TRANSDEF’s opinion piece “Toll Increase Would Condemn Bay Area To Gridlock” was published in the Sunday print version of the Mercury News. The subheading is “If the Metropolitan Transportation Commission knew how to cut traffic, it would have done so by now.” The piece was specifically targeted for Silicon Valley, and identifies Silicon Valley business as major funders of the Yes on RM3 Campaign, and asks “Are Silicon Valley businesses trying to stick the public with the cost of transporting their workers?”
The opinion piece explains that Regional Measure 3 is going to trap the Bay Area in its current trend, heading towards gridlock. The funding is needed instead to change the direction of Bay Area planning to support for shared travel. For too long, resources have been committed to supporting solo commuters. Massive traffic congestion is the result of that misallocation of resources. The piece instead proposes funding for a dense network of buses and protected bike lanes, while encouraging solo drivers to use of smartphone ridesharing apps to find a passenger. Here is the submitted text: