For several years BATWG has tried to focus attention on the disastrous 1.5 mile East-West Connector highway (now euphemistically called the Quarry Lakes Parkway) that the Mayor of Union City wants to foist upon the mostly unsuspecting residents of south Alameda County.
First, the new roadway would obliterate a nicely wooded section of Alameda Creek just north of Paseo Padre.
One of the essential elements needed early in any large infrastructure project is a valid alternative analysis to determine which of several approaches has the best chance of achieving community goals at a reasonable cost. Despite the fact that this need is set forth in both the NEPA and the CEQA Acts, Bay Area agencies often either ignore the requirement or tip the scales to favor a “preferred” pet project. In some cases, eager promoters are left free to rush blindly ahead with the advancement of a favored scheme without bothering to consider either its public value or its cost.
The results of this careless practice are dire. Here are some Bay Area examples:
Our companion article about Muni in this newsletter reiterated the current need for the SFMTA to cut costs.
The forthcoming APEC conference (scheduled to take place from November 11 – November 17) may offer a way for the SFMTA to avoid having to pay $20 to $25 million a year to keep the low ridership Central Subway running.
The DTX project will extend the 78-mile existing Caltrain the last 1.3 miles into the Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco. While the downtown is no longer the employment center it used to be, Salesforce remains a major nexus of local and regional transit systems which, when Caltrain is extended, will connect 11 passenger rail lines and over 40 bus lines.
It is generally agreed that the world has been warming and that this has caused the melting of ice and, according to the EPA about 9 inches of sea level rise since 1880. There is also agreement that there is more man-caused greenhouse gas in the atmosphere than there used to be. And that’s about where the agreement ends.
The nature of the climate debate has shifted. There are now at least four ways of looking at the situation.
With its plan both to run diesel and electric trains between Gilroy and San Francisco, Caltrain appears to be facing a major dilemma of its own making. If implemented this ill-conceived plan would both significantly delay the long-awaited level boarding north of San Jose’s Diridon Transfer Station and, by having to continue operating both electrics and diesels, make the Caltrain operation significantly more costly than it otherwise would be.
Caltrain is…and has long been…in the politically difficult position of trying to operate a coherent commuter rail service through three California counties, each with active constituents, often at odds with one another. This is further complicated by the fact that even though Caltrain passes through three Bay Area Counties and is therefore a regional system, there has been little if any regional involvement in resolving the resulting regional problems.
Despite these handicaps it is essential that Caltrain’s actions during the next five years be pursuant to a carefully thought- out, unifying strategy. Unfortunately, there is at this time little evidence that such a strategy exists.
Bay Area Transportation Working Group 