Students armed with clipboards, posters and matching green shirts worked alongside one another in front of Royce Hall to publicize Proposition 1A.
Proposition 1A, which is on the Nov. 4 ballot, is an initiative to spend tax dollars to fund construction for a high-speed rail, or bullet train system in California.
Cristina Granda, a second-year psychology student, was one of several students who partook in a large effort to send out text messages, as well as Facebook and MySpace messages, across the State of California in support of the proposition.
The State of California estimates that Proposition 1A would cost California taxpayers $9.95 billion and would produce 800 miles of high-speed rail track.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority, a commission formed in 1996 and sponsored by the State of California said the high-speed rail trains would travel at speeds in excess of 220 mph.
The commission estimated that a trip from the proposed Los Angeles terminal to the proposed terminal at San Francisco International Airport would take under two and a half hours.
Students working to promote the proposition say that public transportation is a good alternative to driving and flying to get around California.
“Proposition 1A is cleaner, cheaper and more efficient than its alternatives,” said Coreen Weintraub, a third-year anthropology student who is coordinating campus efforts to support the proposition. “Because of California’s growing population, we need to expand our transportation system in the near future. We should not build more of the same freeways and airports. Instead, we should build more public transportation and in particular, high-speed rail.”
According to the California Voter Information Guide, the opposition to Proposition 1A includes Sen. Tom McClintok (R-Thousand Oaks) and Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster), who point out that taxpayers will be left footing an estimated $20 billion bill in principal and interest in addition to the $9.95 billion bond measure.
Emily Tice, a third-year ecology student, said that the proposed high-speed rail would help the environment by taking cars off the road and cutting greenhouse gas emissions in addition to opening alternative ways to travel around California.
She said that the lack of transportation infrastructure in the Los Angeles should not be a deterrent to trying to build infrastructure now.
If Proposition 1A is passed by California voters and the high-speed rail system constructed, it would be the first and fastest public transportation rail of its kind in the United States. High-speed rail, also know as the bullet train, is a popular means of transportation in other parts of the world, including Europe and Asia. However, it has yet to make its way into the mass transit system of our country.
Supporters of the proposition are excited about the prospect of more accessible and practical public transportation in California.
“I support public transportation, I know what it can do,” Granda said.
“I used to live in Davis and ride public transit daily into San Francisco, where I attended high school. I strongly believe something like this could help the environment and open people’s eyes to the world around them.”