Gow Has Another Cow

Seattle PRTista David Gow (Mr. Grant) is disturbed about my opinion piece in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Gow received two comments from "John":

*snorts* Boy, that one really cracked me up. I had no idea that everything I saw in the news was 100% truthful. Or that the major media outlets NEVER gave space to liars and ALWAYS published stories by honest people! By your logic, everyone who's honest would be in a major media outlet!...

...and this:

Oh, and after reading Avidor's full article, I noticed this little bit:

"My advice to public officials and citizens of Santa Cruz is to pass on PRT and look at other towns and cities that have solved similar transport problems with a more tried-and-true transit mode such as streetcars."

He hints at streetcars, but he offers it as a suggestion. Now let's take a look at how you put it:

"But his biggest deception is that he tries to set up a false choice: you have to pick PRT or LRT, you can't have both."

Gosh, what article were you reading?

John is right. I never say that the choice is between LRT and PRT. That is how the PRTistas prefer to frame it. There's a lot of real options Santa Cruzans could consider including doing nothing at all (no build). I am a great believer in local control over transportation decisions. I believe that if given the facts, citizens are more likely to choose what is best for their community. The key is that their choices must be REAL choices, not unproven concepts like PRT.

Let's take a look at another of Gow's claims:

...One such is Light Rail Now--an allegedly nonprofit organization that nonetheless takes credit for influencing politics in Minnesota for the benefit of the Minneapolis light rail system.

This is misleading.

Light Rail Now is a Section 501(c)(3) non-profit, grassroots organization that educates citizens and public officials about Light Rail and other transportation modes. Education about issues in an election is permitted under IRS law. What is not permitted is electioneering; telling people specifically who or what to vote for in an election. As far as I know, LRN has not engaged in electioneering.

The Citizens for Personal Rapid Transit, on the other hand violated this IRS rule against electioneering in 2005 by encouraging CPRT members through its newsletter to volunteer for the campaigns of PRT-promoting candidates including Dean Zimmermann.