Peter Hurley, executive director of Transportation Choicesthe smart transit group that teamed up with Aaron Ostrom to off R-51 in 2002weighed in on I-912 too. Along with Ostrom, Hurley supports the gas tax this time. He told me that, in addition to Ostrom’s point about maintenance and safety vs. expanded car capacity, the new gas tax is smart about the few added capacity projects it does fund. For example, Hurley points out, there’s $1 Billion for 405 that’s targeted at HOV and HOT lanes. The HOT lanes would allow non-HOV traffic to use HOV lanes for a fee. However, if the additional traffic ended up slowing down the HOV lane, the toll would be upped. Meanwhile, the money from the HOT lanes is slated for public transit projects. Hurley agrees that I-912 could go down if liberal leaders would get organized and tap the grass roots base of folks like Transportation Choices. Anybody seen our Democratic Governor?