September 5, 2012
1:30 – 3:30 pm
BD Biosciences
2222 Qume Drive
San Jose
Minutes
Transportation Policy Committee Meeting
Click for original background Agenda & Materials at the http://svlg.org/policy-areas/transportation/transportation-committee/transportation-committee-only (password BARTtoSV).
1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
The Transportation Policy Committee meeting was called to order at 1:30 p.m.
Transportation Committee Members:
Melissa Zucker, Solaria, TPC co-chair
Kerry Haywood, representing NetApp
Denny Yau, San Jose State University
Otto Melara, San Jose State University
Betty Garza, NXP Semiconductors
Tai Itani, Oracle Corporation
Millie Kinney, Santa Clara University
Angus Davol, Stanford University
Geoff Ryder, SAP
By phone:
Justin Bean, Streetline
Ted Huang, Webcor Builders
Katie Heatley, Outreach
Robin Suzuki, Casto Travel
Ahmad Thomas, Barclays
Staff:
Jessica Zenk, Senior Director of Transportation
Bena Chang, Senior Associate of Transportation and Housing
Zoe Mullendore, Coordinator of Transportation Policy & Presidential Projects
2. TPC Minutes Approval
Motion—M/S Angus Davol / Otto Melara —Carried unanimously
Approve the minutes of the August 2012 TPC meeting.
3. Transportation Work Plan
a. Overview & Mission Statement: Jessica Zenk from the Leadership Group talked about the mission statement of the Transportation Policy Committee. Angus Davol from Stanford University commented on the usefulness of the TPC page in the program as it gives a concise synopsis of the Transportation Policy Committee’s foundation. Angus then commented on how the second bullet “Increase the capacity and maximize the efficiency of our transportation system” could be misinterpreted as increasing highway lanes rather than sustainable or public transportation. Angus also mentioned that it would be useful to put past accomplishments of the committee on the TPC Mission document.
b. 2012 Progress Report & Feedback: Jessica Zenk from the Leadership Group then spoke about the 2012 accomplishments in transportation.
i. Airport – Increased service to SJC through securing ANA flight to Tokyo and direct executive-to-executive lobbying at Leadership Group Events.
Bena Chang from the Leadership Group talked about how ANA is going to have a launch party at the end of the year to celebrate their inaugural flight on Jan. 11, 2013.
Katie Heatley from Outreach said that SJC is #1 in the country for on-time flights and that they have to market this fact better.
Betty Garza talked about how service to SJC is decreasing due to the fact that their prices are not as competitive as SFO, need to bring prices down in order to become attractive to accounting department of companies.
ii. Caltrian & High Speed Rail – Caltrain will be electrified by 2019, which will decrease the operating deficit & increase service. The first phase of funding has been approved.
iii. Green Vehicles – Charged 2012 brought together over 230 leaders in EV technology, CARB adopted aggressive ZEV standards & the Obama administration adopted historic increases in CAFE standards.
iv. Bart to Silicon Valley – Phase 1 has begun construction!
v. Connectivity - Teaming with housing and land use to bring transportation to expansive Santa Clara County (very spread out, not great for public transportation)
Betty Garza talked about the stigma of public buses and asked if using more, smaller shuttles, and fewer empty buses, would increase ridership. Angus Davol mentioned that at Stanford they implemented a similar plan in the past (bringing smaller shuttles on off peak hours and big buses on peak hours) but the costs became too high and it made more sense to keep large buses throughout the day.
Ahmad Thomas from Barclays asked if the priority was to relieve traffic congestion on the highways, Jessica Zenk said not exactly, although that’s an outcome of many projects. The Leadership Group is not advocating for additional highway capacity, but does promotie alternatives to solo driving (biking, walking, public transportation, etc.).
Betty Garza asked how VTA decide their bus routes? Jessica said that VTA did an analysis of over/under-utilized routes 2 years ago in order to improve efficiency and decreases time spent on light rail in downtown SJ.
vi. Active Transportation – Promotion of sidewalks and bike lanes to increase alternate transportation.
vii. Transportation Financial Sustainability – AB 57 passed, increasing Santa Clara County & San Jose’s representation on MTC. Partial win is Federal Surface Transportation Authorization passed 27 month ext.
c. Member Forums & Information Sharing – Jessica Zenk talked about member campuses that are incorporating bike and car shares, EV charging and urban landscapes (Facebook) and tours. Additionally, Jessica spoke about increasing telecommuting. Betty Garza seconded stating that telecommuting is not universally accepted and allowed at companies but it is a great option that should be further promoted.
