Checking the math on the 'Folly Trolley'

By ROBERT WILKINSON

I have always been suspicious of so-called “reporting.” I have had those suspicions reinforced time and time again.

True reporting verifies all facts, etc., before the article in question goes into the newspaper or report. Kevin Courtney, in his July 21 article “Sticking up for the trolley,” appears to have forgotten this most important aspect of reporting the news. His article can only be described as propaganda by those involved — and not very convincing propaganda at that!

In his article, the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency makes the outrageous claim 50,000 people ride the trolley each year. They further claim 11 passengers per hour. It appears that the NCTPA and Mr. Courtney might want to take a math refresher course! This is third grade stuff! They may want to make the claim instead, “I am not smarter than a third grader!”

Let’s see. Twenty-four hours in a day, and 365 days per year. Twenty-four times 365 equals 8,760 hours in the year, right? So, 11 passengers times 8,760 — or 96,360 passengers per year — not 50,000!

However, let’s accept their 50,000 claim as stated. That would be 50,000 divided by 8,760 hours per year, which equals 5.71 passengers per hour, not 11. Remember now, we are talking grade school math, not the high school stuff!

In fact, not even the 5.71 figure is a reality! All one has to do is observe and then count. The boondoggle trolley rides empty a major portion of the time! I have yet to see or count more than four or five at any one time! Most of the time the count is ... zero!

This fact does not help the average passenger count. The Folly Trolley would do well to average two per hour!

A million dollars of our sidewalk funds down the drain! And millions more of taxpayers’ state transportation money wasted.

There is nothing Napa Mayor Jill Techel or the NCTPA can truthfully offer to dispute the Grand Jury report! The Folly Trolley has been a bad joke from its inception.

At the first concept meeting on this endeavor, the first question city councilmembers should have asked themselves was, when was the last time they rode a bus in a city they visited as a tourist?

I was raised in a real tourist town — Colorado Springs, Colo. Tourists did not ride the buses! They came to town, drove their cars to where they were going, made their tourist stops, got back into their cars and moved on. I am 65 and have never ridden on a bus system in a city or town that I visited as a tourist! I would venture a guess that neither have any of the councilmembers who voted for this Folly Trolley.

What on this earth could have made those city councilmembers who voted for the “Mondavi Copia Trolley” (oops, did I just say that?) support such an obvious waste of public funds? Let me see, Techel was the head of the NCTPA at the time, if my memory serves. The Copia Utopia was also a major part of the voting at the time! Both of these were not only bad dreams, but also financial failures of major proportions! Somehow this does not appear to be a world-class Paris kind of action.

Could it be that those in our city government who make these kinds of outrageous decisions at citizens’ expense just do not have the necessary knowledge to do so? Especially when the sidewalks and streets are dangerous! Senior citizens and the handicapped are injured all over the city, while the City Council votes for things like the Folly Trolley and the Copia Utopia! Or could it possibly be political contributions, greed and the quest for political power? Whatever the answers, it is quite clear to me it is not in the best interests of the city or the citizens!

Perhaps this opinion will serve to begin a questioning of our city officials and the actions they take, supposedly on our behalf. Perhaps reporters will check and verify data presented to them as fact before they print it as such! Propaganda is just that!

Regardless, the Grand Jury report on the Folly Trolley continues to be without factual rebuttal. Perhaps Mr. Courtney might offer an article on this fact? I do not presume to tell Mr. Courtney what to write, but merely to check and verify what is written first! But in any case, the Folly Trolley and Copia Utopia are a total bust! I leave it up to those who read this opinion to do the research and the math! I remain open to any factual rebuttal.

(Wilkinson has been a Napa resident since 1967.)

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