The Opinion Pages

What’s nice about taking a midwinter break is that it provides an opportunity to poll the delegation: to inquire of the citizenry about what’s on their minds. Holiday parties are great for taking informal surveys, discretely of course. The best thing about residents of the urban East Bay is that they rarely agree on much, so when they do, it’s news. -more-

AC Transit’s misnamed bus “rapid” transit proposal would not be very rapid. And it would not “replace” the many parking spaces it would remove, as Charles Siegel’s Dec. 14 and 21 letters mistakenly claimed. -more-

Sharon Hudson’s 12/28 commentary (“AC Transit Will Not Replace Parking Loss”) is exceedingly unhelpful in shedding any light on our proposed Bus Rapid Transit project. She’s complaining prematurely: the concerns she raises will be much more definitively addressed as the ongoing environmental review process moves to its conclusion in 2008. -more-

Sadly, we are entering the New Year, carrying the burden of yet another pedestrian fatality in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood. On Monday, December 31, during the late morning, a pedestrian walking northbound on Colusa, crossing Marin, was hit and fatally injured by a vehicle going southbound on Colusa and turning left onto Marin. All parties were obeying the traffic signal. The driver contends the sun, shining directly into her eyes, prevented her from seeing the pedestrian as she completed her turn. My condolences go to the family who shouldn’t have had to face this unexpected and senseless loss. My sympathy goes out the driver who will have to bear this burden the rest of her life. -more-