Safety improvements planned for Silicon Valley transit corridor

Stevens Creek Boulevard is on the road to a complete renovation in the name of safety and public transit, but improvements are years away.

The Stevens Creek Boulevard Corridor Vision Steering Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend a plan for the nearly 8-mile, heavily-trafficked thoroughfare. The plan could better the unwalkable, dangerous corridor by improving bus speeds and implementing a separate transit system, such as a light rail line that gets passengers from Cupertino to downtown San Jose in 20 minutes. The plan weaves through three cities — Cupertino, San Jose and Santa Clara — and requires each city council’s approval, along with the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and VTA Board of Directors.

The steering committee includes San Jose Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei, Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, Cupertino Vice Mayor Kitty Moore and Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor. The committee acknowledged the plans are aspirational.

Residents likely won’t see some changes for a while because funding still needs to be identified for projects, such as the separate transit line, with expected costs ranging from $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion and a timeline of at least 20 years until completion. The costs for smaller, quicker improvements, such as bus stops between lanes, range from $13.4 million to $27.7 million.

Gillmor has lived close to Stevens Creek Boulevard for more than 50 years and watched the street expand into a major thoroughfare. She said collaboration between multiple communities is needed to address the street’s problems.

“In Santa Clara in particular, between our small legacy businesses that we want to protect, to large car dealerships that we tend to love as a city financially and the neighborhood centers, as well as (Westfield Valley Fair), the traffic is horrendous,” she said at the meeting. “We need to do something together.”

Planning began in 2023 after San Jose, Cupertino and Santa Clara adopted resolutions supporting a corridor vision study. The study prioritized public transit, with VTA’s 23 and 523 lines running along the street. The road has 74 bus stops.

The plan includes curbside bus lanes, designated only for buses, right turns and emergency vehicles. The lanes are expected to cost between $4.5 million and $7 million and could help 20% of residents living near the corridor who have an annual household income of less than $50,000, according to the study. About one-third of nearby residents are under 18.

VTA spokesperson Stacey Hendler Ross said the plan gives the transit agency the opportunity to have more frequent service and aligns with its goals. The plan recommends real-time arrival information signs at each stop.

“We’re hopeful that the Stevens Creek Boulevard corridor becomes a vibrant transit opportunity,” she told San José Spotlight. “Along with the bicycle and pedestrian improvements, we hope this increases non-auto mode share and makes the environment safe.”

The plan integrates physically protected bike lanes to enhance safety.

Between 2019 and 2023, 214 crashes occurred on San Jose’s portion of the street, resulting in 44 moderate and five severe injuries according to the city’s Vision Zero data. Vision Zero is a national movement with a goal of reducing and eliminating severe injuries and deaths caused by vehicle crashes. Santa Clara and Cupertino also have Vision Zero plans.

Transit advocate Harry Neil said he’s happy with the outcome. He began a petition pushing for bus-only lanes and other improvements, which has since gained more than 360 signatures.

“I really struggle to put into words how much this means to me,” he told San José Spotlight.
San Jose resident Chris Giangreco, who’s lived next to the corridor for about 60 years, said he hopes the plan doesn’t restrict traffic lanes. He said people drive the road dangerously — especially since a person died after a crash on the stretch this week — and wants safety concerns he’s ben bringing up for years to be addressed.

“Municipalities should be fixing this infrastructure that they’ve not tended to, in many cases, since the infrastructure was put in,” he told San José Spotlight. “All the municipalities need to do their part to maintain the roadway and operate it safely in a joint, unified manner that’s gonna improve the walkability and enjoyability.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.