Published Saturday, September 8, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

Letters to the Editor

Let VTA hear your voice

Linda Rae Hermann's commentary on the "public input" process behind
the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority's Fremont-San Jose
corridor hearings (Opinion, Aug. 7) confirms that the VTA is once
again forsaking the public trust in favor of politics. In this
instance, it is disregarding public input to satisfy the 1998
campaign promise of San Jose Mayor (and current VTA Board Vice
Chairman) Ron Gonzales to bring BART to San Jose.

I also went to the community input meetings for the Fremont-San Jose
corridor. Based on my own experience with mass transit in New Jersey
and with community input meetings, I quickly saw that VTA biased
critical information to make BART look superior. One such example:
VTA defined commuter rail as having three to five cars with a top
speed of 79 mph, while it defined BART as having seven to 10 cars
with a top speed of 80 mph. Between Boston, New York, and Washington,
commuter rail systems can have up to 12 cars per train, and they can
run at top speeds of 79 to 125 mph.

The VTA Riders Union has found that when many people speak out, the
VTA's board will listen. One example was at the May VTA board
meeting, where the board wanted to pass a resolution to not support
the reconstruction of the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco.
Numerous e-mails and faxes from people opposing the resolution were
sent, and 10 people spoke at the meeting that night. It was enough to
force the board to table the resolution.

More people need to speak out and remind the VTA that transit riders
come first.

Founder, Santa Clara VTA Riders Union
Sunnyvale