The Loma Prietan
September 2002
Sierra Club Announces Support of Traffic
Congestion Relief & Safe School Bus Act
by Sarah Schaller
Planning and Conservation League
Sierra Club California has endorsed the Traffic Congestion Relief & Safe School Bus Act, which will appear on the California statewide ballot as Proposition 51 on November 5, 2002.
Proposition 51 would allocate 30% of the state share of the existing sales tax on new and used cars and trucks to a new trust fund for alternative transportation and the mitigation of transportation's effect on the environment—a fund that would generate approximately $910 million a year.
Proposition 51 is designed to promote transportation alternatives, including expanded public transit service, safe bicycle and pedestrian routes and facilities, and clean-fuel school buses. In addition, the measure will help enhance water quality, protect wetlands, provide habitat and open space protection, improve air quality, and safeguard river parkways. These goals will be achieved by a major increase in funding for programs that mitigate the impact that transportation systems have on our air, water, and land resources.
In San Mateo and Santa Clara counties specifically, the measure plans to improve BART service and equipment, extend CALTrain to downtown San Francisco, improve the Transbay Terminal, and improve/extend light rail service. Proposition 51 will also replace over 60 school buses in San Mateo County and 200 school buses in Santa Clara County that do not meet current federal safety and health standards with modern, clean-fuel buses.
Proposition 51 addresses transportation-related air pollution by: 1) Funding the existing Carl Moyer program, which provides funds to replace/retrofit dirty diesel engines, so that they emit less pollution. 2) Providing more than $70 million a year for school bus replacement, including 6000 school buses statewide that do not meet the 1986 pollution control standards. 3) Providing more than $500 million per year to various forms of public transportation, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities. 4) Providing more than $20 million a year to improve and enforce safe routes to school, allowing a significant number of parents to avoid having to drive their children to school.
With respect to water quality, Proposition 51: 1) Provides more than $18 million per year to mitigate the water pollution impacts of transportation by restoring wetlands which may catch and naturally treat water pollution coming from roads and by building facilities to treat polluted runoff. 2) Provides $500,000 for a mobile ocean discovery center to instruct children about the effects of transportation-related runoff on the ocean. 3) Requires CalTrans to use recycled water for irrigation, reducing the discharge of this water into rivers, streams and ocean.
More information about Proposition 51, including the full list of endorsers and complete text of the initiative, can be found at www.voteyesonprop51.org. Please vote for Proposition 51 when it appears on the ballot this fall!