By Tom & Carol Braford
We have the opportunity right now to incrementally move a MetroLink North/South connector line forward as the voters were led to believe that we would be able to do when we passed the bond issue. Or, given that matching federal funding is no longer likely anytime soon, the mayor’s office is floating the idea of improvements to existing bus service instead. This, of course, is better than nothing, but it may not be the best that we could do.
A RAFT system could be the best solution, since it can be primarily financed on the private sector’s freight side, while it would also drive the passenger traffic at no extra cost to the citizenry, making the existing public transit facilities viable, even the University City to Forest Park Trolley.
The $100M in taxpayer money that is already in the bank, along with use of the City’s 600 miles of alley and thousands of miles of utility rights-of-way, may very well be enough to leverage the rest.
Bill Gates has already put billions into financing these systems, since it is one of the most cost-effective ways to fight climate change and is virtually guaranteed to grow our local economy and population, while also reducing traffic and wear and tear on our streets.
Imagine a 100% renewably powered, raised platform pod car system that would let you ship 1000 pounds of freight across town or travel with up to 4 or 5 friends, your pets and a bicycle at considerable speed to any place in the region at any time of day with minimal waits.
We are committed to helping this proposition along by providing RAFT stations at each of our Islands of Coherence Communities of Practice along with green electron car co-op last-mile of freight and transit, so we all have a way to cut our carbon footprint by at least 30%. If you are interested in going further to stuff the climate change genie back in the bottle, we invite you to join us in living in IOC-COPs, where together we will be cutting our combined footprint by 100% plus.
Please reach out to learn more and to get involved! You can contact us at braford@sbcglobal.net or at www.ArizmendiEcovillage.com.