Budget Shortfall

Proposal to the mayor and all who should spend less revenue in our city: We have a $15M budget problem. Stop spending on frilly pedestrian walkways to attract pedestrians, stop putting bollards and bike paths that take away lanes and are paid for by the drivers who can no longer drive on narrowed streets.

Realize, according to a UCLA study there are fewer Metro riders because Sacramento now allows all comers driver licenses thereby cutting about 900,000 bus riders from routes thus far. Citizens simply can’t take a bus, bike or walk most of the time with such daily tasks as taking children to school, shopping, groceries, chores, day tours, getting last minute “stuff,” vacations to Disneyland, Knott’s, Six Flags, etc.

Here’s one for those on the council and city payroll that like the idea of bikes, Metro and/or walking: Trade in your city vehicles and/or gas credit card or vehicle reimbursements for Metro cards, bikes and walking shoes and use them exclusively as you seemingly expect those who put you in office are supposed to do. I’ll be frank. I see very few bikes at all on the streets and most of them don’t pay any attention to laws.

Realize most residents have multiple vehicles and need more parking and not less even though you want everyone to take a bus, bike or walk. Synchronize stop lights to allow better traffic flow instead of impeding traffic with stop lights that force all traffic to stop at nearly every light. It will save energy, maintenance on vehicles, produce less carbon and more.

This is the tip of the iceberg so if you need realistic ideas come to people with actual experience and ideas for the real world and not to “designers” with no concept of what really matters. As form must follow function so design must have logical goals and not try and anticipate some inexplicably odd socially engineered future.