A little context in the local transportation debate

It has come to my attention that Christof Spieler, formerly an engineer with Matrix Structural, and board member of the Citizen's Transportation Coalition, and blogger at Intermodality, now works for Morris Architects as Technology Director. The vice president of Morris Architects is one, Doug Childers who is a President of the Richmond Rail group. It is widely speculated that MA is going to be one of the companies sub-contracted to do much of the design work for METRO's expansion. It is important to keep an eye on the back room connections of these groups, it is often quite incestuous. Often the public face of activism is also the private connection to a interest group with a financial stake in the outcome of the debate. It is always a good question to ask yourself "who benefits". Because often you will find that the bouncing buck has bounced into the pocket of the activist in question. Follow the money and you'll rarely go wrong.

That is not to say that his statements are false, they may in fact be valid arguments, but they must be tempered by his financial connections as well.