I got a mailing from the No on Measure D folks (you probably did too) with a picture of a bag of apples and a caption that said something like, “You wouldn’t buy a bag of apples if one of them was rotten.” I guess it was a good mailer, because I’ve been thinking about it.

What they meant, of course, is that Highway 1 widening is the rotten apple that spoils the bag of good apples (the Rail Trail, the Wildlife Tunnel, fixing potholes, funding for metro, etc). The message is: just say no to the rotten apple and forget the rest.

The problem is that when you say no to the rotten apple, you’re also saying no to a dozen or more perfectly good apples. Would you buy a bag of apples if ONLY one of them was rotten?

Depends, doesn’t it? Say apples are your only source of fruit or a mainstay of your diet. Say that bag of apples is the ONLY bag of apples in the market and that the grocer tells you there won’t be any more for a long time. Then you’d probably buy the bag, toss the rotten one, and enjoy all the good apples.

That, it seems to me, is the choice on Measure D – if you think 3 miles of merge lanes as the rotten apple. You can say no to rotten widening, but you’re also saying no to delicious bike lanes and all the other yummy things in the Measure D bag.

You can tell yourself there will be another bag of apples another day, one with no rotten apples, only good ones, but you know the odds are against it (see Waiting for Measure P for Perfect). Buy the bag, enjoy the apples! Take them home on your bike on the Rail Trail. If Measure D passes, we’ll have the funds to build it!