Zelda Bronstein, famous for her long-form reporting on MTC, had her opinion piece on RM3 published in Berkeleyside. Her best quote: Regional Measure 3 is bold all right: it’s a massive con that dedicates $4.5 billion to a hodgepodge of disconnected projects that will bring the Bay Area little traffic relief. The piece captures the highlights of comments made by elected officials opposed to the measure.
In an interesting article, representatives from Massachusetts visited Seattle and found useful lessons. The contrast between Seattle and California are instructive. One striking takeaway: Plan for growth. The Seattle area has enormous demand for housing, and, like Boston, struggles to ensure affordability. We learned that the State of Washington’s Growth Management Act (in law since 1990) compels a forward-looking plan at every level of government, so that the region’s housing, transportation, land use and service delivery have a framework for success. Does that sound anything like the Bay Area? Lots of taxpayer money is going into transit projects that enable people to leave…
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Joe Simitian of Palo Alto and Mountain View Mayor Lenny Siegel were described in the Palo Alto Daily Post as not supporting Regional Measure 3. Mayor Siegel appears to have agreed with TRANSDEF’s position, expressed in a recent Mercury News opinion piece: Siegel said that the tech company lobbyist Guardino’s support of the measure shows that big employers are trying to “externalize their transportation costs” by passing them on to the general population. “Some of us believe that the right way to pay for transit is to tax the employers bringing traffic…
The Silicon Valley Transit Users has posted a superb analysis of the performance of VTA, with historic data on service levels and ridership. This is in preparation for yet another effort by San Jose’s wrong-headed leadership to cut back on transit service levels. Here’s a quote by David Foote that best summarizes the problem: Our elected representatives at city, county, state and federal levels are doing an absolutely detestable job addressing real 21st Century transportation issues across our entire region. They delight in squabbling among themselves, kicking the can down the road, passing the buck, blaming others, and when in doubt, dreaming up confusing…
The current major lawsuit against CHSRA, Tos II, had a Case Management Conference on Friday. An October 26 court hearing was set for a motion by Plaintiffs seeking a declaratory judgment that AB 1889 is facially unconstitutional. A judgment to that effect would trigger a request by Plaintiffs for an injunction blocking any use of Proposition 1A HSR Bond funds for construction. CHSRA will seek judgment on a cross-motion that AB 1889 is constitutional, so that CHSRA can rely on it in seeking bond funds to continue construction of its HSR project. This case has been delayed by CHSRA for 17 months. Two demurrers were…
Common Dreams posted a significant story recently about the suits by various California jurisdictions against fossil fuel companies. Strikingly absent from all these suits is the California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra. These suits are a key legal ground where climate change is being fought.
Edward Ring of the California Policy Institute offers a striking challenge to the financial assumptions in the High-Speed Rail Authority’s 2018 draft Business Plan. He offers a more conservative set of assumptions that result in a negative cash flow for operations out to the year 2059. A project like that simply is not financeable. While TRANSDEF does not agree with the author’s assumptions about boarding and travel-to-station times, we very much agree that this HSR project will not be affordable for commuting. We are convinced that the promotion of HSR as the solution to the commute woes of Central Valley…
Just look at the list of funders of the campaign for Regional Measure 3, the proposed $3.00 bridge toll increase. High-tech is all over asking the public to pay to fix the congestion caused by their adding large numbers of employees to an already crowded region.
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,…
In an unexpected blow to the credibility of Regional Measure 3, a Congressman with long ties to transportation has written an opposition to the measure. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) rebukes Bay Area politicians and MTC in particular: Now is the time to stop this cycle of waste and frustration and to engage in serious and coordinated planning, because the Bay Area needs and deserves better. Without greater transparency and accountability, Regional Measure 3 would result in, at best, moderate improvements in the short run, but no meaningful solution in the long term. This criticism is especially significant, because of the depth…