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Dukakis Gives Spirited Pitch For Public Transit
When it comes to public transit, California — and the United States — is miles behind the rest of the world.
That was a major theme of Saturday’s speech at the Santa Barbara Central Library’s Faulkner Gallery by 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, who joked ruefully that the country has him to blame for its mass-transit deficiencies.
“If I had beaten Bush One (President George Bush), you never would have heard of Bush Two,” he said, referring to President George W. Bush’s record on public transit, prompting raucous applause from the 100 or so people in the audience. “It’s all my fault, I apologize.”
The former Massachusetts governor was the keynote speaker during a panel discussion on sustainable transportation sponsored by the Alliance for Sustainable and Equitable Regional Transportation (ASERT), the Community Environmental Council and Noozhawk. In a 20-minute talk laced with as many laughs as facts, Dukakis started off with an admission.
“I’m probably not the most balanced guy when it comes to this subject,” he said. “Because at least, from the standpoint of national policy, the imbalance in our transportation priorities is so astonishing.”
Dukakis applauded Santa Barbara County voters for their recent passage of Measure A, a half-cent sales tax that will bankroll transportation projects for 30 years starting in 2010. On the South Coast, 45 percent of its share of that money will be used on alternative transportation projects such as buses, bicycle lanes and commuter rail.
But Dukakis also couldn’t help chiding the South Coast for its lack of commuter rail.
“Rail from Oxnard to Goleta — why is that so difficult?” he asked.
Dukakis, who spends nine months a year as a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, and the winter months as a visiting professor at UCLA, said the amount of money the federal government earmarks for public transit in comparison to other transportation priorities says it all: $33 billion on highways, $16 billion on airports and $1.5 billion on transit.
However, he said there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel, thanks, ironically, to the recession. President Obama’s $850 billion federal stimulus bill includes about $30 billion for transportation projects — $3 billion of which is set aside for California.
“If this economic crisis finally impels us to get cracking, then maybe in many ways it would be the best thing that ever happened,” he said.
But Dukakis said building good transit isn’t just about money. It’s about using it wisely once you have it. And on this score, he said, America is failing.
“We have a serious construction management problem in this country,” he said.
By way of example, he cited a project in Los Angeles to build a highway carpool lane that has taken three years and counting.
“I defy you folks, to find more than six people working that project on any given time,” he said, again prompting laughter. “I’m serious.”
In contrast, he brought up China, which is spending $24 billion on a rail project that is employing 110,000 workers. In Europe, he said, every city has a “first-class” high-speed rail system. Japan, he said, has had one since 1964.
“We practically destroyed the country in World War II, and by ‘64 they had a bullet train,” he said. “At that time it only went 130 mph. Now it’s running about 190.
“Compare that with this great country, which seems to be stumbling around,” he added. “It can’t even maintain its highway system, let alone begin making these kind of essential investments.”
Yet, Dukakis continued, Americans want mass transit. In poll after poll, he said, people say that while they want their highway systems maintained, they also want “heavy investment in public alternatives, and they want it now.”
For Santa Barbara, Dukakis had some advice: To build good rail service, find good people. To that end, he recommended that local leaders contact a former employee of his, Eugene Skoropowski, now the managing director of Sacramento’s Capitol Corridor Intercity Rail Service, one of the most successful light-rail programs in America.
“Ridership on the Capitol Corridor has quintupled,” he said. “Not double, not triple — five times.”
Before Saturday’s forum was over, the moderator, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, put Dukakis on the spot, asking him if he would help arrange a meeting bringing Santa Barbara leaders together with Skoropowski. Dukakis agreed.
For all of America’s mass-transit ineptitude, another panelist sought to remind the audience just how far Santa Barbara County has come over the last two decades.
Gregg Hart, public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, noted that when Measure A’s predecessor — known as Measure D, also a half-cent sales tax — passed in 1989, almost no money was earmarked for alternative transportation. By contrast, Measure A will generate $85 million to the MTD bus agency, $26 million to bicycle and pedestrian paths, and $25 million to commuter rail.
He noted that it passed with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
“The reason it was so successful is the plan was balanced,” said Hart, adding that it had money not only for alternative transportation, but also road maintenance and highway improvements. “We finally got it right.”
Saturday’s panelists also included Jonathan Saur, a representative of Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara; Michael Chiacos, energy program senior associate for Community Environmental Council; and Peter De Haan, programming director for the Ventura County Transportation Commission.
A second, companion regional transportation forum will be held next week in Ventura. That forum is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 31 at Ventura College, 4667 Telegraph Road, Ventura. There is no charge for the event.
