SMART is cost-effective, conventional rail technology, a project with a solid financial plan, and honest ridership projections. Perhaps too honest, since the upfront description of what the project can and can't do has given fodder to adversaries.
With SMART the north bay has a chance to channel their future growth into some something tolerable, and turn exurbia into something other than a nightmare of long-distance car commuting.
And besides this, their is the fact that SMART will enable my family to conveniently reach Snoopy's Home Ice in Santa Rose via transit.
The BART-to-SJ project is ridiculously expensive (a 16-mile subway through the suburbs, dug underneath an existing railway right-of-way?), claims laughably high ridership estimates, and is so fiscally reckless as to endanger every other transit project in the south bay. Yet it's popular with Silicon Valleyites who are wowed by technology but have no understanding or real interest in using public transit.
Vote this turkey down and force the VTA to get their financial house in order, and connect the South Bay to the East Bay with something that's affordable and will actually work.
5 comments:
I can only pray on these. I go to the Santa Clara County every day, and Sonoma County most weekends, but cannot vote on either measure.
We saw a lot of Yes on Q signs up there this weekend. Had the election been in August this would have been a slam dunk, high gas prices and heavy traffic on 101. Now gas prices have dropped, which would usually result in increased traffic. Sadly the drop in prices is due to reduced demand due to the economy. Gas is cheap, traffic is not so bad, and people are worried about their pocketbook. Cross your fingers.
I went to a talk that included several members of the SMART board and their campaign manager in Santa Rosa this weekend. They were pretty pumped up. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey gave the keynote speech so of course the SMART fans asked if Obama would be providing extra funds to expedite SMART.
The Mayor of Rohnert Park is a grumpy old Scotsman named Jake McKenzie, he is on the SMART board and he rode his bike to the meeting from RP. That makes at least 1 more cycling advocate on the SMART board than on Caltrain staff...
Chuck Reed is trying to get 14 billion from the 700B bailout package for San Jose - to build the BART extension. He is stubborn!
http://www.mercurynews.com/traffic/ci_12497004?nclick_check=1
Check this one out.
http://holierthanyou.blogspot.com/2009/09/bay-area-transit-quiz.html
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