With 40 years in California transportation planning, it's time for me to open my mouth again. Over 30 years ago, I agitated for an extension of Caltrain to the Transbay Terminal site. My ideas captivated both professionals and activists. But not being a good self-promoter and making the news in the years before the internet, my story's not that well known.

Now with a new effort, Link21, to define rail in the region for the next half-century, the time is right to agitate again. Much water has passed under the bridge, but lessons are not learned. Time to get up on the box in Speakers' Corner and speak.

Why?