The County plays a major role in public safety and regional infrastructure advancements, in the implementation and the advocating. All five members of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors serve as commissioners of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.
The denial of the car is a longstanding contradiction among local political leadership. There’s nothing “insensible” about cars. The automobile is possibly the greatest advancement in accessible mobility in human history.
I’m not dissing public transportation, walking, bicycles, even rickshaws if that’s your thing. I’m just saying let’s be real. People like their cars, and not just Americans. Do you honestly believe folks in western China should not have easy freeway access, hop in their cars and go where they want? Why do people work? For the compensation. Maybe they’ll be able to afford a car. What joy.
The Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railway and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Network are wonderful accomplishments, with much to be done on improvements and the like. But let’s be honest, very few will commute from Santa Cruz to Capitola by train to work unless you force them, so why push it? Is the automobile that evil and destructive?
We are abundant with emerging, disruptive possibilities for what propulsion method(s) will propel the self-contained “pods,” aka “cars,” of the future, even the near future. The last 100 years have been revolutionary, overturning legacy economies of scale, and raising the standard of living of billions. The next 100 years will be even more revolutionary, as the pace of technological change quickens.
What’s coming, and quite inevitably, are connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles and intelligent highways (V2I) – because people want them, they prevent accidents and this is how we’re going to fit more cars on the roads. Nissan promises by 2020 to have a production model autonomous vehicle on the market. Many know about Google’s work along these lines. In the lifetimes of most of us, to get on the freeway you’ll surrender control of your car.
I advocate leadership for Santa Cruz on connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles and intelligent highways. Silicon Valley is just “over the hill,” UCSC and a lot of bright people are right here. Let’s do this.
Vote Bob for Supe June 3!
Honesty • Integrity • Enthusiasm