The project was initiated by the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) and funded by a grant from the McCune Foundation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Rob Kuznia can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 01.25.09 @ 05:30 AM
Thanks for the fine coverage of the ASERT Forum on Regional Transportation. It was a good discussion about local transportation needs, and especially the need for a commuter train that would operate on the existing Union Pacific rail corridor. This is a “heavy rail” corridor, but is described by the writer as “light rail”. Again, when describing the new $24B Chinese rail project, it is referred to by the writer as “light rail”, but is in fact “heavy rail”. I’d like to announce that ASERT now has a website at http://www.coastalcommuter.org, so you can keep up on our work for better Regional Transportation.
[Editor’s note: Fixed. And all ASERT mentions have been updated with the Web address. Thanks.]
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» on 01.25.09 @ 06:34 AM
Dukakis? The guy ran the state of Massachusetts into the ground. The only transportation experience he has was his support for the “Big Dig” project through downtown Boston which ran a $10 billion overrun and is so poorly built that at least one person has been killed by falling tunnel panels.
Gregg Hart? While he’s been at SBCAG automobile usage has increased in Santa Barbara County. None of his bicycle, bus or light rail ideas have done anything to reduce vehicle miles traveled. yet he’s spent millions on “alternative transportation” projects.
MTD? MTD provides subsidized transportation for people who don’t have a driver’s license or cannot afford to own and operate a car. Vey few MTD riders are people who choose to ride the bus instead of driving a car.
When this event ended yesterday I observed most of those in attendance walk over to the parking lot next to the library and drive away in their automobiles.
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» on 01.25.09 @ 09:22 AM
I had no idea M.Dukakis was a professor and a big transit buff. Nice.
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» on 01.25.09 @ 10:14 AM
Smart growth is just plain stupid because after all its nothing more than high density growth and a lot of population growth.
Smart growth cause more traffic congestion not less.
Smart growth uses more resources than we have available and so is not sustainable.
We don’t need it and we don’t want it. what we have now is a cherished small town character and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
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» on 01.25.09 @ 11:58 AM
While I agree with Dukakis that transportation infrastructure spending can be good for the economy, that boondoggle of a stimulus package is hardly a panacea. In fact, of the $850 billion Obama is proposing, only 3.3 percent goes to those kind of projects. So even though Bush’s record on public transit wasn’t terribly inspiring, Obama doesn’t appear to be any more interested. Besides, won’t Montecito protest any transportation projects in THAT neighborhood?
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» on 01.25.09 @ 04:02 PM
Seems some of the comments here come from the uninformed.
If you care to do the work, you’ll find that Dukakis turned the corner on highway spending in the Boston area with a move toward more efficient modes like rail - especially commuter rail service.
When it’s finally understood that the hundreds of millions aren’t there for road widening, decision makers will have a epiphany and do the right thing. Yes, commuter rail on existing tracks, That’s a brilliant idea, don’t you think?
By the way, the population is constantly increasing, and
people seem to like living and visiting the California coast. Building on transit corridors is also a brilliant idea. That way people don’t need to drive as much to get where they want to go. That’s genius!
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» on 01.26.09 @ 05:33 AM
Just what I want to spend my life savings on; living next to the loud train tracks, with rumbling trains that blow their horn every day when some drunken homeless guy walks the tracks.
To the person who criticized Smart Growth, you may be right to bash the ‘smart’ part.. but either way “groth is inevitable…people are coming here by the millions. (and i am not saying legally either; in fact more legal residents have actually moved elsewhere in recent years)
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» on 01.26.09 @ 07:39 AM
Thank you for the coverage! It was a terrific event with inspiring speeches from all panel members.
My favorite part: Dukadis remark about the newest UC campus (Merced) growing in a remote corner of the San Joaquin Valley instead of re-vitalizing a decaying downtown Fresno. Fresno will be a key stop for the California bullet train -another lost opportunity in the battle against sprawl.
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» on 01.26.09 @ 08:27 AM
Population growth is not inevitable.
There are ways to put in place growth controls to effectively stop growth or slow it to a trickle.
Proof is the fact that Santa Barbara has not grown in population since 2000.
It is change, not growth, which is inevitable.
As proof: A library can have 10,000 books and get rid of some books and add some different books without growing the total number of books in the library.
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» on 09.24.09 @ 11:45 AM
Remember the Big Dig, Mikey?
Yeah, that was started when you were Governor.
It’s weird how Dukakis is talking about public transit now.
I mean, all that money used for the Big Dig could have potentially gone into the Red Line/Blue Line connector or the extension of the Orange Line.
Hell, the Silver Line should have been either heavy rail or light rail, not the poor excuse for BRT that it is now.
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