Sample letter to Council Member Berliner

With his permission, I'm posting this letter that Adam Garfinkle has sent to Council Member Berliner. Obviously, not every one of us will have the authority to speak for his/her civic association (but getting them involved is a GREAT idea!), so it won't make sense to simply copy this letter in its entirety & send it; however, feel free to take bits & pieces of it as you wish & incorporate them into a letter of your own. If anyone else else would like to send me their letter, I will happily post it here as inspiration for the rest of us.

*****************************************************************************

January 15, 2008

Mr. Roger Berliner
Montgomery County Council
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850

Dear Mr. Berliner,

It is with distress and no little sense of disbelief that I have learned of the County’s proposal to eliminate the number 37 Ride-On bus. I am not alone: The board of the Country Place Civic Association, a homeowners association of 174 households in Montgomery Council, took a decision last night to oppose this proposal. I am authorized to inform you of that decision, and to explain our views.

We believe that eliminating the number 37 Ride-On bus would cause considerable hardship for a large number of people. I also doubt the publicly expressed rationale for eliminating the service—that the rush-hour-only 37 bus is a “weak performer.” I ride it regularly and it is always full of passengers. Someone has counted wrong.

Note, too, that virtually everyone who rides the 37 bus is a regular who is linking into the Metro system. The 37 route is an integral part of the county’s transportation system, not an inessential shuttle for occasional shoppers or tourists.

It also services students from Hoover and Churchill who have to stay after school in the afternoons. I see as well several handicapped and elderly passengers on the bus on a regular basis.

Note, too, that for those living on most the 37 route, no alternative forms of public transportation are available. The 37 route is not redundant with others, but services a unique area for the most part.

Moreover, it is extremely dubious to suppose that curtailing public transportation in a region such as ours will save the county money in the long run. As many as a hundred additional cars will be put on the road during rush hour morning and evening if the county curtails public transportation, and with higher volume comes more pollution, more greenhouse gasses and greater road maintenance expenses. This reasoning applies not only to the 37 bus, of course, but to all the others slated for reduced service or elimination. It is extremely shallow and superficial thinking to imagine that we can save money by eliminating an efficient mode of transportation and stimulating the substitution of less efficient ones.

I understand that you are a man who is concerned about the environment, who understands the need for our community and our country to “go green.” If that is the case, I expect you, too, will be disheartened by this retrograde proposal. It is ludicrous to be telling people to “go green” on the one hand, and then making it harder to do so on the other. I urge you to do something about this proposed embarrassment to our county—something decisive and effective.

I don’t know whose decision this is—whether the Dept. of Transportation has been saddled with an impossible order to cut costs, or what. Whoever has devised this proposal, however, is both shortsighted and highly unimaginative. Service can be reduced marginally—for example, to what it was a few years ago, before an extra bus was added in the morning and afternoon—without being eliminated. Other means to finance the service can be devised, as well. I find it hard to believe that other, less foolish means of solving the country’s financial problems have been exhausted.

Finally, let me add that I have noticed construction lately along the 37 route of new concrete containment areas and sidewalks by several bus stops. This costs money. What possible logic would lead anyone to approve spending for such marginal purposes if the economics of the route as a whole were really in such dire shape? This is not a rhetorical question; I’d actually like an answer.

Please, Mr. Berliner, don’t let the county make this mistake. The Country Place Civic Association urges you to act now to save the 37 bus, and restore our confidence in the basic good judgment of our local government.

Yours,

Dr. Adam Garfinkle