BIKE: "Stop sweating the details"

[Mike Dahmus]

Dennis Abbott wrote:

>Just to throw an outsiders view into this....
>
>I am moving to Austin in the next few weeks and I firmly believe that
>rail(true mass transit) will eventually make it to Austin whether this
>vote goes through or not.  And I don't think its very far off either. 
>Look, most folks on this board are adherent to the theory of Peak Oil.
> This event is at hand within the next 4 years.  When the shit hits
>the fan, rail of some fashion is going to be on the drawing board and
>its going to have a much better light shown on it than ever before. 
>It will be looked at as a saviour for this city and not simply
>something to appease the hippies.  Road Warriors will be looking over
>monrail, light rail and metro rail with sweat pouring down their
>forehaeads as their property values will be tightly aligned with an
>effective rail system.  yes Houston and Dallas are ahead of
>"progressive" Austin by a couple of leaps but true leadership will
>come into the equation when the energy crisis rears its head(seen the
>price of oil today?).
>
>In otherwords stop sweating the details, rail is coming in "Metro
>Scale" form whether the Road Warriors like it or not.
>
No, it's not.

As Patrick so aptly pointed out yesterday, Fred Gilliam's preferred form 
of transit for the only real urban corridor in this city is going to be 
Bus Rapid Transit.

If you vote for commuter rail this time out, you're also voting against 
light rail on Lamar/Guadalupe. Only a stinging rebuke for this plan, 
which provides nothing more than baby steps towards BRT, which is an 
awful solution, will do anything to reverse this.

I urge bicyclists to remember who was right about the end-result of the 
same sort of "hold your nose in order to get along" political compromise 
during the Shoal Creek debacle. If you want to bet against me again, I 
think you're being very foolish.

- MD