 2016, to fall 2016, to late fall 2016, to winter 2017, and to spring 2017. The schedule for opening was withdrawn, because it was hard to predict, the yet-to-open station was fully staffed six months in advance of the opening, due to a union contract. The station was expected to open as an October surprise, an event for the November 8 vote on a BART bond measure. In 2011 the city of Fremont approved $90,000 to lobby against construction of a Union Pacific rail yard adjacent to the station, a pedestrian and bicycle bridge to the west side of the station is planned for completion in 2018
10.
Side platform
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A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with a platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of platforms is often provided on a dual-track line. Where the station is close to a crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the near-side platforms configuration, each platform appears before the intersection, in some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles simultaneously with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length. Normally, the facilities of the station are located on the Up platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge. However, in cases the stations main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two platforms with several island platforms in between. Some are in a Spanish solution format, with two platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks
11.
Santa Clara County Library District
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The Santa Clara County Library District is a public library system headquartered in Campbell, California. The library serves the communities and cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, San Jose, the county seat, is served by its own municipal library system. The Santa Clara County Library District has been recognized as a library by Library Journal. As of 2015, the Santa Clara County Library had a collection totaling 1.9 million items. Member libraries include Campbell Library, Cupertino Library, Gilroy Library, Los Altos Library, Woodland Branch Library, Milpitas Library, Morgan Hill Library, there is also a Bookmobile to serve residents who may experience difficulty traveling to a community library. The system formerly had its headquarters in Los Gatos, the Santa Clara County Library District is an open forum promoting knowledge, ideas, and cultural enrichment. The library provides access to informational, educational, and recreational materials. In response to community needs, the library provides resources on a wide variety of subjects and viewpoints. The library is committed to a positive patron experience, the library respects the individual and provides quality services in a non-judgmental way. The library promotes the love of books and the importance of reading, the library ensures equal and open access to one relevant, diverse, and substantial collection for the entire community. The library fosters lifelong learning, promotes cultural enrichment, and supports education, the library recognizes and respects staff as valuable and essential to quality library services today and into the future. The library welcomes volunteers and appreciates their contributions of time and talent, the library ensures that physical spaces are welcoming, safe, clean, and accessible. The library is committed to freedom and the privacy rights of all patrons. In July 1914, Santa Clara County began operating a county library, stella Huntington was appointed the first County Librarian and to begin operations, she purchased a typewriter, dictionary, and a desk with two chairs. In the first year of service the collection consisted of 6,127 books, two years earlier, a one-cent tax had been levied for the purpose of supporting a county library. It provided $3,700 for the first year of operation, seventeen branches were opened, the population of Santa Clara County at that time was approximately 90,000. Miss Elizabeth Stevens, later Mrs. Elizabeth Singletary, was appointed as the second County Librarian, by 1932, the Library operated on a budget of $25,000 and had a total of 30 branch libraries. In December 1932, the County Library assumed responsibility for service to all County schools except those in San Jose, Palo Alto
12.
Silicon Valley BART extension
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The Silicon Valley BART extension will expand service by Bay Area Rapid Transit into Santa Clara County, from its former terminus at the Fremont station in Alameda County. The extension has seven stations in three phases, the $790-million first phase was the Warm Springs/South Fremont station, that opened in March 2017. It broke ground in 2009, and completion had been expected in 2014, the $2. 3-billion second-phase has the Milpitas and Berryessa stations, both expected to open in fall 2017 or 2018. The second phase broke ground in 2012, and completion had been expected in 2016, a partnership between BART and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is building the second phase, while BART will operate and maintain the entire extension. The proposed $4. 7-billion third phase remains unfunded, targeted for completion in 2025–2026, it would add three new subway stations west of Berryessa, Alum Rock, Downtown San Jose, and Diridon/Arena, and a new surface station in Santa Clara. Santa Clara County was originally going to have part of the BART system. Minor service at Palo Alto right over the border from San Mateo County was also planned originally, in 2000, Santa Clara County voters approved a 30-year half-cent sales tax increase to fund BART, which took effect in 2006. To make up for a shortfall in projected federal funding, an increase in the tax by ⅛ of 1% was proposed if additional federal funding were secured. The economy worsened in 2009, and the 2000 sales tax was projected to generate $7 billion which was short of the originally expected $11 billion, as a consequence, the number of planned stations was reduced. In addition, the line from Berryessa to downtown San Jose was delayed until 2025 and this line may or may not include Santa Clara. Construction of the Warm Springs extension began in 2009, VTA awarded $770 million to Skanska-Shimmick-Herzog in 2011 for the first phase of the Berryessa extension, and the federal government granted $900 million for the project in 2012. It was scheduled to open in 2016, despite substantial incentives if the opening were pulled in by 18 months to 2016, the Milpitas and Berryessa stations are expected to open in fall 2017 or 2018. VTA sought funding from the federal New Starts program in 2016, a half-cent 30-year sales tax passed in the 2016 elections, to raise $6.0 to $6.5 billion with up to 25% of this for BART or up to $1.6 billion. VTA also sought $1.5 billion from New Starts, and $750 million from the California Cap, the $790 million extension to Warm Springs is five miles long, the first part of BARTs Silicon Valley extension. The original estimate was $890 million, the cost of the subway segment under the lake in Fremont was reduced by 45% from the original estimate of $249 million to $136 million. The station opened on March 25,2017, the extension broke ground in 2009. Construction of the began in 2011, and was expected to take three and a half years. Construction of the $2.3 billion Berryessa extension started in 2012, while the opening has been delayed to fall 2017, or 2018, transit officials claimed that the project was ahead of schedule as of 2016
