As VTA staff prepares to submit the BART to Silicon Valley Phase II extension application to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) as the first project in the nation selected to participate in the Expedited Project Delivery (EPD) Pilot Program, SPUR is joining with the San José Downtown Association to call for a Downtown San José station entrance on the south side of Santa Clara Street. In addition to the restaurants and other entertainment venues that make it a destination, major office and residential developments are currently being planned and moving forward south of Santa Clara Street and in the SoFA District and this must be taken into account in the planning process as we expect thousands of new workers, residents, and visitors in the area to drive increased pedestrian traffic and a high volume of customers at this station.
Safe and convenient access to transit increases ridership and station entrances on both sides of Santa Clara Street are necessary to achieve these priorities. This is a common design for subway ingress and egress for systems across the country and we will see the wisdom of this approach over time as both the daytime and nighttime population of the downtown continues to increase significantly.
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