Solutions that move you: that’s what VTA is all about... And how you move matters!

VTA is committed to providing more sustainable transportation options for all residents, commuters, and visitors of Santa Clara County. VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase I connects a new sustainable mode of transportation to the county’s network and helps ring an environmentally friendly solution around the Bay.

From inception, sustainability has been embedded into almost every aspect, from planning and designing for higher operational efficiency, to energy savings measures for the stations themselves.

Here's how VTA embedded sustainability into the Berryessa Extension:

• Creating sustainable transportation options – transportation emissions make up over 40% of all emissions in California. With a system that runs on electric rail, Santa Clara County residents can make BART part of their commute and significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per passenger-mile.
• Encouraging sustainable access – VTA designed the Milpitas and Berryessa Transit Centers to encourage commuters to walk, bike, take transit (bus and/or light rail) and carpool. Both stations are equipped with secure and convenient bike storage, and provide direct pathways between the BART station, the bus transit center, light rail (at Milpitas), and the surrounding neighborhood.
• Building in energy efficiency – VTA equipped the Milpitas and Berryessa Transit Centers with energy saving features including sky lights and open atriums to maximize natural light and reduce electricity needs, energy-efficient intermittent escalators, reclaiming water for landscaping and low-flow fixtures, native and drought-tolerant landscaping and rooftop solar panels that plug back into the grid.
• Promoting economic resiliency – VTA’s approach to sustainability goes beyond just emissions, we also want to encourage community’s economy. One way that is being done is through providing station area spaces for small and local businesses to directly serve transit riders.

Through thoughtful planning and design of the Phase I BART Extension to Berryessa, VTA is minimizing environmental emissions, supporting the local economy, and providing more options for each of us to travel more sustainably. Cheers to a great, green ride under blue skies!

Joe Clayton contributed to this story.