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Silicon Valley By Foot, an even less well-advised idea
For theme II (lines), I picked (a), where you choose a railway terminus and walk along the line that terminates there, or as close to it as possible. Since I started my walk at 8:30 PM, I went for the minimum of one hour.
I chose the Mountain View VTA Light Rail station, as there wasn't much time before sunset and it was the only railway terminus close to me.
The light rail tracks run along Evelyn Avenue, a road I've biked on many times, precisely because it follows the Caltrain (heavy rail) and light rail racks and so there's not much cross traffic. I thought it might be interesting to walk along a route that was familiar and yet that I'd never walked on. It wasn't that interesting, though. There were signs announcing housing developments under construction -- clearly, somebody wants to turn a rather blighted post-industrial swath of Silicon Valley into apartments where yuppies can live close to the train station.
But the landscape was still dominated by light industry like auto body shops and mysterious manufacturing firms, with the occasional coyly named dot-com office (this is still Mountain View). The pedestrian/bike overpass over Highway 85, which looked nice against a purple sky, was one of the few interesting sights. The overpass is part of the Stevens Creek Trail (though the creek looks pretty arid at the moment). I also liked the juxtaposition between a freeway on-ramp and, visible in the same image, a traffic signal with a button allowing cyclists to request a green.
After 20 minutes of walking, I reached Evelyn Station:
which is the next stop after Mountain View; I usually pass it on my bike and marvel how close the Santa Clara County transit planners thought to put the light rail stops when I pass the Mountain View stop 2 minutes later. But this time, it seemed like quite a triumph. The station looks strangely elaborate for a rail stop that's about as far from anywhere as you can get and still be in suburbia. The huge parking lot nearby suggests that people must commute from this stop, but I have no idea who, or where they go, or why they live here.
Just after Evelyn, the light rail tracks curve to the left and begin to wind through a strange landscape of desolate office parks near the NASA Ames Research Center and continuing to the environs of Yahoo!'s headquarters in Sunnyvale. I'd planned to turn left onto Whisman Road to follow the tracks, but when I got there, I found that the road actually made a grade-separated crossing over Evelyn, so there was no way for me to get onto it. The map didn't show any other way to cross the tracks anywhere nearby, so I doubled back to Evelyn Station to see if there was access to the other side of the train tracks from the platform. A pedestrian underpass that again seemed oddly luxurious for such a modest location took me to the platform, but there was no way from there to reach the north side of the train tracks, much less to cross Central Expressway on the other side of the tracks. Just then, a train arrived, so I paid $2 for a two-minute ride and resigned myself to not finding out where the tracks really go until another day when I have more time during the daylight hours.
Complete photo set
I chose the Mountain View VTA Light Rail station, as there wasn't much time before sunset and it was the only railway terminus close to me.
The light rail tracks run along Evelyn Avenue, a road I've biked on many times, precisely because it follows the Caltrain (heavy rail) and light rail racks and so there's not much cross traffic. I thought it might be interesting to walk along a route that was familiar and yet that I'd never walked on. It wasn't that interesting, though. There were signs announcing housing developments under construction -- clearly, somebody wants to turn a rather blighted post-industrial swath of Silicon Valley into apartments where yuppies can live close to the train station.
But the landscape was still dominated by light industry like auto body shops and mysterious manufacturing firms, with the occasional coyly named dot-com office (this is still Mountain View). The pedestrian/bike overpass over Highway 85, which looked nice against a purple sky, was one of the few interesting sights. The overpass is part of the Stevens Creek Trail (though the creek looks pretty arid at the moment). I also liked the juxtaposition between a freeway on-ramp and, visible in the same image, a traffic signal with a button allowing cyclists to request a green.
After 20 minutes of walking, I reached Evelyn Station:
which is the next stop after Mountain View; I usually pass it on my bike and marvel how close the Santa Clara County transit planners thought to put the light rail stops when I pass the Mountain View stop 2 minutes later. But this time, it seemed like quite a triumph. The station looks strangely elaborate for a rail stop that's about as far from anywhere as you can get and still be in suburbia. The huge parking lot nearby suggests that people must commute from this stop, but I have no idea who, or where they go, or why they live here.
Just after Evelyn, the light rail tracks curve to the left and begin to wind through a strange landscape of desolate office parks near the NASA Ames Research Center and continuing to the environs of Yahoo!'s headquarters in Sunnyvale. I'd planned to turn left onto Whisman Road to follow the tracks, but when I got there, I found that the road actually made a grade-separated crossing over Evelyn, so there was no way for me to get onto it. The map didn't show any other way to cross the tracks anywhere nearby, so I doubled back to Evelyn Station to see if there was access to the other side of the train tracks from the platform. A pedestrian underpass that again seemed oddly luxurious for such a modest location took me to the platform, but there was no way from there to reach the north side of the train tracks, much less to cross Central Expressway on the other side of the tracks. Just then, a train arrived, so I paid $2 for a two-minute ride and resigned myself to not finding out where the tracks really go until another day when I have more time during the daylight hours.
Complete photo set
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I love thoughtful graffiti too.
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