Transit buses in one of California’s most populous cities are moving riders faster and operating more efficiently.
The improvements in San Jose, ranked third by population with nearly 1 million residents, come not from major changes to the buses themselves, or the routes they travel — but from breezing through intersections, avoiding unnecessary slowdowns due to red lights.
The buses, operated by Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), the transit provider for San Jose and surrounding communities across Silicon Valley, benefit from transit signal priority technology, which allows some traffic signals along the route to transition to green when a bus approaches, eliminating what is often an unnecessary stop…