Transportation Referendum: Lessons Learned from the Front Line

Tonight I attended this session, part of the 'Rethinking Transportation: New Voices, New Ideas series'. It is presented in collaboration with TransLink and the SFU City Program and took place at SFU Harbour Centre in downtown Vancouver. This session was given by Carl Guardino, an influential force on transportation policy and funding in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley area, where public ballots have successfully voted to fund many major transportation improvements. Carl shared lessons learned and how this experience might help engage and inform Metro Vancouver residents as our own transit referendum fast approaches. Read on for my unedited notes from the session, facts and numbers are as I heard them, hopefully I have done Carl justice.

These bullets were recorded during Carl's talk:

• The Silicon Valley Leadership Group was formed by CEO's from many businesses who were concerned about their community, there are 390 companies represented by the group.
  
• The money they raised helped leverage other funding from state and federal government.
• They led a similar campaign to add a 0.5% sales tax, backed up by accountability through annual audits, they delivered everything on time and on budget which built trust for later proposals.
• It also made it easier to go back to request more funding for additional projects.
• The money had to go into a separate fund dedicated to providing the specific projects.
• The specifics were important, they outlined exactly what projects are to be delivered and when.
• Balance was important, the plan had to provide benefits for all user from single occupancy car drivers to car sharers, transit users, cyclists and pedestrians.
• Carl already seems impressed with coalition forming to back the yes vote, which he supports.
• There will always be opposition to any plan, opposition is good, it helps us see the pros and cons from both sides.
• He hates taxes, but he hates traffic more!
• This is the first time here that there has been a referendum for specific improvements, it was the first time in California too.
• It gave them local control of local funds, no interference from other levels of government. The feeling there was we can sit back and be enraged at the lack of funding or sit up and be engaged and take action.
• In Vancouver there will be an additional 1 million people on top of 2.4 million over the next 25 years. What do you want to do? Look forward, invest and prosper, or roll the dice and see what happens if you vote no?
• Active college campaigns were very effective, had motivated students at bus stops and transit exchanges spreading the word, information is better received from your peers.
• CEO's ran in-house campaigns within their companies, not forcing employees to vote one way or the other but giving them the facts to make informed decisions.
• Campaign required considerable effort, Carl led the yes vote campaign, required 100 hour weeks for 6 months. It needs somebody passionate about the subject to lead it. 
• Campaign is a marathon, not a sprint. we have a lot of time but must use it all effectively, not wait until the last minute.

After his speech Carl took some questions, I didn't record the question or specific answers, just interesting pieces of information as it came up.

• The Vancouver tax will raise $250m per annum.
• More sprawl in California, better opportunity here for good transit and transit orientated communities.
• Regarding question on free transit, some level of fare is important to provide part funding for the service, less funding, less service.
• The funding Carl has been involved with are for Santa Clara County, Not California as a whole. In Santa Clara there is a 1.9 million population and 1 million jobs. Slightly smaller than Vancouver.
• Guy started going on about the GM conspiracy and their buy out of streetcars, thats interesting and all and worth a google if your bored, he wanted to rant rather than ask questions, eventually heckled away from the mic.
• There was a general feeling of things not getting done in Santa Clara, so they took things into their own hands rather than doing nothing and complaining about it.
• Must engage everyone, cyclists, transit users, disabled, businesses, user groups, even car drivers.
• Didn't want to go into strategies, he supports the yes vote and didn't want to show the opposition his playbook.
• Regarding complaints over TransLink, have you ever seen a government agency that anyone liked? We're voting for improvements not TransLink.
• Referendum was forced on us by the Province, similar situation in California.
• California ballots had sunsets, they expired as planned once the projects were complete.
• To engage young people, they must be encouraged to register to vote.
• In California they needed 2/3 majority to win, here we require 50% plus 1 to win. Easier here.
• Students really helped win the ballot in California. Must engage them here.
• Santa Clara has 15 cities, compared with 22 municipalities here.
• Good question raised, why can the Province proceed with mega projects like the Massey Tunnel replacement without a referendum but they force a referendum on the municipalities for transit improvements. No real answer here.
• To win, have a good positive campaign, be pro-active rather than responding to every no campaigner that comes out of the woodwork. Can't respond to everyone but be selective, i.e., if person has 3 followers on Twitter, maybe doesn't need responded to, if they have 30,000, then might be a good idea to respond.
• Investments at local level can attract provincial and federal funding, a little bit of money turns into a lot of money.
• Don't allow funds from this initiative to reduce pre-existing funding from other sources, i.e., State can't reduce their funding because a new source suddenly appears via tax.
• You won't convince everyone, stay factual, use data, don't bluff, when you don't know, say you don't. 
• We have a long way to go to get to Euro level of acceptance for cycling and transit.