Alert: Downtown to Avaya: VTA Line 231 is no longer in service

Do it!

Riding to the game is ok.
Riding back from the game is GREAT!. No parking lot cluster ******** as our Chico friends would say. Plus you usually have a pretty good buzz on. :0

The corral is just a bunch of barricades you can lock your bike to at the end of Earthquakes way. It's only secure in that it's visible and the SJPD like to mill about there.

 

I have never had a problem locking my bike to the "corral" of police barricades.

 

Yeah, riding to and from the game is great. I park about a mile away and pedal in - doesn't take more than 5 minutes either way and it's free, including parking of both car and bike .

 

I’m a hair under five miles away, so it would probably take a half-hour or less. Is there a way to get there and avoid Coleman and Martin?

 

Use the new tunnel from the train station and ride through the parking lots.

 

Reading the change in the policy, it appears that the Quakes are not the only team affected, as the Sharks are also losing the buses to downtown parking and light rail. If I am not mistaken, back when the arena was constructed, the downtown parking was considered to be part of the official arena parking in the planning stages because the planners accepted the idea that arena attendees could be easily bused to the downtown lots....or did I dream that? Oh well, it's just one of those things that happen when it's convenient I guess.

Personally, I believe that "public transit" is, and should always be "public transit" and used as a benefit for people, regardless what they might be doing, or where they might be going. This isn't a Quakes issue or an Avaya issue (IMO). It is a public use issue. It matters little what the particular public might be doing or where they are traveling to, be it home, work or an event. In the short term, it benefits many (both at Avaya and at the Shark Tank).

 

This statement on the VTA website makes it appear to me that the #10 bus won’t be operating as a shuttle to Avaya either (i.e. they won’t be doing what they did in prior seasons, and having several buses waiting, with empty ones available as they fill up and leave:

Please Note: There will be no extra service provided for Avaya Events. Line 10 will operate on regular schedule. Line 231 is no longer in service.

I hate VTA...

 

Yes, just the regularly-scheduled single bus every 30 minutes

 

Well, damn the Quakes for not really caring enough about their fans, and damn VTA for changing the rules in the middle of the game...

 

The tunnel is open

 

Yeah - as long as it doesn’t look like rain we’ll probably go that way!

 

Without 231, I wasn't able to make it today. Tix sold (under STH values as well, people were dumping tix today sigh), so I'll be watching on streams. Here's to a win!

I figured out a way to get there already (901 and 10), but will have to test it out another time, as it's raining today and I don't want to have timing issues when doing the transfers, my father is over 60 and I don't want to resort to walking that long mile. The new way will take me a full hour from start to finish, so 2 hours total will be spent commuting to/from the stadium. Whereas before it takes an hour to/fro. At this point I am 99% sure I will not be renewing my season tixs after this year.

Line 231 made the stadium almost Downtown-ish. Without that line, now it's just another stadium stuck out in an industrial burb, albeit still in San Jose proper. Sucks...

 

Sharks lost the line LAST season. I ended up going to only 4 Sharks game last season because of that. I used to go to about 9-10 games.

This season I still have not attended any Sharks games, due in part to that missing light rail line. I don't want to sit and wait at Convention Center station for eons for the transfer to go south, especially since it's cold right now.

 

Check your PM, ASAP.

 

Thanks Don! Unfortunately I scheduled a dinner with friends after tix were sold. Replied to you on PM as well. Thanks again! This is what Quakes fans are all about!!!

 

I saw lots (at least 100) people lined up at the #10 bustop across from Avaya after the game. Apparently clueless that there weren’t going to be buses for all of them. I wonder what happened when the one bus showed up??? The walk from Avaya to the SC Caltrain station was easy, although the state of the sidewalk along Coleman is criminal. We didn’t take the “back way” (i.e. through the parking lots) to Brokaw because of the fear it would be wet and muddy, but that should be a trivial walk normally. Next time I may bring my bike on my car and ride from Santa Clara to the stadium...

 

Crossing Coleman and walking on the airport side to Brokaw is easier and safer, although slightly farther, than staying on the stadium side of Coleman. Note, however, that there is small distance without a sidewalk once Coleman crosses the city line into Santa Clara until the Lillie Mae's parking lot. We watched a wheelchair bound person trying to figure out her best option for that segment on the return trip last night.

The route from the tunnel through the parking lots is more direct, but quite unpleasant. Also, the gate from Brokaw is sometimes locked (as reported here about the Reno match), necessitating a walk to Coleman.

 

There is a law that keeps them from charging a higher fare due to the fact they accept government subsidies (I asked )

 

They can't. This is what they told me:

"We are unable to charge passengers more than the regular fare structure, as doing so will be in violation of the FTA’s Charter Bus Service Regulations."

 

Another reason to get the government out of the transit business. The private sector can engage in dynamic pricing -- what the market will bear.

 

This is great news, but why didn't the Quakes plan this out a little better? Did they only work on a plan after all those people ended up stuck outside the stadium after the game, or was it cuz fans didn't show up in the first place?

• “We’re excited to offer these charter buses every game day to make getting to the stadium easy as ever,” said Earthquakes Chief Operating Officer Jared Shawlee. “Lux Bus America stepped forward and helped us add a fast, comfortable transportation option for those coming from the popular city center.”

 

Public transit in San Jose was run by the private sector, probably longer than it has been operated by the county (I say "probably" because I am not 100% sure of the exact dates, but the government has only run the system since the 1970s). The county absorbed the existing transit lines because the private companies were losing a lot of money and were, in fact, receiving substantial government subsidies to keep their skeletal system in operation at the time of the takeover.

When Santa Clara County formed the Transit Authority, there were no private companies with any interest in operating a local residential transit company in the area. I am sure that was because very few were interested in riding. It becomes an issue of whether such services should be considered "necessary" for those who still might depend on them (elderly, low income, disabled, etc.).

 

You're right. The private sector ran transit for most of the history of the Santa Clara Valley, until about 50 years ago when it was supplanted by a public system because it was no longer profitable to run a transit system.

How is that the private sector was able to run transit for a century until it could not? What changed? Massive car-centric sprawling development in the postwar era, plus cheap fuel, making transit unattractive and impracticable in the late 1960s.

Things are different now than they were 50 years ago. First, we know that VTA is an abject failure at delivering service; even with repeated fraudulent tax measures, the agency runs tens of millions of dollar deficits and is the subject of scathing grand jury reports. VTA has not prioritized bus service, which is the backbone of an effective mass transit system.

Second, fuel is no longer cheap, not to mention autos themselves.

Third, densities are increasing, and will continue to increase exponentially or the Valley will collapse from the weight of grotesquely unaffordable housing.

Fourth, private ride services have not only eclipsed but dramatically enlarged the ride-for-hire industry. There is already a vigorous private system in place that is only making VTA's offerings less attractive every day.

It is time to disband the VTA, and sell off its vehicles and routes. Those that are profitable will be maintained, and those that are not will go away. New ones will emerge. The market will respond more efficiently to the demand, as it does in every sector of the economy.

As for the shuttles for the elderly, low income or disabled, why not simply provide subsidized vouchers for the ride services? That is almost certainly more cost effective than the fleet of shuttle buses and drivers VTA maintains.

 

Millions of homeless people across the US would beg to differ. The private sector sucks profits wherever it can, leaving unprofitable services and human needs to the public sector. Should public schools be profitable? Hedge fund backed charter schools think so. Health care? Libraries? Transit for people who can't afford cars?

Look how the private sector handles transit. Uber and Lyft are inaccessible to people without smartphones and disabled people, with or without a speculative voucher.