The Opinion Pages

Two letters which came in over the weekend are worthy of comment: -more-

Glen Kohler, in his Aug. 24 commentary (“Empty Van Hool Buses on Telegraph”), provided a fairly good description of “bus bunching” when he said “A closely-spaced motorcade of double-size Van Hool buses now trundles up and down Telegraph Avenue at all hours.” Ironically, bus bunching would be remedied by the BRT system that Kohler expresses doubt about. It occurs when buses are operating in “mixed flow” traffic which results in buses being stuck in traffic and as a result thrown off schedule. Transportation engineers use the term “mixed flow” to describe the situation where buses are mixed in the same lane with autos, trucks, emergency vehicles, etc. The proposed BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system with dedicated lanes proposed for Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley/Oakland and International Boulevard in Oakland would go a long way to eliminating this problem. With dedicated lanes, buses flow unimpeded by other traffic. -more-

I would like to respond to Hank Gehman’s charge in his Sept. 11 commentary that the University of California (UC) is duping Berkeley citizens with misinformation. While it is clear Mr. Gehman is misinformed, UC is not the source of his misinformation. He starts his article by saying that UC is proposing a new high performance center (HPC) as a diversion for the building of a new expanded stadium to hold many nighttime events. He mentions rock concerts and other events attracting 600,000 to 700,000 people annually. That would be at least one event each month with about 60,000 attendees. This is not part of the environmental impact report. There has not been a commercial event in the stadium in over 20 years. He fails to mention that the capacity of the stadium will be reduced by 10,000 seats down from the current 72,000 seats. He must not know that in the 1950s the capacity was 85,000 as there were bleachers on the east rim of the stadium. The city will have the right to negotiate the parameters of the seven events noted in the EIR. -more-

Berkeley’s City Council may be blundering into AC Transit’s controversial, misnamed Bus “Rapid” Transit (BRT) proposal with eyes wide shut. Hidden on tonight’s consent calendar is item 18, requesting that the “Transportation Commission, Planning Commission, and staff develop a city preferred alternative route for the Telegraph Avenue Bus Rapid Transit.” -more-

The city bus has become a political scapegoat. Neighbors on Cedar Street have been trying to remove bus service there, because they think the bus is too noisy. These neighbors do not complain about the far louder noise generated by garbage trucks and commercial vehicles. The Willard neighborhood now officially opposes the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The residents earnestly claim to support public transit, but fear that BRT will bring more congestion to Telegraph and cause cut-through traffic onto their quiet streets. -more-