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Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008
Editor: Kendall Haven of Fulton took strong exception to Alfred Bulf’s letter praising SMART (“Noise assault of trains,” Argus-Courier, April 24). Mr. Haven seems intolerant of all noises emanating from anything train. Train whistles. Train clickety-clack. I take strong exception to Mr. Haven’s strong exception.
Train whistles and clickety-clack are among the all-time best sounds. Songs have been written extolling the wailing of the train whistle. People take their children to see a train roll by. Mr. Haven, living up there in Fulton a stone’s throw from the train tracks and the freeway, seems not to be bothered by the sounds of the freeway. The constant urban rumble we all hear, folks, is the sound of cars and big rigs on our streets and freeways. Most of you, Mr. Haven included, seem to have stopped hearing it. Now, there’s something to complain about.
No, Mr. Haven, the biggest complaint I have for SMART is that they aren’t BART (BART is smart, but SMART ain’t BART) and that they haven’t been able to talk Marin County into the 21st century.
Tim Hurley, Petaluma
Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008
Editor: Alarming statistics about air horn noise from rail, cited by a letter writer from Fulton in the April 24 Argus-Courier, ignore the startup plans for SMART rail. These plans include the establishment of quiet zones in the cities served by SMART. Quiet zones eliminate air horn warnings at crossings.
The completely independent startup of NCRA freight service, which might occur this year, will not invest in quiet zones. We can all live with the small startup of freight deliveries of livestock feed to help keep our dairy and poultry industries viable. If voters, in the meantime, pass the SMART rail ballot measure in November, they will have launched a quiet zone process that will control noise for both freight and passenger rail.
Voters have many environmental and transportation reasons, this fall, to vote for the SMART rail and trail measure. Controlling air horn noise of both passenger and freight trains becomes a SMART startup dividend.
Lauren Williams, Petaluma
Published: Thursday, May 1, 2008
Editor: Kendall Haven of Fulton, in the April 24 Argus-Courier, attacks the train horn noise by NCRA freight trains and SMART passenger trains. His letter compiles a tissue of outright misinformation and distortion of fact.
n NCRA plans six trains each day, not 16. NCRA states that anything more than six is highly speculative. More than six depends on rebuilding the railroad through the Eel River Canyon, which is very problematic.
n Federal law, 49 CFR 229.129, provides that train horns produce a maximum 110 decibels of noise, not the 120-144 dB Mr. Haven claims. And that 110 dB is measured at 100 feet, not 120 per Mr. Haven.
n Mr. Haven says 100,000 people would suffer from this noise. SMART conducted extensive tests using federal noise criteria. The SMART FEIR, pages 4-55, found that 280 residences would experience severe impacts, and that an additional 540 would experience impacts less than severe. 820 residences can’t hold 100,000 people.
n SMART stepped up to the plate on the horn noise issue two years ago. SMART has earmarked funds to pay for quiet zones so that trains don’t have to blow their horns at crossings. NCRA’s plan to do likewise was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, but SMART remains steadfast.
n Mr. Haven’s solution is transit buses. Commuters are abandoning Golden Gate commute buses in droves. GGT commutes have lost 25.1 percent of their riders in three years. Yet traffic across the Golden Gate Bridge is flat, a 1.8 percent increase over the last five years. At the same time, GGT ferries gained 28 percent despite fares 63 percent higher than the bus. SMART opponents claim that express bus is cost-effective. It can’t be cost-effective if nobody rides.
n Ferry ridership proves that quality transit service attracts riders. SMART will offer a quality of service buses cannot match. The cost of gas has already swelled SMART ridership projections. To meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, we will have to curb driving and that further raises ridership for SMART. In fact, taking SMART will get most commuters to work faster than driving.
Allen Tacy, Petaluma
Having said that, Marin County was never part of the North Coast Railroad Authority for its first 17 years, including a period up to 2001 when freight trains ran through Novato.
Property values continued to rise during this period until the current mortgage meltdown, so certainly the freight trains have not affected property values. Freight trains been moving through Novato since 1878 and up until this time there is no documented evidence that anyone in the city of Novato or County of Marin objected to their presence.
So fast-forward to the present. Did someone in Novato or Marin County all of a sudden say, ” Oh my G-d! We have to stop interstate commerce through Novato and the best way of doing this is a appoint two representatives to the NCRA Board to derail NCRA efforts to restore service.
