ACTIA
TRANSDEF Opposes Alameda County Transportation Tax
08/22/14 Filed in: Climate
Change
The Transportation
Solutions Defense and Education Fund, TRANSDEF,
announced its opposition to the proposed 2014 Alameda
County Transportation Sales Tax, which will be
Measure BB on the ballot in November. The measure
would lock in funding for the next thirty years,
precisely the critical time when humanity needs to
severely reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases
(GHGs), if we are to preserve a climate hospitable to
life as we know it.
Alameda County, like other transportation agencies, finds it more comfortable and less controversial to continue doing what it has always done: focus its efforts on a network of roads and highways that predominantly serve single-occupant vehicles. While the current proposal has funding for transit and bike facilities, the underlying focus hasn’t changed at all. The County’s Transportation Plan predicts a 46% increase in Vehicle Miles Travelled in 2035, with a slight increase if the tax measure passes. (A later ACTIA document adjusted that figure downwards to “only” a 26% increase, but that drop had little or nothing to do with the tax. Most of that adjustment had to do with correcting the assumptions for modeling.) Single-occupant driving is barely affected by the Transportation Plan and tax.
Until TRANSDEF sees a serious effort to make carpooling, transit and biking the predominant ways to get around, we will oppose such measures. Read More...
Alameda County, like other transportation agencies, finds it more comfortable and less controversial to continue doing what it has always done: focus its efforts on a network of roads and highways that predominantly serve single-occupant vehicles. While the current proposal has funding for transit and bike facilities, the underlying focus hasn’t changed at all. The County’s Transportation Plan predicts a 46% increase in Vehicle Miles Travelled in 2035, with a slight increase if the tax measure passes. (A later ACTIA document adjusted that figure downwards to “only” a 26% increase, but that drop had little or nothing to do with the tax. Most of that adjustment had to do with correcting the assumptions for modeling.) Single-occupant driving is barely affected by the Transportation Plan and tax.
Until TRANSDEF sees a serious effort to make carpooling, transit and biking the predominant ways to get around, we will oppose such measures. Read More...
MTC Wants to Bury Dumbarton Rail
The staff report for MTC’s Planning and
Allocations meeting, Wednesday, May 14 at 9:40 am
lays out MTC's plans to bury the Dumbarton Rail
project. Transit advocates have often noted that
this project is the only possible way to avoid the
cost of a new multibillion Transbay tunnel to deal
with the lack of capacity in BART's Transbay tube.
On April 23, TRANSDEF filed comments [this file without exhibits]
with MTC, asserting legal arguments for why the
proposed elimination of Regional Measure 2 funding
for the Dumbarton Rail Project would be both
illegal and unwise. [Comment file with the
full set of
exhibits.] Read
More...
Warm Springs BART litigation
03/04/09 Filed in: MTC | Transportation
Planning
TRANSDEF recently filed a taxpayers' lawsuit to
prevent Bay Area transportation agencies from
illegally sending BART over $315 million for
construction of its Warm Springs extension. Check it out.