For a Healthy Sonoma County

Issues - Transportation

We will need to think outside the box to meet the demands of public transportation and take care of our environment, with limited financial resources.  Here are some of my ideas:

• Establish an online user friendly ride share website for both the county and the cities where people can log on and find a ride to various Bay area sites any day of the week.  Cambridge, Massachusetts has a program like this.

• Establish and encourage transit-oriented development that builds affordable housing and senior housing near public transit hubs, such as the SMART passenger rail.

• Implement small County Mini vans that provide door to door service for seniors who need assistance in getting to their healthcare appointments.  This would be in addition to regular paratransit service.

• Increase bicycle lanes by 100% by 2010 by supporting SMART, which would support building a Class I bicycle path the length of the County.

• Provide additional funding for a volunteer senior ride program that is county wide and uses state of the art transit technology.

• Publish a connectivity map that connects all forms of public transit between cities, county, MUNI, and SMART.

• Provide “good worker” incentives for all county employees who either carpool or use public transit or bicycle to work each day and begin charging for parking permits and use the income to pay for transit passes and to provide a subsidy to transit service providers.

• Provide additional funding for a volunteer senior ride program that is county wide and uses state of the art transit technology.