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NOTES FROM TRANSPORTATION THINK TANK'S FIRST MEETING...
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** NEXT MEETING: Tuesday January 26, 5 pm at CAFE BRASIL, **
** 1410 Mission Street in Santa Cruz. All are invited. **
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Here are some notes from our first meeting, held Thursday,
January 14 at 7 pm:
This was an organizational meeting, with 15 people attending:
Debbie Bulger, facilitating, a member of both Mission Pedestrian and
the Mission Street Widening Task Force; Peter Scott, note-taker, a
member of Mission Pedestrian; Kim Chin, Manager of Planning and
Marketing for the SCMTD; Richard Stover, interested citizen; Les White,
General Manager of the SCMTD; Jeff Almquist, Chair of both the County
Board of Supervisors and the SCMTD Board of Directors; Dave Walworth,
transportation activist; Joshua Hart, member of People Power; Dennis
Osmer, former Mayor of Watsonville; Brendan Osmer, his son, and
interested citizen; Celia Scott, former Mayor of Santa Cruz; Mark
Taylor, President of the Mission Street Business Association and owner
of the Food Bin and the Herb Room; Larry Pageler, an interested citizen;
Jim MacKenzie, an interested citizen; and Peter Beckmann, owner of
Beckmann's Bakery and Chair of the City Transportation Commission of
Santa Cruz.
We introduced ourselves to each other, and offered brief wishes for
the New Year, all of which had a general tenor that reflected our core
interest, which is to work to reduce dependence on the single-occupant
automobile as a means of getting around. Peter Beckmann offered a
motto: "Let's make communities better, not bigger", and Jeff Almquist
said that he would like to see public transportation modes be made
more attractive to the public. Several of us suggested that it would
be desirable to work to increase funding for public transit.
We spent the remainder of the meeting brainstorming to create
appropriate phrases for a Mission Statement for our group. Based on
this, Debbie and Kim will work to prepare a draft for our next
meeting on Jan 26 (see meeting notice above).
A first question (Les): Do we want to focus on generation of ideas,
or on strategizing, or on advocating; i.e., should our "think tank"
be a deliberative body, or should we assume a role of political
advocacy?
We agreed that we should at least start out as a "think tank", that
is, generate ideas, be deliberative, rather than act as advocates.
We also noted that we should not limit our thinking to Santa Cruz
County, and that our own problems invariably are linked to State and
even national issues, even though our strongest influence will be
within our own county.
Jim noted that our current auto-oriented emphasis is media-driven,
and Les pointed out that just the ADVERTIZING budget for the auto
industry is greater than the entire operating plus capital budget for
public transit for the whole USA.
Celia noted that the traffic on Highway 17 depends critically on the
jobs/housing balance in Santa Clara County; therefore the jobs/housing
balance is a key issue.
Les mentioned his observation of a dramatic increase in auto use near
his former home in Vancouver, Washington, which he described as a
bankrupt bedroom suburb of Portland, Oregon. Not too many years ago,
(in 1982) the I-5 served as the only road across the Columbia River,
with an average daily traffic (ADT) count of 105,000 vehicles per day.
It was then predicted that the construction of a new bridge (the I-205)
would lead to a total ADT, by the year 2000, of approximately 150,000
vehicles per day, split between the two bridges. However by only 1997,
the ADT was already up to 270,000.
Dennis noted that regional considerations are routinely ignored, and
Larry noted the significant influence of policies pursued by both
workers and employers in Silicon Valley, which assume the use of the
private auto mode.
Peter Beckmann felt that concepts and ideas we might give focus to
will naturally spread beyond county boundaries.
Larry felt that we should not neglect "rideshare" programs, although
they might be termed "the nicotine patch of transportation".
Les asked "How do we invest in transportation improvements?" The
current thinking: An empty bus is "bad", while an empty road is
"good", even "ideal".
Debbie noted that she observed on a recent trip to China, and
advertisement showing a movie heroine riding to work in a van pool.
There was some discussion of the Highway 17 Express Bus program, with
a desire to improve it so there is both weekend service and better
geographical distribution. Les said that the SCMTD is working on
this; it needs collaboration with Santa Clara County.
Richard asked "Where are we now---what is our current situation?",
with the idea of gathering and compiling current data regarding both
traffic and land use policies. Both Larry and Kim expressed interest
as well in working on this.
The "Surface Transportation Policy Project" (STPP) was mentioned;
Peter Scott said he would share the website address for the STPP.
[Here it is: http://www.transact.org]
We finally selected a time and place for our next meeting:
Tuesday, January 26, at 5 pm at Cafe Brasil. [This is now confirmed.]
We also agreed that this first meeting seemed promising. Our rule of
"no interrupting" worked well, and we anticipate a fruitful and
enjoyable future.
On our agenda for Jan 26 will be a final agreement on our Mission
Statement (along with an adoption of any changes we might give to the
NAME of our group---Debbie suggests we might call ourselves something
like the "Institute for Transportation Efficiency", so there is
something to think about).
I'll forward the draft of the Mission Statement in a subsequent
e-mail when I have it, so those who come to the meeting next Tuesday
will have it in hand and be in a position to suggest revisions.
We'll also plan to discuss assumption of some responsibilities at the
next meeting.
-- Peter Scott, note-taker.