If you follow that logic (and I realize there are those that who oppose the Northwestern Pacific Railroad who won’t), then you wonder what the hell these idiots were thinking as they try to disrupt the NCRA board and file a ludicrous lawsuit to stop restoration.
If this has to do with public money for the railroad, then what about the public money to maintain 101 and the inefficient trucks that use it?
Let’s be fair, and stop that truck traffic on environmental concerns because of noise and pollution.
Mike Pechner
I’m bummed. I was really hoping to see a large collection of speeders.
Doug Jenson writes on the MOW website,
I have sadly made this decision due to the cost of gas and the lack of support for this run but I know that if anyone wanted to go up there to help the Timber group work on the rails they’d accept it. Email me if you are interested.
I love this quote, “I respectfully request that your Board take positive action that will help expedite the process of reopening the railroad.” Though the letter dated 10 Dec 2007, seems to be not taken seriously.
December10, 2007
To: President Steve Kinsey and members of the Board
Re: Railroad
There is an important issue currently being debated in Novato and throughout Marin County that has a direct correlation to agriculture. The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is in the process of reopening the railroad to allow freight trains to haul cargo from throughout the United States up to Willits. Along the way many important stops can be made here in Marin County and throughout the North Bay. While I understand the City of Novatos concerns about noise and safety, there are a number of benefits not just to ranchers but the community as well.The cost to produce milk in Marin is about $3.00 per hundred pounds of milk more than the cost in the central valley. This additional cost is directly related to the additional shipping costs of the feed, dairy producers in the North Bay presently have feed trucked in from the valley. Dairymans Milling in Novato would have the ability to bring all their grains in on rail at a savings of $10.00-$12.00 per ton. In order for the dairy industry to continue to be competitive with milk producers in the central valley we must do our best to become more efficient and to reduce that additional $3.00 cost. The opening of the railroad would drastically help to do this by bringing feed to our area in a much more efficient and cost effective way.
Additional benefits to the community would be cleaner air, reduced fuel use, and less traffic congestion. With approximately 40,000 dairy cows in the region which will eat about 25 pounds of concentrated feeds every day, about 1 million pounds comes in on trucks everyday. This equates to about 20 truck and trailer loads daily. These trucks could be eliminated from our congested roadways and their exhaust from our air.
There are a number of additional raw materials that will also come in by rail from the East. I believe that these materials will help our entire community by lowering the costs we incur within our daily living expenses.
I respectfully request that your Board take positive action that will help expedite the process of reopening the railroad.
Sincerely,
Dominic Grossi
President
Marin County Farm Bureau
Prorail voices grow louder as fuel gets more expensive.
Why freight will help dairies
The issues surrounding the railroad in Novato continue to come up. I understand this is a controversial issue, but the most important thing is that the public is armed with factual information.
In an article in Sunday’s IJ regarding milk prices, Supervisor Judy Arnold said, “But someone has yet to explain to me the economics of bringing grain from the Central Valley to Novato on a rail that runs north and south. I don’t understand where the savings comes from.”
Here is the explanation.
First, the railroad tracks split at Highways 101 and 37 and head east. The grain will be coming from places such a Nebraska and Iowa.
Secondly, the economics are simple: trains are a much more efficient and economical way to transfer freight. A big truck can only bring about 25 tons per load while a train can bring thousands of tons at a time. Not only is this a cheaper way to bring feed here, it also will take a large number of trucks off the road, which will lessen traffic congestion and lower the amount of exhaust that pollutes our air. Novato prides itself on becoming greener; it makes sense to use the railroad to help achieve this.
Third, the economic benefits go well beyond savings for agriculture. Many goods will be transported by these trains. Jobs will be created in Novato as businesses recognize the value of the efficiencies rail freight will create. The tax base will increase and the city’ coffers will expand.
For those who would like more detail, and for Arnold’s review, the letter I sent to the Board of Supervisors on Dec. 10 is at www.cfbf.com/counties/pdf/railroad.pdf.
Freight and Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will benefit from each other and work well together. There is no need to try to drive a wedge between two agencies – SMART and the North Coast Rail Authority – that can work together to achieve the mutual goal, which is the best use of the tracks.
Dominic Grossi, president,
Marin County Farm Bureau
Supervisors’ odd priorities
I am not surprised to learn the Marin Board of Supervisors did not include transportation improvement in its list of top five priorities. I am concerned about why.
