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By Chris Lepe, TransForm
San Mateo County’s economy has been thriving in recent years. But while the Peninsula has added jobs, we have not made the needed investments in transportation infrastructure to keep up. Traffic is a nightmare and our transportation systems are aging, stressed, and facing serious capacity challenges. We haven’t made enough investments in housing, either, which leads to displacement, longer commutes, and more transportation problems. Over the last five years, San Mateo County has produced one housing unit for every 19 jobs it has created, leading to rising rents, displacement of low to moderate income households, longer commutes, and massive traffic congestion locally and regionally. Unanimously approved by the SamTrans Board of Directors and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in July, Measure W will raise $80 million per year over thirty years to address pressing transportation challenges across San Mateo County — challenges that will only get worse if the measure doesn’t pass this November. Here are 5 reasons why we’re wild about W:
If you’re a San Mateo County voter, please vote YES on Measure W this November! To learn more about Measure W, visit https://www.smccongestionrelief.com. If you’d like to spread the word about Measure W, share this blog post with your friends and family. To volunteer with our grassroots campaign, email me at clepe@transformca.org. We need as many people as possible to help us reach voters in San Mateo County, including help with tabling, flyering at transit stations, knocking on doors, and making phone calls. See TransForm’s complete voter guide for the November 2018 election.
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By Mary Schindler
How about a round of applause, everyone? We deserve to congratulate ourselves. Over the last year, the Transportation Equity Allied Movement Coalition (TEAMC) along with our community partners — YOU — have been fighting the good fight to ensure that San Mateo County’s next transportation ballot measure moves for us: for youth, seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants and other populations who rely on public transportation. We worked hard together to advance our shared principles: we collected over 1,000 surveys, organized and attended multiple community meetings, met with elected officials and staff, generated coalition platforms and position papers, made calls and sent emails, and raised our concerns in public and stakeholder meetings. And it worked. On July 11th, SamTrans approved an expenditure plan that drew heavily on the community’s input. And yesterday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to put it on the November ballot. This is plan that will guide how $80 million per year in tax revenues are spent, shaping the future of transportation — and the lives of those who rely on it — for years to come. There is a lot to celebrate. For instance, a full 50% of the funds will go to maintain and enhance bus, paratransit, and other mobility services to better serve vulnerable, underserved, youth, low-income, and transit-dependent populations throughout the County. This includes:
Also in the plan are Caltrain’s upgrades and improvements to better connect the County to the rest of the region, including Dumbarton transit improvements and express bus services. And, for those of us who use our feet, funding will be allocated to fill in the gaps and update facilities for the bicycle and pedestrian pathways. Together, these transportation improvements represent over two thirds of the spending in the measure! Perhaps just as important was the inclusion of strong core principles and a strategic planning process that includes community input to craft the guidelines for the measure’s spending after November. This will help ensure that the measure’s fund continue to maximize community benefits even after the measure has been passed. By Chris Lepe
This post was co-authored by Montzerrat Garcia Bedollaat Youth Leadership Institute and Chris Lepe. Last summer, Alma, who is a senior at Half Moon Bay High School, had an internship opportunity in Kaiser Redwood City. Her summer mornings started at 5:30am getting herself and her son ready for the day, with just enough time to catch the 294 bus from Half Moon Bay over the hill to connect to her bus on El Camino Real, known as the ECR. Her internship in Redwood City started at 8am every day. “The morning commute was not that bad,” she said. “I can take a nap or eat my breakfast on the way there. Getting back to Half Moon Bay was the hard part.” Her internship ended at 5pm. She literally ran to catch the ECR to Hillsdale Mall, because if she missed this bus, she would miss the connection window to the 294. “I missed the 294 about 5 times that summer. Not because I was late to the first bus, but because something happened in the ECR. It was either stuck in traffic, an emergency happened, or it just didn’t get there on time.” When she missed the 294, she had to wait 1.5 hours until the last 294 returned from Half Moon Bay. She got home at 7pm on a good day, or 9pm on a bad day. Alma will be graduating