As part of the Connect Bay Area regional transit ballot measure spending plan, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties negotiated to include funding to improve local transit, over and above the funding needed to prevent severe cuts to Caltrain and BART.
SamTrans and VTA are starting to discuss goals for the funding. The money can only go to support public transportation – but it can be used to repave roads that are used by buses.
Fill out SamTrans survey by April 30
SamTrans has a new survey getting feedback on the local investment plan for $50 million in funding for transit in San Mateo County. SamTrans is asking about some good ideas, including making bus service more efficient, faster and more reliable, to expand service to underserved communities, and to fund SamTrans’ good plan to improve bus stops.
However, the SamTrans survey does not mention making service more frequent – which is very important for riders – and does not talk about improving connections to Caltrain, BART and across the bay. These are good suggestions to add in the open “Comments/Questions” section of the survey.
VTA Board discusses strategies to grow ridership
At a board workshop on February 27, the VTA board talked about goals to improve financial stability by increasing ridership. The Connect Bay Area ballot measure could bring $264 million per year to fund improvements.
Excellent, rider-friendly strategies discussed at the board meeting include major service increases with the Visionary Network to bring service up to par with other metros and other parts of the Bay; transit priority to make buses faster and more reliable, and other improvements to the customer experience.
VTA’s next board workshop, discussing the future of the service to shape the expenditure plan, will be April 17 – please stay tuned for opportunities to share your thoughts.
We don’t need another regressive transportation funding measure. Our taxes are already too high.
Vote NO.
Over the last several elections, voters in Santa Clara County have passed multiple tax and fee increases including gas taxes, the Caltrain Measure RR tax, two bridge toll increases, three VTA sales taxes, Santa Clara County’s Measure A 1/8 cent sales tax, the state prop 30 ¼ cent sales tax and the 2010 Measure B Vehicle Registration Fee of $10,and most recently a Santa Clara County”stealth sales tax.” Additionally, we’re on the hook to pay back numerous state bond issues including high-speed rail, the Proposition 1 water bond and the infrastructure bonds of 2006.
All this nickel and diming contributes into making the Bay Area a horribly expensive place to live; especially for people of modest means, who must pay the greatest percentage of their income in these regressive taxes and fees. Each increase by itself does not amount to much, but the cumulative effect is to add to the unaffordability of the region.
Before increasing taxes YET AGAIN, waste needs to be removed from transportation projects. VTA needs to “value engineer the BART to San Jose project, going with a twin bore tunnel and eliminating the redundant BART extension between the San Jose and Santa Clara Caltrain stations. The BART segment from these stations would duplicate both the existing Caltrain line and VTA’s 22 and 522 buses.
Why don’t the wealthy high rollers at MTC suggest taxing rich tech companies and leave the little guy alone for a change?