BART is a good alternative to many destinations along the J-Church. Most people find Muni a better choice for destinations in SF.

There’s an ordinance because of the airport. That’s why we can’t have any high rises.

We need to hire you as our urban planner. Also forgot to mention how the proximity of the airport keeps are skyline under a 300ft maximum 😔

Just an FYI the Niners practice and play here. (Well Santa Clara lol) I don’t disagree about the zoning and the housing and public transportation. The best things about SJ have been and are being stripped away. Sam Jose once had its own distinct charm and uniqueness. Perception is often created by perspective and experience, and fortified by time. Raised here, left and traveled came back, it was once a heat to grow up. And in many ways it still is. I am currently raising my 12 year old here. 💜

"San Jose is so out of the national consciousness I imagine you know next to nothing about it." Yeah... about that... ETA: you're correct about a lot of things, especially light rail. I like it for the most part (aside from the fact that it sometimes smells like piss) because until recently I was a license-less new adult who wanted to explore the city, and whenever I was using it, I didn't really have anywhere I needed to be urgently. I only started really getting to learning more about transit and all of that within the last couple of weeks, and alongside it was stunned to learn just how low our ridership numbers are. I think one of the other biggest factors keeping people from using it more often is that nobody actually checks to see if you paid for a ticket or tapped your transit card at the station - the only staff member on the train is the operator and obviously they're not going to get out of the front of the train to enforce that at every stop. You can effectively skip your fare. Because of that, a lot of homeless people chill in them - most stick to themselves, but obviously people are going to be unnerved by the guy using his vape in the train, the lady dumping pizza cheese packets in her mouth and making a mess on the floor, the lady obsessively combing her doll's hair and trying to talk to people about the most random shit... (Side note, but I do have to wonder if they calculate their ridership numbers from tickets sold/Clipper card taps, because if they do, it's not the most accurate due to aforementioned reasons.) I think one of the biggest stumbles with light rail when it came to planning the system out was having the blue/green lines run right along First St. north of downtown. I realized recently that the nearest light rail station to the airport is a full mile away. A mile. You have to transfer to a connecting bus route that takes you right up to the terminal. Fuck, there's so much lost potential with that! Seattle did it perfectly, their light rail system comes right up next to the airport, as much as it can for a bigger one. And somehow it was too impossible for our system to have that? VTA seems to have proposed transit-oriented development near some of its light rail stations. Imo this should have been done much sooner. As for how slow their system is, I'm aware they may be looking to essentially turn some parts of their downtown stations into subway stops, so the undergrounding of the two lines in that specific area will probably coincide with BART, which will also have subway stations. (I just hope they don't replace too much of the current stations with roads when that happens, because they're some of the most walkable parts of downtown SJ.) Light rail trains do have priority over traffic signals at many intersections along the orange line that I've noticed, and the green line south of downtown has a lot of at-grade tracks with crossing gates which give the train the right of way. Also, as an aside, their current fleet of trains is aging and will need to be replaced by the early 2030s. At the moment they look kind of old, but not terribly so. Maybe having modern-looking trains like the ones Seattle and other light rail systems use will give them more allure? Who knows. Lastly... San Pedro is like one of the only other downtown destinations you forgot to mention. Just had to throw that out there lol

San Jose will not be considered a large city until the FAA removes height restrictions. As crazy as it is if skyscrapers were added to the skyline things would change. Having lived in many smaller cities I have seen that happen.

