GILROY
– Santa Clara County transportation ballot Measures A and B won
handily Tuesday night, paving the way for at least the next 20
years of transportation in the Santa Clara Valley.
GILROY – Santa Clara County transportation ballot Measures A and B won handily Tuesday night, paving the way for at least the next 20 years of transportation in the Santa Clara Valley.
As of midnight Tuesday, Measure A received 83 percent of the popular vote and Measure B received 74 percent. Both measures had been expected to win easily.
Measures A and B were sponsored by the Valley Transportation Authority and backed by a throng of South County civic leaders, who have called the non-taxing measures essential to meet future South County transportation needs.
“This means South County will get the dollars it should for transportation,” Mayor Tom Springer said Tuesday evening. “We have heard the voters’ cry to solve traffic congestion in South County and this will answer their cry.”
The passing of Measure B binds the Valley Transportation Authority to commit approximately $2.1 billion in state and federal transportation funds to improved roadway, pedestrian and bicycle projects through the year 2036 – ensuring the money goes to roadways instead of public transit.
Measure A serves as a citizens’ stamp of approval for the VTA’s Valley Transportation Plan 2020 passed in December 2000. The 2020 provides for improving highways, roads, buses and light-rail cars; completing the Tasman East, Capitol and Vasona light-rail lines; developing Bay Area Rapid Transit system connection for the South Bay; planning for rapid transit; and supporting the operation of Caltrain and commuter rail services.
South County projects included in that list range from $10 million in safety improvements on Highway 152 to new interchanges on Buena Vista Avenue in north Gilroy. Funds would also go to local road maintenance projects, such as resurfacing work. In addition, the possible construction of a “fly-over” road to Saint Louise Regional Hospital is already being discussed by local officials.
“Measure B means you know that the money planned to be used to build South County roads will be used for those roads,” Springer said. “Public transit now must stick by its budget – it cannot suck in any of that money.”
But while local officials are praising the success of Tuesday’s transportation measures, opponents warn that South Valley residents might be in for more transportation headaches thanks to Measures A and B.
Margaret Okuzumi, executive director of the BayRail Alliance – a public transportation advocacy group based in Palo Alto – said that the measures passed Tuesday will take away money from public transit in the area and handcuff future VTA boards.
“I think during the next 34 years people will regret and pay for this,” said Okuzumi Tuesday night, who blamed misleading language on the ballot for the transportation measures’ success.
“It’s sad because the VTA is not telling people the whole story here,” she said. “Measures A and B won’t deliver the type of relief people think, and the construction will only make congestion worse for the next 20 years. Bowing to single occupancy vehicles is not the long-term solution to South County’s traffic problems.”
Okuzumi said that because of the recent economic turmoil sales tax dollars committed by county voters to public transportation in the 2000 election will be much lower than projected – leaving several of the county’s planned public transit projects without enough money.
But Springer says not so.
“The planned transit projects in the 2020 will get funded – no problem,” he said. “Of course the economy is a concern but the money is there. People are afraid because fares might go up – but they need to realize that they can’t ride for free.”
