Transit advocates were integral participants in the raid on general funds resulting in the Transportaton Congestion Relief Program and its successor Proposition 42. The transit lobby threw in with the highway lobby, abandoning advocates for walking, bicycling and livable communities. The end result has been that transit advocates cooperated with the road construction lobby to take money away from general fund programs that provide food, housing or medical assistance to California’s poorest, most vulnerable residents and divert the money to transportation programs.

We aren’t just complaining about “car projects”. In fact, there is still money coming through for transit infrastructure projects. The problem is that the operating subsidies are becoming non-existent, and there is little point to building a new rail line (as an example) if you don’t have the money to operate it once completed.

In fact, in order to get federal funds for any new transit capital project, you have to prove you will have the money to run it. How the f*** are we going to do that with the state cutting the STA for an indeterminate period?

I should also point out that “car projects” do have the potential for transit improvements. Roads are the “tracks” for any bus-based service. For example, adding the northbound carpool lanes on the 405 between the 10 and 101 will allow a project that Metro has on the drawing board to be implemented … a non-stop express bus between the Van Nuys Orange Line station and Westwood.

Effective advocacy requires looking at the big picture, not just “things I care about and can actually do something to fix”.

My snide remakrs aside, I was happy to hear that the governor finally attacked corrections – the 1 million pound gorilla sitting silently in the corner until now – in his budget. Hopefully we can put an end to our state’s stupid (yet popular) policies that lock up thousands of people for minor offenses and puts them on a fast track to return to prison over and over again.

Sorry about the smart ass comments re:transit advocacy but there is so much car pork in “transit” policy discussions that just sort of get brushed over by the “serious” people in the debate that it is a bit annoying to hear you guys complain when the car projects are the only tings getting saved. Time to re-frame the debate!

If you had been involved in the attempts by the advocacy community to stop the STA cut, you would know that we didn’t “go along to get along”. But you weren’t in Sacramento with the rest of us, were you? No, you were too busy with your bike shop and your blog, while still believing you know everything.

The aforementioned remark was due to your speaking from an uninformed position and I insist upon an apology for it.

I’ve got a political lens you guys can use in your future struggles for transportation funding: “Car vs Everything Else”. Help with that battle, and I think you’ll actually see some gains. California’s voting public is rapidly decanting from the suburbs into urban areas. Those left in suburbia will soon hardly show up on politicians’ radar – and their desire to keep highway subsidies at or above current levels won’t be able to beat back your desire to move humans efficiently and lower the capital costs of transportation.

http://www.caltransit.org/node/808