As one of the many San Jose natives and urbanites here I absolutely understand why people would “grow up envying other cities” or “go away and come back and realize how awful it is” - I just moved back myself from a big East Coast city and do find myself missing a frequent Metro and the walkability of my old neighborhood. However - when we move out and never come back we are absolutely abdicating our wishes and resigning the city to the kind of people who keep it what it is and refuse to strive for better. I get that because of housing prices it’s not feasible for everyone to stay and build a life, but for those of us lucky enough to do so, at some point we have to realize it’s partly incumbent on us to break the pattern of NIMBYs and carbrains being the only ones at city council meetings/forums, be clear about the kind of San Jose we want, and demand it from our elected officials. I would hope we could come to see that as far more respectable and impactful for the city we claim to love, a city with diverse richness of amazing peoples, cuisines, and cultures, than simply succumbing to shame or pessimism. And frankly I’d ask well-meaning urbanists from other places and especially our denser older neighbors to the north to, if not support us, at least try to cut down on the superiority complexes and insults (“suburban hellhole”, “cultural wasteland” and get on the train! As many have noted there are many reasons to be optimistic with our TOD and new rail lines, elimination of parking minimums, etc - we need all the help we can get to seize that momentum and keep building up and moving faster. It won’t just be to the benefit of San Joseans to build SJ up - truly there aren’t many places with as much potential (infill availability, climate, wealth) as SJ left in California to develop. Anyways, TL;DR: if you’re from here, let’s abandon pessimism and build a better SJ. if you’re not, become long SJ and put some outside pressure on us to be what California needs to get out of our housing crisis

Have you ever even set foot in San Jose? I live there.... in a 'single family home'. Me and my neighbors moved here because of that.

1. The J is the oldest *surviving* streetcar line, not the *oldest* line. 2. Much of the cable car system was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Post-quake, the transit system was rebuilt as electric streetcars by United Railroads that would later morph into Market Street Railway. Between 1906-1911, the system was mostly electric streetcars *not* run by Muni. 3. In 1912, Muni was created by a bond vote in 1909 has has nothing to do with not renewing a cable car franchise. (Again, most of the cable cars were destroyed in 1906.) Between 1912-1944, *both* Muni *and* Market Street Railway operated streetcars in SF. In 1944, Muni bought out Market Street Railway absorbing it. 4. The J is forced to run 1-car trains because some of the surface platforms are only big enough for 1 car and there's simply no room to expand them. 5. The J wasn't converted to busses because (at the time) busses simply couldn't climb the 19% grade between 18th-22nd streets whereas the right-of-way's (RoW) steepest grade is 6.8%. Even if they paved over the RoW, it's not wide enough to run 2 bus lanes. Occasionally, they have to substitute busses on the J, but modern busses can handle the 19% grade on Church St. 6. As someone else noted, you can't run LRVs on Market because of the trolley coaches' double overhead wires and a pantograph would contact both and short out. But even if they could run on Market, they'd be stuck in traffic with cars or at least lights just like busses. 7. Many of your criticisms of the J apply equally well to all the other streetcar lines since they all run both on the street in mixed traffic and in the subway. That's the kind of legacy you have to deal with on a 112-year-old streetcar system. It would be *extremely* expensive and disruptive to rebuild it all to modern LRV standards.

As someone who grew up on Potrero, after the 10 was discontinued the 19 was a saving grace and while a lot of its route is obsolete for residents of Potrero, it is a lifeline. Great video though, the J is generally empty when I take it besides events at dolo, and look forward to future solutions.

How about a 4th option - a new type of streetcar in use specifically for the J. Maybe a low floor European style tram.

I think the most obvious solution that most people don't see is to have the J line turn onto the surface N stop at Church and Duboce, and continue down the Church st to Ocean Beach stretch. the N could use some extra frequency on surface, and could still continue with the others down Market st, and the J would provide much that extra frequency needed on Judah street!!!!!!!

The thing I most fail to understand about SF's transit system is that despite having multiple systems it really has only one line, in one tunnel, with a handful of terminal branches. What was anyone thinking?

The J should be kept above ground only and turn on Market Street. The subway was so much better right after it reopened when only the N was using the Duboce portal.

they say you are what you eat no wonder im the j church line

I was born and raised and my grandfather was the first commercial photographer for San Jose and Santa Clara Valley, there is many reasons San Jose is built the way it was for instance if you did your research you would see that the city does not have high-rise buildings that has to do with the the path of the airport flights coming and going from San Jose they were restricted on the hype that they can build things, it's nice to grow up in a place where it is spread out unlike today where everybody lives in dog boxes and hate each other, there are plenty of things to do in San Jose got a lot of Education, a friend of mine is a journalist who did a series of on the area, endpoints out the historical history behind it all, all I can say is if you don't care for San Jose please feel free to move.

would absolutely LOVE if the N-Judah got replaced with ALL underground. Just to reaching the tunnel on church street to go underground takes an hour because of traffic. An underground could even go along 19th to the proposed 1million homes in the Stonestown development plan since thatll be a traffic nightmare anyways.

