Taking Charge
Post by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
I have to come clean, I like the idea of Governor Schwarzenegger. Heck, I even liked the idea of Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura, if nothing else for the sheer freak show quality of it all. And not being a resident of California nor Minnesota, I can’t speak on their political records. But I need to give props to Governor Schwarzenegger for stepping in and stepping up when a major transit disaster befell the Bay Area on early Sunday morning.
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, a tanker truck turned over, causing a massive conflagration, effectively melting the freeway interchange on which it raged. This interchange happened to be a major chokepoint for commuters in Oakland, San Francisco and their environs. Expecting a massive transportation nightmare come the Monday morning rush hour, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency. Authorizing $2.5 million from the state coffers to be used to provide free rides on all Bay Area public transportation agencies on Monday, he continued the funding on Tuesday, allowing the agencies to increase their service even though they had gone back to normal fare service.
So what was the result? The rush hour wasn’t a gridlock nightmare and local transit officials said that they didn’t notice a huge surge in ridership during the peak rush hour time, although there was increased ridership before and after the peak. Did more people just stay at home? Probably, but with the level of technology and interconnectivity there is in the world today, that was expected.
With the freeway interchange more than likely out of commission for nearly a month, transit is going to become very important to the Bay Area residents who haven’t used it before. Now is the time for local officials to not only champion its use, but to step up themselves and do everything they can to get people on board. Let people know they can call up and find their routes through your agency’s call center. Get on the local news and tell everyone to try the system out. Heck, now would be a prime opportunity to make a deal with local businesses to provide their employees with transit passes.
And while this was all going on, another transit disaster was avoided by Governor Schwarzenegger. South of the Bay Area in Orange County, the Orange County Transportation Authority was looking at a strike by members of Teamsters Local 952. Rather than have transit disrupted in both NOCAL and SOCAL, the governor stepped in and declared an investigation of the dispute and made it illegal for the union to strike for one week while the investigation is underway. After that, the governor could even declare a 60-day cooling off period where it would be illegal for the union to strike.
Congratulations to Governor Schwarzenegger for stepping in and putting an end to two potential transit nightmares in the span of almost as many days — too bad that he’s been looking at cutting the funding from transit up to this point in his tenure. Maybe this worst week ever will be a wakeup call to the governor to let him know just how important transit is to the state. If only everyone could realize just how important transit really is to the whole transportation puzzle that is our nation’s highway system.
And while I’m at it, a shout out to the city of Whistler, the province of British Columbia and the Canadian government for working together to advance transit. If you hadn’t heard, Whistler is looking at replacing 2/3 of its fleet with hydrogen fuel cell buses. While cities here in the states are dancing at getting one of these technological wonders on the road, Whistler is rolling out 20 in its fleet — Awesome.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Thursday.
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Fred:
As a resident of both NOCAL and SOCAL for about a year and a half each in the past decade, I can attest to the importance of rail transit and commuter rail in both areas. And while the Governator has been cool on transit subsidies, he is championing a massive bond issue with a large transit and rail component.
I commuted on CalTrain from San Mateo to SF for over a year, and often had to stand in the AM.
Charles Stanford
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I have since admitted that when Arnold Schwarzenegger was first elected Governor of California, I e-mailed all my Cali-fornia friends and tald them they deserved who they voted for. “What the h*** were they thinking?
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:39 pm
To finish up . . . “What the h*** were they thinking?” Many months ago I e-mailed them back and told them how wrong I was. Governor Schwarzenegger has been one of the most effective office holders in that State. Tough start, maybe, but from way out here on the “Sunny Side”, I salute him. Maybe we should find a way to let him run for President.
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I think the governor did the right thing. We need to do more and more of rail/busing in the United States. We have to cut the congestion and save on fuel. I live in Michigan. We have a US highway where there is a lot of people commute on it everyday to/from Ann Arbor. The road is only a divided 2 lane highway. For the stretch to resolve the congestion it would cost over $500 million. At this point there is a strong push to use a rail line and busing to cut down on this congestion. The cost to do this would be very nominal to the cost of the expansion of the road. The State of Michigan will cannot fund the cost because it is a US highway and no federal funds are available because it is not an interstate.