Dear City Council,

I am writing regarding the DRC project to request your help and share my
concerns.

While I am generally in strong favor of mass transit, I am concerned
that this particular project is severely flawed and is not set up
currently as a project our city should support.

I realize that there are some strong proponents and, likely, some
pressure on the City to facilitate smooth passage of this project. I
urge you to resist any pressure that may come along. A mass transit
project is an issue that can be politically difficult to stand against
because it seems politically incorrect. At the surface, what could be
wrong with wanting more mass transit? When looking only at the top level
issues it seems obvious that we should all be for this project. Right?

Unfortunately, as you are aware, this project has some significant
unanswered questions (at best) and, in present proposed design, some
significant flaws. Some of the issues include:

1) If there is no plan for ever putting freight on the line, why
build things to freight standards?

2) How could any project, with the current information about
Global warming propose using diesel instead of electric power? I realize
the cost advantage, but this is simply a step in the wrong direction

3) How is it that when costs doubled, ridership estimates also
doubled?

4) Does this project even make fiscal sense? Their own projections
would seem to put this project very low on a funding priority list
compared to other transit/traffic alleviation projects in the Bay Aea

My recommendation is to state firmly some conditions under which ANY
transit project should be allowed to continue in Menlo Park. These would
include:

1) Environmentally friendly - no diesel, demonstrated low impact -
let's be a leader on this issue

2) Mitigation - any project should require sound walls, grade
separations, and home improvements for those impacted by the project -
it needs to be fair to them. (In Redwood City, this project would impact
some of the poorest who cannot afford to fight it, are likely not
informed, and are the most vulnerable in the city. Shame on RWC for not
protecting their interests.)

3) Preference for light rail or electric buses - it does not tie
into anything so there is no reason it has to be regular rail.

4) Ability to get Menlo Park benefit. If it is light rail or bus,
then a station at Marsh Manor would make sense and we could benefit too.

5) NO FREIGHT - this should be a non-negotiable ideally taken into
the design so that no one could go back on it later.

I realize this is a complicated issue but I urge each of you to research
it carefully as below the surface it is not nearly as good a project as
projected. Please help protect the interests of our citizens who will
get no benefit from this but potentially face significant impact.

Thank you for consideration,

Sincerely,

Michael Dittmar

301 Oakhurst Place

Menlo Park

650-321-0383

Michael Dittmar

Senior Partner

DSG Consulting

mdittmar@dsgconsulting.com

650.326.5900

 
Received on Tue May 22 09:30:38 2007