Metro’s $7B plan will make traffic worse

By Bob Clark,

I Oppose Metro’s proposed Transportation tax and fee Measure

I plan to work against voter approval of Metro’s proposed Transportation Measure.

I oppose any transportation package which includes the Southwest Corridor light rail extension project, as it is money with little transportation value…in fact, it will make traffic congestion on Barbur Blvd worse, not better.

The Southwest Corridor project is not only too expensive with poor return; but its main purpose is to erect a bank of 5 story mixed use apartment buildings all along Barbur.

This increased population density will bring more vehicular traffic on Barbur and I-5, exacerbating current traffic congestion woes.

The GetMoving pages of Metro’s website do not spell out the allocation of budgets for the transportation funding measure; but highlights the part about safety improvements on existing roads.

But even here, it is best to leave sidewalks and bicycle improvements to local City and County jurisdictions, because doing so eliminates Metro’s costs of administering and managing such efforts. Eliminating Metro saves significant dollars to be applied to safety improvements by cities and counties.

Again, the Southwest corridor worsens traffic rather than improves it and on top of this most hours of the day outside of rush hour, the Max lines are mostly serving but a hand full of riders. Running these ghost-like trains all through the night is probably more energy intensive per ride than if a ride sharing company were called to take the few passengers needing a ride.

Bottom line we do not need another ghost train line called the Southwest Corridor project.