Complete Streets Program

• Overview

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  Complete Streets are streets for everyone. They are planned, designed and operated for safe mobility for all users including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit users of all ages and abilities. VTA, in a collaborative effort with its Member Agencies and partner agencies such as Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), has developed a Complete Streets Program for Santa Clara County. The main objective of this program is to formulate a process for implementing incremental improvements to make the streets in Santa Clara County more complete. VTA’s Complete Streets Program currently consists of three activity areas:

  • Policy
  • Education and Outreach
  • Corridor Studies

   

  The following memorandum and presentation provides further background information on VTA’s Complete Streets Program and on Complete Streets efforts in Santa Clara County.

  Complete Street Memorandum and Presentation (August 2012) 

• Policy

• Updating local and regional policies is an important step in setting the framework for Complete Streets improvements.  Over the past several years, VTA has partnered with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and its Member Agencies to set a policy framework that supports the implementation of Complete Streets.  One milestone in this effort was the establishment of criteria for the initial round of the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) program, which distributed certain Federal flexible transportation grant funds for fiscal years 2013 through 2016.  The following memorandum summarizes the criteria developed for the OBAG countywide competitive Complete Streets program in Santa Clara County in late 2012.

  • One Bay Area Grant (OBAG): Local Program Development Criteria (October 2012)

  VTA and its Member Agencies are in the process of developing the framework for the second round of OBAG funding in Santa Clara County in fall 2015.

• Outreach & Education

• Over the past several years, VTA has undertaken a number of efforts to educate and reach out to local agency staff, elected officials and other stakeholders about Complete Streets in Santa Clara County.  In October 2012, VTA partnered with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and other parties to present a Complete Streets Policy Development workshop.  In March 2015, VTA and the City of San Jose partnered with the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) to hold a two-day “Santa Clara County-San Jose Street Design Workshop.”  And in September 2015, VTA, the Santa Clara County Department of Public Health and other stakeholders partnered to host a workshop on “Overcoming Legal Obstacles to Complete Streets Design.” 

   

  The following are materials from these past education and outreach events:

  • MTC Complete Streets Policy Workshop  (October 2012)

  NACTO Santa Clara County-San Jose Street Design Workshop (March 2015) 

  • Day 1 Complete Streets Presentation
  • Day 2 Complete Streets Presentation

  Overcoming Legal Obstacles to Complete Streets Design Workshop (September 2015) - coming soon

• Corridor Studies

• In early 2015, VTA initiated a new phase of its Complete Streets program by beginning a series of corridor studies to implement Complete Streets elements along select roadways in Santa Clara County.  This planning effort is a partnership between VTA and its Member Agencies to transform select roadways into high-quality, multimodal streets that prioritize bicycle, pedestrian and transit travel while still serving motorists.  The following memorandum provides an overview of this corridor study effort:

  • VTA Great Streets: Complete Streets Corridor Study memo (February 2015)

   

  In Spring 2015, VTA secured grant funding to conduct three studies under this overall effort. These studies will begin in 2016 and will cover the following corridors:

  • The Story Road – Keyes Street corridor in San Jose
  • The Tasman Drive – Great Mall Parkway corridor in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose and Milpitas
  • The Bascom Avenue corridor in San Jose, Santa Clara County, and Campbell