The City of San José wants to hear your thoughts on the future of our downtown and the transportation systems that connect us. The Downtown Transportation Plan will combine what we know about transportation in Downtown with your local knowledge and lived experience. The result will be a plan that helps us meet City goals for safety, traffic, and quality of life.
The San José Department of Transportation (SJDOT) has prepared for this plan by:
The Online Open House is a virtual workshop. It will help SJDOT gather community feedback to help us make decisions about future investment, project prioritization, and downtown transit.
Update: the Online Open House surveys are now closed. You can continue to learn more about the plan, and if you have questions or comments please email: Downtown.Transportation.Plan@sanjoseca.gov.
Please visit the following pages to learn more about the improvements we are considering for the Downtown Transportation Plan. Complete the surveys to let us know which ideas would or would not help you travel in Downtown.
You can always use the navigation links to explore any of the pages in this online open house.
The Downtown Transportation Plan will identify new types of streets for the downtown area. By planning for certain streets to work better for certain types of transportation, we can do a better job of deciding which improvements to make.
We’ve heard about some big problems from the community. And we’ve thought about some big projects to help fix them. These larger-scale improvements are what we are calling “Big Moves.” They will need more planning, outreach, and funding to become reality.
All these improvements come with tradeoffs. You and your neighbors may have different priorities depending on your needs today and ideas for tomorrow.
To get started, please review the video below for a general explanation of the Downtown Transportation Plan.
Downtown San José is growing fast. A surge of construction and new buildings will have a lasting impact on how people get around. We expect the Downtown population to roughly double to about 130,000 residents, 160,000 workers, and 50,000 students by 2040.
As the number of people continues to grow, this will mean the amount of driving in Downtown would double. This would make traffic unbearable. It would make air quality worse, reduce access to opportunities, and threaten the health of our families and communities.
The purpose of the Downtown Transportation Plan is to accommodate this growth in the best possible way. To create a transportation system that will allow Downtown to become the kind of place that we’d like it to be—a place for people and the vibrant heart of the community. The Plan will build an equitable, affordable, and sustainable transportation system. The City’s goal is that half of Downtown trips will be made by walking, biking, and transit by 2040. To get there, the Plan will combine community feedback and the best practices in transportation planning. The result will be a document that guides investment, prioritizes projects, and sets goals related to downtown transit.
The Plan will focus on transportation issues, but also create more vibrant and welcoming downtown San José neighborhoods. We’re focusing on the following neighborhoods, shown in the map below:
The City, working with community-based organizations and the public, have established guiding principles for the Downtown Transportation Plan. These include the following categories.
San José has big goals and an ambitious future that is supported by citywide initiatives such as:
We began talking with the community about the Plan in November 2019. We held a variety of events so that the public could discuss current conditions and opportunities for improving transportation in Downtown San José. A speaker’s series, listening sessions, workshops, and surveys were all ways we listened to residents and others about their understanding of current conditions along with their hopes for the DTP.
From these outreach efforts, we learned that the community wants to see changes to downtown. We heard about key issues such as congestion, safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and inefficient public transit. Through conversations with community members, we heard a few common desires:
Now it’s time to hear what you think! Please share your input in the surveys throughout this online open house. Learning about your experiences and hearing your ideas for improvement will help the City plan the best transportation system possible for Downtown’s future.