Santa Cruz: Video of My Evening Presentation

In May 2017 I made a quick trip to Santa Cruz, California to do presentations both to the public and to the Regional Transportation Commission.  Some of my presentation is my usual shtick, but I also talked a lot about chokepoints in the Bay Area, and was also asked to comment on a local proposal (proponents, opponents) to remove the rails from a rail corridor in order to create a wider and more attractive active modes path (though a functional path alongside the rail is possible in any case.)

It’s here.  There’s quite a Q&A as well.

2 Responses to Santa Cruz: Video of My Evening Presentation

  1. Ben Pease June 12, 2018 at 10:31 am #

    Great presentation, especially about solving for Aptos. Years ago some of the rail studies looked at a simplified service from Santa Cruz to Capitola and Aptos, but really you’d want rail to go THROUGH Aptos to be of most use (also given there’s so little actually there).

    I put the main Santa Cruz Metro routes on my Trails of Santa Cruz map, now in its 4th edition, but because I usually head to the woods, I’ve only used the buses a couple times when checking beach access points. Over the decades I have noticed an erosion in number of routes and frequency (commensurate with funding challenges, but in any case…), the list of Metro routes has shrunk by 1/3. University and Watsonville service is respectable, but a distressing number of routes are now hourly at best, and when that doesn’t draw people, they get cut to every120 minutes or a couple times a day. Then poof. It does seem like a lot of the routes are designed to go by Mrs. Jones’ house; a lot of corridors are deceptively narrow due to sloughs, gulches, canyons, etc. Trails help a bit (for instance the new link from end of Broadway across Arana Gulch). It’s true also that a lot of the original density was defined by the railroads and streetcars, from downtown to beachfront (Seabright, for instance). Hope you get to do some work there, and until then I think you inspired folks to think better.

  2. Dissertationcapital.com June 12, 2018 at 10:13 pm #

    It is worth watching your video on Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is responsible for delivering a full range of safe, convenient, reliable, and efficient transportation choices for the community. With a focus on long-term sustainability, the RTC plans, funds, and implements transportation projects and services.