Transportation Report for our 1 May 2007 meeting
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Measure D renewal was the topic of SBCAG's board meeting in Santa Maria on April 19.

The Board voted 11-2 to put the exact existing Measure D on the ballot for November 2008.

Last November a revised Measure D came close to passing by including guarantees for sustainable transportation funding. However, it also increased the sales tax from 1/2 percent to 3/4 percent.

The only argument for trying to renew the existing Measure D was that it was "working" and keeping it the same was "simple".

This overlooks a number of facts:
1) The existing Measure D never legally passed the 2/3 requirement back in 1989. It is just that no one ever made a legal challenge to stop collection of the tax.
2) The South Coast is far more aware of sustainable transportation issues now than in 1989. Especially right now with increased awareness of global climate change. Renewing a measure with no guarantees for sustainable transportation funding has essentially zero chance of passing.

Of course, the existing Measure D goes directly against Sierra Club transportation policy. It is a subsidy for private motor vehicle use. It uses general sales tax money to fund road projects that should be funded by fuel taxes or other user fees.

Interestingly, Brooks Firestone was the only member of the Board to point this out. He was quite shocked that the so-called environmental members of the Board refused to acknowledge this.

Since no further action is planned by the SBCAG board at this time, I cannot recommend any specific action we can take. If we have personal contact with Salud Carbajal, Janet Wolf or Pedro Nava we can try to make them understand our policy.
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The Los Padres Chapter held its Energy Film Festival on Saturday April 28 as part of a National Sierra Club campaign. It was co-sponsored by the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara who hosted the event in their main Parish Hall and in the large outdoor plaza.

The event was very well attended, with most seats filled for the entire 4-8PM period and there were numerous tables in the plaza with much interest from attendees. The Sierra Club table was staffed by three Los Padres Chapter ExComm members. An excellent vegetarian dinner was provided by a catering company for just $5.

A full page article in the April 26 issue of the Independent appeared in the Film section, and helped to turn out many new people.

The films dealt with conservation and solar energy, with about a third of the time spent on transportation issues.

SB City Council member Grant House was Emcee and kept the discussion lively, but brief, in order to keep to the tight schedule. There were also giveaways of free bus passes and other goodies.
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The Community Environmental Council meeting on its transportation component of Fossil Free by 2033 met again on April 11. Attendance was sparse. No further prioritization of transportation options was made. However, the process was developed a bit further.

The new process of prioritization would reduce the number of parameters and maximize weighting by impact of the transportation options.

The only numerical parameters will be Impact, Affordability and Practical Feasibility.
There will also be written comments of other Advantages and Disadvantages.

At some point each member of the committee will fill in a blank spreadsheet for each transportation option, rather than discussing each one at a meeting.