this June and has been accepted to San Francisco State, but is considering going to one of the local community colleges because her transportation options are so limited. Stories like Alma’s fuel the Transportation Equity Allied Movement Coalition (TEAMC), a coalition of 26 different organizations that envision a transportation network that moves more people with fewer cars, opens up opportunities for residents, and improves the safety and health for all. TEAMC brings together diverse voices to advance community-supported transportation solutions that provide greater access to opportunity. We engage and empower those most impacted by the existing transportation system, including low-income families, people of color, youth, seniors, people with disabilities, transit users, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Last Fall, San Mateo County and SamTrans initiated the Get Us Moving (GUM) public process in order to help inform an $80 million a year half-cent sales tax planned for this November’s election. Recognizing the importance of the measure for advancing transportation justice, TEAMC quickly mobilized and has been engaged in the GUM process since its inception, with member groups participating in public agency stakeholder and community meetings. We have also held our own TEAMC network convenings and surveyed over 1,000 people in order to inform our ballot measure expenditure plan recommendations. Survey and Community Forum Results One way we identified community needs and priorities related to the ballot measure was by collecting more than 1000 responses to our TEAMC survey between February and April 2018. The survey respondents were quite reflective of the racial demographics in San Mateo County. 53% of those surveyed by TEAMC were people of color and 43% identified as white.1 And thanks the Youth Leadership Institute’s (YLI) strong ties with high schools and community college, 40% of those surveyed are under the age of 25, and 33% are between the ages of 25 and 44. When asked what they think about the current transportation system in San Mateo County, survey respondents had a lot to say. Here are few examples:
We also asked survey respondents to rank a series of goals developed by SamTrans to help determine what the upcoming transportation sales tax should fund. Several core community priorities emerged:
Respondents also identified improvements that would encourage them to take public transit more often. Survey respondents were strongly supportive of investments focused on vehicle trip reduction (rather than approaches that result in more driving), as well as for investments that increase affordable Transit-Oriented Development. In addition to the survey, TEAMC conducted listening sessions with member groups in our network to hear about existing transportation challenges and ideas for improving transportation in San Mateo County. These conversations provided additional input to refine our expenditure plan proposal. TEAMC’s Expenditure Plan Proposal So, what did we come up with after months of community outreach and consensus building among our diverse coalition partners? TEAMC’s expenditure plan proposal envisions affordable, safe, sustainable, convenient, and healthy transportation choices that move more people with fewer cars and connect people of all incomes, ages, and abilities to homes, jobs, schools, and other destinations. We believe that the 2018 San Mateo County transportation expenditure plan must:
We will continue to convene conversations in the weeks to come to share and build support for our recommendations and engage those most affected by existing transportation inequities. Get Us Moving Polling Affirms our Recommendations Last February, the agencies involved with San Mateo County’s Get Us Moving process commissioned a poll of over 1,000 likely November 2018 voters across the county. Although those polled were a different demographic from the TEAMC survey, skewing heavily towards older white residents (67% of respondent were white for a county that is 40% white), their perspectives and priorities are strikingly aligned with our TEAMC survey respondents and ballot measure expenditure plan proposal. High-priority programs and concepts from the GUM poll that support TEAMC’s expenditure plan include:
Like what you see? Support TEAMC’s expenditure plan recommendations For San Mateo County residents, including youth like Alma, who will be 48 after the lifespan of this potential measure, this $2.5 billion ballot measure presents an important opportunity to advance a transportation system that can better serve their needs. But TEAMC's recommendations will only be taken seriously if people like you vocalize your support to decision makers before decision-makers vote on the expenditure plan proposal in July. Here are a few key opportunities to engage in the process:
_______________________________ 1. According to the US Census, 40% of SMC’s population is white. 2. 75% of SamTrans users are people of color, the average income for riders is $40,000, and 19% are riders are youth. |
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October 2018
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