Katie Heatley from Outreach talked about how she would like the Leadership Group to focus more on private groups (Apple, Google) transportation. TPC used to focus more attention on the private sector but recently public transportation has been huge focus. A lot of innovation is being ignored. Geoff Ryder seconded Katie’s comment.
d. Proposed 2013 Work Plan – Jessica Zenk then turned the focus to the 2013 work plan ideas. Much discussion went to whether modes and projects should be main focus or if values should be big part of work plan.
Connectivity (Value) – Angus Davol asked if we could champion different projects and change aspects from values side to project side. Jessica Zenk said connectivity could be on project side but it would always be associated with a specific project.
Betty asked if active transportation included sidewalks and street lamps because although she has a light rail station near her home there is not a sidewalk and not enough street lamps (safety issue). Jessica said it did include sidewalks.
Idea put forth to have work plan both broad (connectivity as project) and specific (putting multiple projects inside connectivity box). Jessica Zenk mentioned that Silicon Valley and Leadership Group members have rallied around BART to SV, but are unlikely to rally the same way around ‘connectivity’.
e. Questions and Discussion – Jessica Zenk asked members if TPC represented their companies’ transportation goals and what their goals were?
Bena said that Paul Sheppard from Cargill’s goal was Dumbarton rail. Kerry Haywood asked if funding from Measure A was still available for Dumbarton rail, Katie Heatley said that yes it is still available but costs have gone up.
Melissa Zucker from Solaria said that connectivity is always one of the most important issues, everyone needs to get from point a to point b.
-Jessica Zenk then asked if each members coworkers wanted to get around using a car or if there was a desire for alternate methods of transport?
Betty Garza talked about how her daughters are in college and having a car is a pain due to parking restrictions and costs in cities. Once people start using public transportation they like it, but getting them on the first time is difficult due to stigma. Otto and Denny from SJSU talked about the barriers to using public transportation and for students the deciding factor is going to be cost. If they can only afford textbooks or parking, they are going to choose textbooks. Kerry Haywood seconded barriers comment. Melissa Zucker talked about the difficulty in getting people to get out of their cars and talked about letting bikes on BART. Creativity is necessary in getting people out of their cars. Pre-tax is more for cars than sharing, transit management and shuttle sharing is a possibility. Angus Davol talked about Apple and Stanford shuttle sharing but it is hard to due for privacy reasons and shuttle is an employee perk.
Bena Chang talked about past Cool Commutes program and possible ways it could be improved. Angus Davol said workshop could be good networking opportunity. Betty Garza asked if Leadership Group was connecting health and transit at school and company events? Jessica Zenk said some member companies do a version of Cool Commutes (the Great Race for Clean Air); we’d consider revising it, but don’t want to duplicate efforts (in this case or generally). Katie Heatley talked about how SVLG should not forget its identity and it is necessary for the TPC work plan to be consistent with Board of Directors vision.
f. Conclusions – Top projects for the next period (2013-2015) appear to be BART, Caltrain, Airport and the general concept of better connectivity (physical and virtual/technological); staff will work to refine the work plan document and solicit final buy in from the co-chairs before the work plan goes to the full membership at the Strategy Conference.
4. Announcements
· Legislative Wrap Up – End of California legislative session
o Federal Surface Transportation Authorization
§ Status: Passed & Signed by President; Partial Win on Content; need to lay foundation/$$
o AB 57: MTC Representation (Beall)
§ Status: Passed & Signed by Governor
o AB 2382: iTeam (Gordon)
§ Status: Died in Senate Appropriations
o SB 1298: Autonomous Vehicles (Padilla)
§ Status: In Senate as of 8/29/12
o SB 1339: Commute Benefit (Lee)
§ Status: On Governor’s Desk as of 8/29/12
· 9/6 Working Council
· 10/3 TPC Meeting – Tentatively at BART Extension HQ in Milpitas
· 10/11-10/12 Annual Strategy Conference
5. Meeting adjourned at 3:05 pm