The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Los Altos and Mountain View,in Santa Clara County,south of Palo Alto and north of Sunnyvale. Most of the Peninsula is occupied by San Mateo County,between San Francisco and Santa Clara counties,and including the cities and towns of Atherton,Belmont,Brisbane,Burlingame,Colma,Daly City,East Palo Alto,El Granada,Foster City,Half Moon Bay,Hillsborough,La Honda,Loma Mar,Los Altos,Los Altos Hills,Menlo Park,Millbrae,Mountain View,Pacifica,Palo Alto,Pescadero,Portola Valley,Redwood City,Redwood Shores,San Bruno,San Carlos,San Mateo,South San Francisco,West Menlo Park and Woodside.
Caltrain is a commuter rail line in California,serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley. The southern terminus is in San Jose at the Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far as Gilroy. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th and King Street. Caltrain has express,limited,and local services. There are 28 regular stops,one limited-service weekday-only stop,one weekend and holiday-only stop (Broadway),and one stop that is only served on football game days (Stanford). While average weekday ridership in 2019 exceeded 63,000,impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant:in June 2024,Caltrain had an average weekday ridership of 24,580 passengers.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority,more commonly known simply as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA),is a special district responsible for public transit services,congestion management,specific highway improvement projects,and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County,California. It serves San Jose,California,and the surrounding Silicon Valley. It is one of the governing parties for the Caltrain commuter rail line that serves the county. In 2023,the VTA's public transportation services had a combined ridership of 26,610,000,or about 91,400 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is the government agency responsible for regional transportation planning and financing in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was created in 1970 by the State of California,with support from the Bay Area Council,to coordinate transportation services in the Bay Area's nine counties:Alameda,Contra Costa,Marin,Napa,San Francisco,San Mateo,Santa Clara,Solano,and Sonoma. The MTC is fourth most populous metropolitan planning organization in the United States.
San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose,California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon Sr.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area rely on a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure consisting of roads,bridges,highways,rail,tunnels,airports,seaports,and bike and pedestrian paths. The development,maintenance,and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies,including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans),the Association of Bay Area Governments,San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency,and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several interstate highways and state routes,eight passenger rail networks,eight trans-bay bridges,transbay ferry service,local and transbay bus service,three international airports,and an extensive network of roads,tunnels,and bike paths.
Tamien station is an intermodal passenger transportation station in the Tamien neighborhood of central San Jose,California,served by the VTA light rail and the Caltrain commuter rail line,along with bus connections. The station has two elevated island platforms,one for each service. The two platforms are connected by a walkway at ground-level that is below the two platforms. The light rail platform is located in the center median of the State Route 87 freeway just north of the Alma Avenue overpass. The Caltrain platform is located just to the east,between Lick Avenue and State Route 87 and just north of Alma Avenue.
Santa Clara Transit Center is a railway station in downtown Santa Clara,California. It is served by Caltrain,Amtrak Capitol Corridor,and Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) trains. It is the planned terminus for the Silicon Valley BART extension into Santa Clara County on the future Green and Orange Lines. The former station building,constructed in 1863 by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad,is used by the Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History.
Cindy Chavez is an American politician who served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors representing the 2nd district,encompassing parts of Downtown,East,and South San Jose from 2013 to 2024. Her public service career began in the 1990s as a policy analyst for health care,public health,human services and transportation for the Board of Supervisors. She served two terms on the San Jose City Council,where she was also Vice Mayor,and also served on the board leadership of public agencies such as the San Jose Redevelopment Agency,and executive director of Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. She has unsuccessfully run for Mayor of San Jose twice. She is a graduate of San Jose State University,is married and has a son in college.
Linda Joan LeZotte is an American politician from San Jose,California. She served on the San Jose City Council,representing District 1 from 1999 to 2007. She is an attorney and former member of the San Jose Planning Commission (1992-1998). She lost to City Councilmember Ken Yeager in the 2006 race for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. From 1999 to 2015 she practiced law with her own law firm and during that period she served as counsel for Berliner Cohen in San Jose.
David Dominic Cortese is an elected official from San Jose,California. He is currently serving in the California State Senate,representing District 15,which encompasses a majority of Santa Clara County. Before being elected to the California State Senate,Cortese served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for 12 years,as a Councilmember and Vice Mayor for the City of San Jose for eight years,and for eight years as a trustee for the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. Cortese ran for mayor of San Jose and won the primary,losing the general election to District 3 councilmember Sam Liccardo.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is a public agency that regulates the stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties of California's San Francisco Bay Area:Alameda,Contra Costa,Marin,Napa,San Francisco,San Mateo,Santa Clara,southwestern Solano,and southern Sonoma. The BAAQMD is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors composed of elected officials from each of the nine Bay Area counties. The board has the duty of adopting air pollution regulations for the district. It is one of 35 Air Quality Management Districts in California.
James Thomas Beall Jr. is an American politician who served in the California State Senate from 2012 to 2020. A Democrat,he represented the 15th Senate District,which encompasses the South Bay and Silicon Valley.
Pierluigi Oliverio is a former American politician,who was the 6th district Councilmember on the San Jose City Council. He was sworn in on March 20,2007,and left office in January 2017. He was elected to three consecutive terms,and could no longer run due to term limits.
The VTA light rail system serves San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County,California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and has 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of network comprising three main lines on standard gauge tracks. Originally opened on December 11,1987,the light rail system has expanded since then,and currently has 60 stations in operation.
Santa Clara County,officially the County of Santa Clara,is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California,with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area,which is part of the larger San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California.
Rod Diridon Sr. is an American politician known for his leadership in mass transportation. He served as chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority from 2001 to 2003. He currently chairs the advisory board of the United States High Speed Rail Association,and he chairs the National Heritage Area Project for Santa Clara County,California. The New York Times calls Diridon "a tireless advocate of public transport for the Bay Area."
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors governing Santa Clara County,California. It is made of elected representatives from each of the county's five districts. As a result of the 2022 elections,members of the Democratic Party hold all seats on the board though it is officially nonpartisan.
The Monterey County Rail Extension is a planned commuter rail extension that would bring Caltrain passenger service south of its existing Gilroy,California terminus to Salinas in Monterey County,using the existing Coast Line owned by Union Pacific (UPRR). Implementation of the rail extension will occur over three phases,starting from Salinas and moving north. When construction is complete,there will be four trains operated over the extended line per weekday:two northbound trains that depart from Salinas and travel to San Francisco in the morning,and two southbound trains that return to Salinas in the afternoon.
