The $1B tax grab that would fund bureaucrats who want you to stop driving

Proponents of a massive, five-county sales tax hike in the Bay Area want you to think their money grab is needed to save transit and prevent congestion.But the activists working hardest to pass the levy have a bigger agenda. They want you to drive much less, or not at all.Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

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Never miss a story.They want fewer driving lanes, less parking, more tolls, traffic calming, bike lanes and streets redesigned to discourage driving. They are not hiding it.The car-haters at Streetsblog, for instance, called one East Bay Area arterial a “traffic sewer” with “too many lanes of fast-moving traffic” and cheered protected bike lanes that give cars less space. Other major arterial roads have been singled out for “traffic calming.” That phrase sounds nice, but it’s really anything but.Anti-car interest groups are phone-banking for the sales tax plan, known as Measure RTM; they’re promoting a “more bike-friendly Bay Area” and declaring that “biking is political.”Indeed, much of the sales-tax-hike money will flow to county transportation agencies that devote much of their energies to complicating driving. Do taxpayers really want to shell out more money to make traffic worse?Although the new sales tax funds are mostly said to support transit, we know that money is fungible — and the agencies collecting the cash are committed to projects that slow cars, reallocate roadway space away from motorists and elevate bicycling over driving, even when impractical.The anti-car crowd can only hope that frustrated drivers will give up and take the bus or train.This approach is a problem throughout California.Los Angeles’ Measure HLA generally requires the city to install Mobility Plan bike, bus and pedestrian projects whenever it resurfaces a qualifying...