The VTA/County Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) is an official advisory committee both for the VTA Board and Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
The first BPAC vote (May 8, 2002), as their input to the draft County Expressway Master Plan, was unanimously that "all pedestrian prohibition signs be removed from the expressways." [See details of the vote.]
The County highway engineers had tried to impose more prohibitions in the draft of the County Expressway Master Plan, but the final version unanimously approved by the BOS (on 8/19/03) supported pedestrians on virtually all expressway miles.
In the fall of 2005, the County Roads Department tried to repudiate the County Expressway Master Plan by going to the BPAC. They asked the BPAC to vote for a new policy that opposes walking on all shoulders, no matter how wide, and to oppose walking on unpaved pedestrian paths along expressways. This Committee unanimously rejected Mr. Murdter's proposal on November 9, 2005. As a result, Mr. Murdter, Director of County Roads, dropped his attempt to change County policy. If it would have been changed the way Mr. Murdter wanted, County staff could have used SB 1233's secret change in State law, that was drafted by Mr. Murdter, to eliminate pedestrians from these public roads.
The full text of these votes are at bottom. For background, see County staff's triple attack on pedestrians and transit patrons and Violations of law and County Supervisors' policy by the County highway engineers.
As a result of losing the vote, Murdter and his staff dropped the first item, but continued to the BOS with the second item. Staff lost their argument that the "Master Plan does not represent Board policy" and on January 10, 2006, the BOS unanimously voted to seek legislation in Sacramento to repeal all the secret changes in State law that resulted by Michael Murdter's actions behind the backs of the BOS, and without ever receiving their authorization.
County staff never complied with the Board directive to repeal SB 1233 as part of the 2006 legislative efforts of the County, as has now been admitted by County staff in a letter (described next). In January 2007, the BPAC requested the County BOS to undo SB 1233 as part of the 2007 legislative efforts. The request was referred to County staff, which then rejected the BPAC request. This rejection contained many false, deceptive and misleading statements. MTS wrote a rebuttal. See the rebuttal and staff's rejection letter, including the lame excuse for non-compliance with the prior year's directive to seek repeal.
The entire SB 1233 episode was a total waste of time for the
Supervisors, staff, Committee members and many members of the public
because all of these people, from the Supervisors to the public, had
already gone through exactly the same topic, pedestrians along
expressways, as part of the two-year public hearing process for the
County Expressway Master Plan. The draft of this document was changed
from initially opposing all pedestrian use of shoulders and imposing
more pedestrian prohibitions, to supporting wide shoulder use by
pedestrians. Mr. Murdter dragged everyone through the same process all
over again by secretly drafting SB 1233 without informing VTA BPAC,
County citizens, or the County Supervisors. The trick and deception used was that the legal text,
which was not available to the public at the time, changed the wrong
chapter of the Vehicle Code. It did NOT the chapter titled "Traffic
Signs ... " as implied on the BOS agenda which was titled "Expressway
signage". Instead, it changed "Pedestrians Rights ..." which was never
mentioned on the BOS agenda. SB 1233 expanded authority for prohibiting
pedestrians and transit patrons, by eliminating their right to use ALL
public roadways --by a simple declaration that a road is an
"expressway" and adding a new definition for "expressway". Furthermore,
staff's seeking of (what become) SB 1233 contradicted the County Expressway Master Plan that was
approved just four months earlier, and also laws and policies cited
above by the VTA BPAC (above).
Mr. Murdter then continued his agenda by trying to repudiate the County
Expressway Master Plan in the fall of 2005 by proposing new policy to
oppose pedestrians on all shoulders. Mr. Murdter's proposal that the
BOS adopt new policy to repudiate portions of the County Expressway
Master Plan would also have been illegal because it would have violated
the Master Plan process. These two actions, SB 1233 and the attempt to
change policy, show a lack of concern and regard for people's time, the
two-year public input process that occurred, and the law.
A huge amount of staff time --and therefore money-- was wasted in not
only the SB 1233 effort but also the subsequent policy change attempt.
This attempt had multiple staff reports, with up to three extra staff
attending 5 meetings of the VTA BPAC, trying to convince them to change
policy in order to eliminate pedestrians and transit patrons from
arterial roads renamed "expressway".
On November 9, 2005, the VTA/County Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory
Committee unanimously voted on "Draft Policy for Bicycle and Pedestrian
Use of Santa Clara County Expressways" (agenda item # 15), and on SB
1233 (agenda item #16) as follows:
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M/S/C (Stallman/Wadler) to adopt policy:
VTP 2030 (adopted February 2005) and County Expressway Plan (adopted
August 19, 2003) are County policy for bicycle and pedestrian use of
expressways, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities on
expressways. The “wide shoulders” in the County Expressway Plan
are shoulders that are five feet wide or wider. Wide shoulder
facilities can serve for occasional pedestrian use. The County of Santa
Clara practices will comply with:
• Assembly Concurrent Resolution 211 (ACR 211),
• United States Code, Title 23, Chapter 1, Subchapter I, § 109
Standards, (m) Protection of Nonmotorized Transportation Traffic - The
Secretary shall not approve any project or take any regulatory action
under this title that will result in the severance of an existing major
route or have significant adverse impact on the safety for nonmotorized
transportation traffic and light motorcycles, unless such project or
regulatory action provides for a reasonable alternate route or such a
route exists.
• Streets and Highway Code Section 888, and
• California Vehicle Code Section 21949, Section A and Section B.
M/S/C (Wadler/Carpenter) on an order of 9 ayes, 0 noes, and 1
abstention, that
the County of Santa Clara seek legislation to undo
changes of SB 1233 [and] to bring it [law] back to the state it was
prior to January 2005.
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Links:
Federal link for above US Code is: www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/sec217.htm
Other sources are on our Expressway topics, links page.
For legal text of referenced laws, click here.