October 28, 1997

Dear Examiner:

The Examiner once again has missed the single most important example of how San Francisco has been self-centered in its love-hate relationship with the motor car: the proposed Transbay Terminal tear-down.

This forced relocation is a triple whammy to bikes, buses and trains – precluding the much-needed Caltrain extension to downtown, destroying the future of both light-rail locally and high-speed rail to Los Angeles, crippling the parking facilities for AC Transit buses just when BART is maxing out, forcing transit users to walk two additional, very long, city blocks and stealing funds from the Bay Bridge people path. We all lose here.

And with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission predicting another 50 percent increase in automobile traffic entering San Francisco over the next decade, we’ll be “needing” a second Bay Bridge and high-rise parking structures before long.

This is the critical time to choose for the next century and beyond between a livable city with viable mass transit and the terrible collapse of our once quickly and easily navigable region.

Jason Meggs
East Bay coordinator
Bike the Bridge Coalition
Berkeley

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