How bicycle pathways get a higher priority than Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit and intra-county tram options being proposed or disaster preparedness is alarming.
Not to put biking down, but bike pathways seem to have secondary importance to our economy and impact on the ability of the average citizen to move about the county efficiently and dependably. Biking serves the business and transportation needs of so few people. Even with optimal infrastructure, would it substantially improve our transportation problems and gridlock such as occurred well past 9:15 a.m. Wednesday on Highway 101 in Novato? What about freight, people with disabilities, the infirm, seniors, those who live/work beyond reasonable biking boundaries/times, such as the city commuter? Would the best bike-lane infrastructure in the country affect the livelihood of the average citizen?
On the other hand, multi-modal rail will contribute tremendously to the local economy and transportation needs of Marin and Sonoma residents. It will support local farmers by reducing transportation costs of fodder and market products. Rail will reduce pollution, traffic, accidents, stimulate development of intra-city tram services and commerce along stops and provide an alternative for refuse disposal at the dump. SMART even includes construction of bikepaths along its route.
Year after year, the countywide survey shows transportation as our biggest problem.
Supervisors, reprioritize for a 21st century Marin.
Steven Pointer, Bel Marin Keys
Nice, another Novato resident wants SMART, the commuter train.
Sierra Club missed the boat
The Sierra Club has it all wrong.
Building a 900-car garage at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal will not encourage more people to drive. It will encourage more people to park at the terminal and take the ferry to San Francisco instead of driving all the way to the city, thus reducing the heavy traffic on Highway 101. Having a commuter train from Santa Rosa to the Larkspur ferry terminal also would reduce the commute traffic on Highway 101.
Harvey Sperry, Novato
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 05/03/2008 01:21:16 AM PDTTwo years later, the public hasn’t seen hide nor hair of the draft EIR, but Security National Senior Vice President Brian Morrissey said things could be a lot worse.
”Certainly we would have preferred to have the EIR sooner, but I think it is much more important to have a complete document where the public can see both the positives and the negatives, if there are any, of the Marina Center project,” Morrissey said.
Eureka Senior Planner Sidnie Olson said this week she’s still working on the document with the hopes of getting it out in the coming months. Admitting she never thought the process could be completed in six months, Olson said several things have slowed the process to a crawl, causing it to take far longer than she, or almost anyone else, thought it would.
”At the very beginning of this, the traffic consultant doing the traffic study didn’t really consult well with the city or Caltrans about what we expected from a traffic study,” Olson said, adding that resulted in a study containing inaccurate numbers, incorrect street names and a host of other errors. “The first chunk of time was just getting the traffic study to be accurate.”
Then, the city had to deal with proposed mitigation measures for the
traffic study, which Olson said was no easy task.”They’re huge — they are millions of dollars of traffic improvements,” Olson said, adding that the city and Caltrans don’t always see eye to eye on what the best mitigation measures would be, as Caltrans’ focus is on getting cars through town and the city is similarly concerned with people getting around town.
Then, Olson said, the environmental report had to be revised several times before being melded into the larger draft, which apparently had its own set of problems.
Olson said that while, under the California Environmental Quality Act, anybody can write a draft EIR, it’s not an EIR until the city signs off on it.
”The draft we received from the consultant was not up to par,” Olson said. “When we got the draft EIR from the consultant, we were disappointed in it.”
This came as a surprise, Olson said, as the consultant has worked with the city before and generally produced solid work. Olson said she expected to receive the draft, give it a quick peer review and make some minor changes before putting it out, but has instead ended up re-writing “huge chunks” of the document.
”Had it been an adequate document, it would have been on the streets months ago,” she said.
The delays come without a price tag. Morrissey said Security National is paying more than $1 million for the process of creating the document, a cost that goes up slightly with each delay. But Morrissey was quick to add that there are more important things than slight cost increases.
”It does go up a little bit over time, but the incremental costs because of delays are far less important than getting the right, fully accurate and complete document out to the public,” he said.
Olson said the city is focused on working toward that goal, and hopes the document will be off her desk in the coming months.
”We’re going to get it done as soon as we possibly can,” she said.
While that can’t come soon enough for Morrissey, he said he never had any illusions that this would be a quick process.
”We knew when we started this project that it would be a long, involved public process where the city and all the various stake holders would have input,” he said. “We certainly look forward to (the draft EIR) coming out, and continuing the dialogue in the community about all aspects of the project.”
Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com
Filed under: Mendocino
Seems the Freedom of Speech is only for one side of the debate for some people.
By BEN BROWN/The Daily Journal
Article Last Updated: 05/02/2008 09:34:11 AM PDTSheriff’s deputies arrested John Purdy, 17, of Redwood Valley, at his home Monday on charges of misdemeanor vandalism.
“They found him at his house with the sign with spray-paint over the Yes’,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Rusty Noe.
Purdy was arrested after he was seen allegedly taking a sign from the 6000 block of North State Street and putting it into his truck. A witness got the license plate number of the truck and reported it to police.
Sheriff’s deputies found the owner of the truck and drove to Purdy’s house, where they found two Yes on B’ signs, Noe said.
Noe said it was possible Purdy had stolen and defaced several signs since they started showing up in people’s yards earlier this month.
According to the Yes on B Coalition, more than 60 of the campaign’s 500 signs have been stolen or vandalized. Some coalition supporters report having had their signs stolen as many as three times.
“The Yes on B Coalition will replace every sign that is stolen,” said Yes On B Coalition spokesman Ross Liberty. “This battle for free speech is just a reflection of the underlying battle for the future of this county, whether we will be dominated by criminal activity or whether we have a future as a place where our quality of life comes first.”
Noe said theft and vandalism of political campaign signs is not uncommon in
Mendocino County and that the Sheriff’s Office typically arrests one person per season on vandalism charges, though he said this year has been different.“It’s not usually this heated,” Noe said.
The case has been forwarded to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.
Filed under: Uncategorized
The price to top off a scooter’s gas tank is enough for some drivers to trade in their guzzler
By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRATEven as gasoline prices soar, the car is still king and fuel-stingy scooters are not threatening to dethrone it.
And though the demand for scooters is growing, it remains a niche market, said Roy Gattinella, co-owner of Revolution Moto in Santa Rosa.
“If anything will tip them into the mainstream, it will be gas prices,” Gattinella said.
The average price of gas is $3.90 in Sonoma County, with some stations hitting $4, according to the California State Automobile Association.
Those high prices are fueling a surge in scooter sales, Gattinella said.
In the first quarter of this year, scooter sales climbed 24 percent over last year, said Mike Mount, a spokesman for the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine. “I don’t have numbers to prove it, but I suspect it is gas prices,” Mount said.
Gattinella said the surge is playing out at his store.
“The last two weeks have been crazy; we have people waiting at the door when we open,” Gattinella said. “In the last couple of weeks, we have been selling three to five a day.”
Scooter owners will tell you how much fun they are, but at 65 miles per gallon, they also tout the savings.
“The Wine Country is beautiful on a scooter,” said Jennifer DeBello of Santa Rosa, who rides a Vespa. “And it takes $5 to fill the gas tank. That’s refreshing.”
Derek Ruetsch, a private jet pilot from Windsor who bought a Vespa two years ago, said the difference in gasoline costs can be staggering.
“I was filling up with gas and someone was next to me in a large SUV,” Ruetsch said. “It took me $5.83 to fill up; they said it cost them $76.”
Although he bought his Vespa for the savings, it has become his everyday transportation. “Unless I have to haul something from Home Depot, my car stays in the garage,” Ruetsch said.
Scooters long have been popular for the masses in Europe, Asia and South America. Riders can zip through street traffic, some more powerful models can use the freeway and they typically get two to three times the mileage of even the most fuel-efficient sedans.
Prices can start at $1,500 and go up to $10,000.
Revolution Moto has the Taiwan-made Genuine Scooter Buddy for $2,595, an Italian-made Aprilia for $2,799, and its best seller, a popular Vespa, for $4,299.
North Bay Motorsports and Marine in Santa Rosa has Hondas and the South Korean-made Hyosung scooters, costing $1,500 to $8,500.
Despite the fuel economy, scooters have not caught on in the United States.
“It’s America and we are not in Europe,” said Rodney Frost, general manager of North Bay Motorsports and Marine, who said scooter sales are up 20 percent but still lag behind motorcycles.
Gattinella said some people have safety concerns, and others just like the comfort of a car.
Still, scooters are more mainstream now than when he started the shop five years ago, when gas was $1.69 a gallon.
“Now it’s a cross-section of the North Bay . . . carpenters, policemen, doctors, nurses, pilots, school teachers, a lot of blue-collar workers,” Gattinella said.
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com
