RM-2 Needs Y-O-U

Tell all Your Friends to Support Bridge Toll Increase

In just eight weeks, Bay Area voters will vote on Regional Measure Two (RM-2), which, if passed, will raise tolls on the Bay Bridge and other state bridges by $1.

It’s way too little–tolls should be more like the $7 levied in the New York area—but let there be no doubt that passage of RM-2 is of momentous importance.

It means facing up to the disastrous consequences of ripping out the coordinated rail and ferry network that so ably served the Bay Area into the 1950s. It’s a significant down payment on a truly comprehensive regional ferry network, along with a host of other badly need public transportation improvements.

Opposition to RM-2 is scant but toxic. The usual bully-boys will be out in force, those obliviously selfish SUV fetishists who think public transit is only for maids and gardeners and that wasting gas and soiling the environment is an inalienable right.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sociopath as "someone with a personality disorder manifesting itself chiefly in anti-social attitudes and behavior." How else to describe those who work to preserve the status quo of metastasizing traffic congestion, dependence of foreign oil and soulless suburban sprawl?

Beware of equating the eminent good sense of RM-2 with certain passage.

Indeed, in the short-term the toll increase will be painful for mid- and low-income commuters, because the promised public transit improvements will take years to bring about. It is an insight into the rank cynicism of RM-2 opponents –high income folks for whom an additional buck a day is trivial–that they seize on this unfortunate, unavoidable truth.

RM-2 is no panacea. But it is essential if we are to preserve the Bay Area’s quality of life. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the sane thing to do. Now, it’s up to you.