Cupertino City Council Votes to Oppose RM3

In a highly unusual agenda item, the Cupertino City Council discussed the flaws in Regional Measure 3 and voted to oppose it. They will send a letter to other elected officials, informing them of their reasons for doing so. The item starts with public testimony on the measure, led off by TRANSDEF. Councilmember Steven Scharf offered a striking slide presentation. Vice-Mayor Rod Sinks presented a passionate and thorough recounting of the promises to Cupertino that have been broken by VTA. Councilmember Barry Chang urged the Council to take a leadership role in opposing the measure. Finally, the Council formulated its final motions and voted on them.

Cupertino has a history of leadership in transportation. The City of Cupertino’s animated film Silicon Valley’s Transportation Future” is a brilliant explication of the key decision in transportation planning: whether to prioritize supporting solo drivers or transit. Regional Measure 3 commits scarce system expansion funds to road capacity projects called Express Lanes, the formula for gridlock in the long term.

Here is a summary of the Council’s criticisms of the measure:

Efficacy

  • It ignores the causes and solutions of gridlock.
  • It doesn’t fund affordable transportation options.
  • It has no transit to housing-rich areas, especially where there is affordable housing.
  • It encourages more solo driving by funding High-Occupancy Toll lanes, which will worsen congestion. They are not a solution for gridlock.
  • It does not address the commute problems of North County. All the funding goes to San Jose.

Equity

  • It is unfair that Santa Clara County residents, who rarely use bridges, can vote to raise tolls on others.
  • The funding model is unfair and regressive.
  • The toll increase is not limited to $3.00. Inflation would make tolls much higher.
  • A payroll tax would be much more fair than sales taxes and bridge toll increases.
  • The measure is promoted by the corporations that created the gridlock, but don’t want to help pay to solve it.

Fairness in Process

  • Our cities were not given an opportunity to suggest how the money would be spent. The VTA Board never discussed the allocation formula. There was no transparency.
  • Promises made for bus service on Hwy 85, serving Cupertino and West Valley cities, were not kept. Funding for the Hwy 85 study is now being withheld.

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