Dust up LA Times Rail vs. Rubber Debate

[Transit Coalition]

Check this out and make your comments. Bart Reed of The Transit Coalition vs. Ted Balaker of the Reason Foundation debate for the next 5 days. We need you board members to respond and weight in, so the anti-transit, road warriors don't overwhelm us.

Here's your chance. Take a look and make your voice heard.

Now! We need your help. Go to the Los Angeles Times Bottleneck Blog and post a comment.

Four parts of the Dust up are posted and the fifth and final installment will be up tomorrow. So, please comment and help The Transit Coalition out. Thanks.

[whitmanlam]

If we are to fully understand the significance of traffic congestion in our daily lives, we must keep in mind, it is not a monolithic form, with one cause, or one solution.

Traffic is a collection of many factors, which likewise needs a multi dimensional approach. Traffic is tied to population growth, this has long been the reasoning behind expanding our roadways by some ratio to keep up with growth.

The problem with that is, that while our local population has made double digit gains, traffic congestion has literally gone up exponentially faster than population. The reasons for this:

1. Sprawl: Large tract development with bad planning.
Population and demographics have rapidly shifted towards the outer fringes of
urban centers. The suburbs have given way to ex-urbs and then beyond.
Instead of having controlled growth, most new housing and developments
spread like ripples in a pond (No, not even close ) like fallout from an atomic blast.

This type of development makes coordinated mass transit much less effective,
because destinations for work, shopping, school, etc. are widely dispersed.
Commuters are now frequently driving longer distances, which leads to more cars
on the road at any given time. This is the reason why public transit use has
declined as a fraction of trips, even though, by numbers, more people are using
mass transportation than at any time in our history.

2. International Trade: Just as the need for affordable housing has created sprawl, the need
for affordable consumer goods has led to the congestion crisis at our
ports. Foreign imports have gone up exponentially because of the
Global economy and the demand for cheap labor and materials.

This trade has put tens of thousands of trucks on our freeways. Long ,
Heavy trucks are posing serious problems and creating bottlenecks on
our onramps and offramps. These heavy loads constantly wreak havoc
on our pavements and cost of millions of dollars just to maintain the
integrity of the highways we have.

3. Easy Auto Loan Practices: Cars are much more affordable to a wider range of consumers
thanks to easy credit lending. People who would not be able to
afford automobiles in the past can now own several cars. This has
led to a parking nightmare along our city streets, as parking space
has all but disappeared, our streets are becoming narrower from
curb to curb. Parked cars are choking our major arterial streets.

Widening our roads and freeways is not always the best solution to ease traffic. In order to solve the problem, we must stop feeding it with a steady diet of concrete and asphalt.
The expansion of roadways and parking lots will only lead to more scattered sprawl development and more vehicles on the road.

Eventually those newly widened roads will also be suffocated with an instantaneous increase in traffic. We cannot pave over the problem, we must implement, alternative solutions:

1. Smarter Growth: A more efficient use of land resources with long term planning.

This means growing in a centralized plan around a Downtown, with high
density housing, employment, and shopping. This reduces the need for long
commutes, and provides an alternative commute by Rail Transit or other
Public Transit.

2. Improved Freight Rail: The movement of goods can be facilitated by a network of efficient
cargo trains carrying containers from the Ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach, to distribution centers farther Inland. Trains are much
more fuel efficient than diesel trucks, and rails can carry more raw
tonnage of cargo than our crumbling highways.

3. Expand our Commuter Rail System:

Trains and subways provide a useful alternative to driving. They do not
consume high priced gasoline. And with enough investment can
transport millions of people, everyday, from all walks of life, in an
efficient system.

Trains do not add to the problem of traffic. Rail lines are separate from
roads, so while someone's car is stuck in traffic at 5 mph, someone else
on a train can zoom by at 70 mph.

Having a good rail transit system will make Smart Growth and high
density housing more viable as a community.

Rail transit has become a primary means of travel in cities around the
globe, like in Europe and Japan, where people enjoy a high quality life
without the stress and pollution that we suffer.

Rail Transit gives our communities who are sick and tired of the traffic, a real alternative choice, a way to shed the straightjacket gridlock, to break out of the gasoline addiction.

[Transit Coalition]

Today is the final installment of the Dust up Series. You will note that Reason has the final word, after us. So, please take a minute and make a comment on the Bottleneck Blog. Thanks.

[wad]

There's also blow-by-blow coverage of Reed vs. Balaker on MetroRiderLA. Find the thread "Transportation Prize Fight."

Was it five installments or seven?

[fredcamino]

Very entertaining and enlightening read! Nice job Bart!