If 75 bus-riding cyclists fought with a few hundred kids over a pot of money, who would win? That’s pretty much what unfolded at Santa Cruz City Hall last week. During a Regional Transportation Commission meeting, commissioners had to choose certain transportation programs for grant applications through the county’s Regional Surface Transportation Program.
If 75 bus-riding cyclists fought with a few hundred kids over a pot of money, who would win? That’s pretty much what unfolded at Santa Cruz City Hall last week.
During a Regional Transportation Commission meeting, commissioners had to choose certain transportation programs for grant applications through the county’s Regional Surface Transportation Program. The RTC was able to fund most of the projects and programs at about 75 percent of the requested amounts.
But after taking a look at a $50,000 program to provide vouchers so people can buy folding bikes—which are better for buses—some commissioners wondered why the program would only serve 75 riders. “The number of people served seems small,” commissioner Don Lane told Metro grants manager Tove Beatty. “Can you explain why it’s so costly for unit of service?”
Beatty explained public relations, staff time and the vouchers would all present significant costs. But commissioners like Lane, Bruce McPherson, and Zach Friend floated concerns that the money could be better spent on expanding Boltage, an Ecology Action program that encourages kids to walk and bike to school instead of Metro’s folding bike program.
“It isn’t a question of the value of the program,” Friend told Beatty. “The concern is how many people are being served when we have competing programs that have track records.”
To make matters more complicated, commissioner Eduardo Montesino of Watsonville was upset that South County, with its high rates of obesity and diabetes, had been left out of the Boltage discussion. Both schools proposed for the program had been in the City of Santa Cruz. “To have two Santa Cruz schools and not have Watsonville be looked at, it’s an insult because of where the need is so great,” Montesino said.
The commission ultimately voted 10-3 to increase funding to Boltage and Santa Cruz Open Streets, an outdoor festival that encourages people walk and ride—and did not fund the folding bike program. The commission also requested that one of schools added to the Boltage program be in Watsonville.
RTC executive director George Dondero noted that the two programs that the commission spent the most time squabbling over amounted to less than 2 percent of the total $5.3 million, most of which would be spent on road pavements. It’s not easy, he added, to encourage people to change their behaviors.
“I think it’s interesting that we’ve spent so much time today on basically educational or behavioral programs,” Dondero said. “I understand that as elected folks it’s very controversial, and you want to justify your decisions, but from our side, I can tell you it’s very, very challenging to keep these programs going.”
