Editor,
Regarding the story “Concern rises over new express lanes,” in the March 8-9 edition, thank you San Mateo County Supervisor and Transit Authority member Jackie Speier for injecting an element of sanity and suggesting the current obsession with building more express lanes be put on ice until these projects are proven effective, i.e. results. Tangible, independent, verifiable results and if the lane’s have accomplished the established goal of easing traffic congestion and to what degree? According to the story, one bureaucrat reports that $7 million has already been spent so that justifies continuing the project that will cost up to $350 million.
(3) comments
David - in light of recent articles in both the DJ and the SF Chronicle it is truly astounding that this failed Express Lane experiment is allowed to continue, let alone be expanded. But, "unless they determined in advance they would benefit" the beneficiaries are the politicians and the labor unions at your and my expense.
Here is the truth about San Mateo Democrats:
- you want a simple bike lanes around a school you have to create a non-profit, collect hundreds of signatures, send 50 people to a city council meeting and the car-centric city council will turn you down (as just happened in San Mateo).
- you want better public transportation, SamTrans and Caltrain will claim they have no money (Mercury News: MTC board members David Canepa and Gina Papan helped to funnel public transportation funding away into a slush fund for car projects).
- additional highway lanes just turn out of nowhere. No one had to ask, no one had to collect signatures, no one spoke in front of any board. David Canepa, Rico E. Medina, Diane and Gina Papan and their "lobbyists" just do it out of the goodness of their hearts.
Thank you David. The money we would spend on expanding a freeway could be better spent on fixing potholes and creating bike and ped safety projects. And where would this expanded freeway go? SF will never put in another freeway lane. They don’t have the space. And they have the foresight to stop encouraging more people to drive.
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