Doug Moody of the City of San Jose Department of Transportation discusses and answers questions at the WNAC May 18th, 2016 General Meeting regarding terms such as LOS, VMT, Policy 5-3 and protected intersections. A few highlights from the above video:
- It is clear that safety is the number one priority of SJ DOT and is how the SJ DOT looks at any policy. Moody points out that San Jose’s Vision 0 program is about ensuring zero traffic fatalities, regardless of where a person is (car, bike, sidewalk, etc.).
- Much of the WNAC falls into a Community Improvement Zone, because of the “Protected” status of the Stevens Creek/Winchester and Stevens Creek/Monroe intersection. The Protected Intersections create *value* that may be used to improve system capacity and/or enhance non-auto travel modes — the distinction between *fees* and *value* is important because, for a number of reasons, it is preferable for the developer to construct the improvements during construction of their project.
- Moody talks about the challenges of traffic measurement and, in the ideal world, the DOT would know origin, destination, route, mode, time-of-day, travel time, traveler characteristic for traffic. The city isn’t there yet, although he did suggest that there are some available technologies. Further, the state of California has a voluntary program where they are looking at how to measure Vehicle Miles Traveled. To volunteer, go to http://www.californiaroadchargepilot.com/
One of the questions asked is why San Jose doesn’t utilize flashing red lights at off-peak times, as is done in other cities. As seen above, Doug didn’t have the answer readily available, but he responded via email with the following reply:
“The City of San Jose currently does not have any flashing red left-turn arrows, and for consistency throughout the City, DOT is not currently considering adding flashing red left-turn arrows. However, DOT is exploring implementing flashing yellow left-turn arrows where appropriate — Stevens Creek and Henry is currently under consideration for flashing yellow left-turn arrows, especially because it is an offset intersection.”
Note, in a follow-up email, Doug said he had misspoke when he said that San Tomas and Moorpark were a Level F intersection. He meant San Tomas and Stevens Creek.