This video was super helpful in getting started on some research papers, however, would you mind citing your sources for us to reference if needed?

As someone born and raised in San Jose back in the 70s and 80s, I used to love driving up to San Francisco with my dad on a Saturday. I loved the vibe and energy of downtown San Francisco. Then I always wondered why downtown San Jose didn't have that same vibe and energy. To me it was no where near what a downtown should be. I actually used to think back in the day that San Jose was just one big suburb and at that time, there was even still a lot of open space and farms at the time. Today many of those farms I remember have been developed with even more single family homes. Nice to see that it was not just me that saw these issues with San Jose.

I used to take the train to Diridon station, and ride my bike to SJSU each day. I dodged cars each morning and night with very little to no room for bikes/bike lanes. Nevertheless, i love many things about SJ

our previous mayor Chuck said it all: "San Jose is a bedroom community for all of the rest of silicon valley". And thus it remains. To this I would add: 1. I arrived here in 1987. There hasn't been a year when a Bart extension to San Jose was not on the ballot with a bond initiative. 2. I got my pilots license in SJC, the San Jose central airport. This was followed by their effectively evicting all light planes from the airport. Ah but San Jose has a light airplane airport no? Reid-Hillview. Which city hall has not spent a single year of my time here not harassing and attempting to shut it down.

You need to go back and do your research!

The ohlone wasn't and still isn't the only tribe from. My tribe cousin to the ohlone is still here too! Amuh Mutsun tribe is still here too raised and born!

I cannot disagree with your assessment of the VTA and the sprawl of SJ. However, you did miss or perhaps you intentionally omitted all the newer taller condo's and apartments in downtown. Additionally, there is high density housing just on the other side of the Diridon Train Station. This neighborhood is called Cahill Park. One can walk to Whole Foods (and I do) or a restaurant along The Alameda quite safely I might add. I can walk to SAP (The Shark Tank) to see a game or catch and event like a concert or a tennis tournament. Within walking distance is the CPA (Center for Performing Arts) where I can take in a Broadway show. There are multiple festivals like the Italian Festival, Gay Pride Festival, Music in the Park, or Christmas in the Park that are walking distance. One very big piece you missed is San Pedro Square. This is a very vibrant area to take in live music and restaurants of all kinds. San Pedro is right in middle of downtown SJ. In the downtown area around the convention center, one can go to The Tech Museum or the San Jose Art Museum. I will concede, I would never take VTA except perhaps to go the Levi's Stadium. BART when it arrives is not safe. I can hop on CAL Train to go up the peninsula and even to SF for a Giants game. Yes SJ is spread out, but downtown and Santana Row have changed it for the better (in my opinion of course).

Very good video

I understand that a large percentage of the transit youtubers and influencers online want to bash San Francisco in general and the Central Subway extension in particular. But this criticism is misplaced. This project was not as much about repaying to Chinatown as people want to make it out to be. This is Muni trying to make a pretty important rail expansion in to the northern side of the city. This process is both technically (awful soils in SOMA, tallest buildings west of the Mississippi, a looooooot of legacy businesses that would be impacted, etc.) and politically complicated (the north side millionaire NIMBYs blocking rail there for 70 years). To ignore the fact that Muni needed to push this through in order to open up much cheaper and simpler rail development on the north side of town is ignoring the whole reason why this project needed to exist. Now they can build the North Beach station and extend into the bougie northern neighborhood at a fraction of the cost of the SOMA and downtown tunnels. And the NIMBYs can't argue that rail is not needed or in demand because of the growing Central Subway ridership. Also, why are you ignoring the fact that the T ridership has been exploding since the Central Subway opened? Is 70% growth in just a year not completely insane growth for a transit line? In any other city this would be touted as a fantastic, incredible success, but in SF it's somehow "a failure"?! Come on!

