tucson traffic

Today I watched a local access show all about the Tucson Regional Transportation Plan that Tucsonans vote on May 16th. We have to approve both the plan and a half-cent sales tax, and then in the next twenty years, our position as fourth on the 'worst congestion for a medium sized city' list should improve.

There was a bunch of information presented, pro and con, but this is about all I retained:
1. Opponents want a gas tax instead of a sales tax. The gas tax was set in 1983 and didn't index for inflation, but the state is in charge of changing that, so fussing about it anywhere other than Phoenix isn't going to do a lot of good.
2. Both sides are very excited about bus pullouts so we don't all keep getting stuck behind buses every single time we drive in the right lane.
3. When people say streetcars, I have this image in my head, having grown up near San Francisco. Call me old-fashioned, but new streetcars (see the upper right corner of this page), as nifty as they are, are kind of funny looking.