Re: “RTC Votes to Advance Rail Trail,” (goodtimes.sc, 2/4): I can’t believe this is controversial.
Our county’s population density is shaped like a line. There’s a rail line that we own that runs in the center of that density line, through all the towns. Traffic is terrible. Thousands of essential workers wait in traffic every day getting from Watsonville to Santa Cruz. Every study has shown that the best use of our rail corridor for transportation is to use it for rail transportation. Sadly, I fear those who are opposed are philosophically opposed to public transportation and other equity-related public services. They may say they “prefer bus,” but it’s well established that nobody prefers bus given the choice, and these Mid-County opponents never use public transit in any case. Let’s plan for rail, so when funding is available we can be first in line.
David Van Brink | Santa Cruz
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50% of traffic coming into Watsonville is coming from Monterey County.
50% of traffic approaching the fishhook is going over.
The train also misses residential zoning areas in Watsonville.
A train does not address any of these issues.
Sorry, but a bus can handle this issue, a train simply cannot.
The studies conducted are not studies, they are justifications for rail by people who want a rail system, not a transportation solution, not an affordable housing solution and do not want to end the commuter culture even though society is moving away from this model.
Those of us opposed to a train are simply realists. We believe very much in public transit, but it needs to fit our community. A train does not. Bus On Shoulder, Bus Rapid Transit, Machine Learning of traffic signal timing will be an significant improvement to our transportation issues that do not require over 25 years to start to implement. We also believe in affordable housing and economic development in south county. David’s letter is full of the bias, close mindedness, assumptions and simply hatred. You can’t scream inequity when your billion dollar project leaves out 98% of the residents of the county.
As usual, David presumes a lot and is in fact being insulting. RTC knows that rail will have the fewest riders, the fewest runs, limited time runs, two stops in Pajaro, Watsonville for the “equitable” population who won’t be able to afford the fares, will be the most expensive, takes the longest to build, needs more infrastructure, decimates trees, cause the trail to divert onto streets while BRT is the most flexible, costs less, will have more ridership, connects to first/last mile easily, etc. David is just another FORT member wanting a choo-choo.