Being close to the airport made SJ have a limited downtown. Gentrification pretty much erased the Mexican and Chicano heritage of the city. It is a big town with a bunch of suburbs connected which were small towns that were annexed into SJ. Willow Glen was the south side not that long ago.

When I lived in Noe the only time I really took the J was to get to Dolores park. Taking it downtown was so slow and since the train was always delayed you never really knew when it show up. It was much faster and more reliable to take a bus up to Castro station and catch a train from there. Coming back, even if the J said it would arrive in 4 minutes, often it would take 20 so it was really never worth waiting for if a K or M train was at the platform

Hello is it possible for you to share your sources? I'm using the san Francisco subway for a school project.

The T line ridership jumped from 10k in January 2023 > 17k in January 2024. I believe this doesn’t include the ridership of the S shuttle that runs during Chase Center events which can likely be anywhere from 3-10k riders. I think given the ridership recovery of the other lines, the usage of the line has seen a major boost from the subway being added. I regularly see full trains back to back during game days and run hour, but 6 months ago it felt strangely empty, even the news picked up on it because it’s good business apparently to trash the city you live in. Keep in mind that the T line - 1 year after opening had reported only 1,500 daily riders. People are still discovering the stations and understanding how to use it. I lived in SF for 10 years and didn’t regularly start riding transit until 2021… there’s hope.

Great Video! I really enjoyed it. Thank You!

Thanks for this. Any idea if there are plans to introduce signal priority for the above-ground portions of the line? I've found the underground portion to be fast and efficient (if infrequent), but once it pops above ground it slows to a painfully slow pace. On a similar note, I'd love to see TSP for the 49 to make it closer to true BRT. It looks like the infrastructure is in place, but I've never actually seen the signaling kick in.

HES BACK

Not the subject of the video but I'm wondering if during the tear down of the Embarcadero they could have used cut and cover to put the waterfront lines mostly underground

Great video! It's a real shame it didn't make it to North Beach :(

Leaving a comment mostly to help with the algorithm and such. Thanks for making what are probably some of the best and most... specific(?) Bay Area infrastructure vids out there -- keep up the good work my dude!

Well done! There was another way this project could have been done that would have been cheaper, faster and more convenient. The T surface rail portion could simply have continued north on 4th onto Stockton (now one-way) through the Stockton tunnel that was actually created for streetcars, and through Chinatown and on to Fisherman's Wharf. Prioritizing a surface streetcar line would have been easy. The Central Subway as it is takes a lot of time to get to and from no matter where you are. Maybe this lesson will have been learned by the time the long-overdue return of a rail line on Geary is built, but I wouldn't count on it.

thx for the video! this is the kind of local history i love hearing about!

This is totally spot on! I grew up in San Jose from 1970's through the present and have been a first-hand witness to most of what you've described. San Jose is one of those cities where its story is one where you can "follow the money". When you look at the history of a lot of things San Jose, a lot of decisions favored developers. You should also dig into "East San Jose" if you're inclined. It's got a history that most people don't even know about which has pretty much been erased by parking lots, strip-malls and questionable planning.

I've lived here for most of my life and I just found out there's a light rail

I lived in the Rose Garden/Burbank area of San Jose for about five years back in the 80's and one thing that caught me by surprise (and that I'm kind of surprised wasn't mentioned in the video) was the number of "mother-in-law" cottages, either converted garages or built from scratch in backyards. It seemed like every house had one, in my neighborhood and in other areas of the valley too, so I'm guessing the whole valley, or at least all of San Jose, was zoned for them.

1:35 the M's right-of-way through 19th ave is also kinda like that; no matter what time of year I go there, there's always poppies blooming LOL

More videos pleaee

I can tell this guy has never been to San Jose lol

San Jo kid here. I remember decades ago in elementary school seeing in class a movie titled "Urban Sprawl." SJ was the subject.

5:00 as a true local I recognize all of these

I live in Milpitas . Slightly on the outside of San Jose . The streets of San Jose are so trash and there’s not much to do downtown. I don’t even like going there.

something else san jose contributed to culture, los tigres del norte. one of if not the most influencial/known bands across latin america.