Community Outreach

Express Lanes Public Outreach and Education

Given that the concept of Express Lanes is a new one for County residents and policy makers, an extensive outreach and education effort is ongoing in conjunction with the current preliminary engineering effort. In addition to updates to the VTA Board and its committees, the following are the other activities that are either underway or have taken place:

• Collection of input from 42 carpool and solo drivers using a focus group format that has resulted in the preparation of a focus group report titled “Attitudes Toward the State Route 85 HOT Lane”;
• Collection of input using an interview format from project participants and external stakeholders ranging from VTA Board members to agency staff to a business association leader.
• Collection of input through telephone interviews from a sample of 500 commuters that use SR 85 and/or US 101;
• Preparation of brochures, fact sheets, and a 5-minute video with information on the Express Lanes concept and the work underway.

The input gained from the outreach efforts will help to shape the projects. For the ongoing focused work for the SR 85 corridor, the input gained is being used to determine a range of facility characteristics. This outreach and education effort is a permanent component of the Program, one that will be conducted throughout each phase of development of the Express Lane Program.