-I’m a reluctant passenger on the Measure M train. That’s the half-cent sales tax increase in Los Angeles County to bankroll transportation improvements. My main reservation, aside from the fact that a 9.5 percent sales tax would be mighty steep, is that spending billions of dollars on expensive rail systems may be largely unnecessary in a few years if autonomous transportations systems (think Uber without drivers) can deliver you door-to-door using small cars that constantly move, except overnight. On the other hand, can we depend on such a futuristic system to fully take hold? Besides, the San Fernando Valley would get a lot of love with Measure M: the Orange Line busway would get converted to rail, a transportation tunnel through the Sepulveda Pass would be slated and a rapid bus system to California State University Northridge would be created. So, OK, yeah, I’d vote for it. Still, I wonder if we will eventually regret Measure M like we regret our approval of the California high-speed rail a few years ago.
http://www.sfvbj.com/news/2016/oct/31/business-friendly-voter-choices/
San Fernando Valley Business Journal