Category: Transportation

Photo: Ticklebug

The LA Times, in an editorial today, is imagining that part of a $4 billion public transportation, state bond proposal can be steered towards an extension of the MTA Red Line to bring it all the way………… to Fairfax Boulevard!

It would cost “only” $1.2 billion dollars to extend the line 3 miles or $500 million dollars a mile– or $100 million dollars every 1,000 feet.

This idea is ludicrous, ridiculously expensive and ultimately useless. How does it help Los Angeles to only move the subway three miles further to the east and still neglect to push it to Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood and Santa Monica?

The Times says politicians have not been especially courageous about the subway and have pandered to business fears about tunneling disruptions, social fears about crime, and tax phobia among voters. But the most gutless idea is to let everyone off the hook by building a half-assed, luxury priced subway only as far as Fairfax. Funded by a bond, paid for by future debt.

There is a realistic way to fund the subway all the way to the ocean: tax all Los Angeles area gasoline at 10 cents a gallon. Take the windfall and apply it to a full-scale subway extension. It would help reduce traffic and smog and create incentives for saving gas. This is called common sense.

Imagine if the State of California, back in the 1950’s, had decided to build the San Diego Freeway only from San Diego to Del Mar? Or if the 10 Freeway only ran from Downtown LA to Crenshaw Boulevard?

But there were leaders back then, and today we only have wimps who cannot dare to challenge this city and state to do what is right and build a real comprehensive public transportation infrastructure for the Southland.

Is it my imagination or are there more Hummers on the road? Despite the fact that gasoline costs well over $3 a gallon, the Hummer is doing well.

General Motors, who makes the monster SUV, reported that in the first three months of 2006, Hummer’s global sales surged 202%; mostly due to the addition of the new H3 SUV, the smallest and most-affordable vehicle in the brand lineup. During this period, Hummer sales in the United States rose 185%.

The Detroit Free Press also reported last month:

“Sales of Cadillac outside of the United States grew 19.4% in the first quarter, supported by a 246% gain in China and 32% growth in Canada. The rollout of the new Escalade SUV and the all-new BLS luxury sedan is expected to fuel stronger Cadillac sales in the second quarter, GM said.”

There are people who imagine (and hope) that high priced gas will forever make Americans into a hybrid-loving, tree hugging land of little cars. But I think just the opposite is happening. The more expensive driving becomes, the more of a status symbol it will be to drive an enormous tank around the neighborhood.

High prices haven’t killed off Beverly Hills, perfume, yachts, cocaine and condos—and they aren’t killing off the SUV. At an MSRP starting price of $26,260 the H3 might actually be considered a bargain.

Photos: Wahaha Wu

Yesterday, I had to travel the 19 miles between Van Nuys and Marina Del Rey. At 60 miles an hour (down the 405), it should take about 20 minutes to get there.

Of course, nobody just gets on the freeway and speeds anywhere in LA. I took Sepulveda to Sunset to Bundy to San Vicente to 16th Street to Wilshire to Lincoln and then crawled down to Washington. The whole hour, I was dreaming of a monorail that might save me and millions of others from this burden.

Ray Bradbury wrote this editorial for the LA Times:

If we examine the history of subways, we will find how tremendously expensive and destructive they are.

They are, first of all, meant for cold climates such as Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. But L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground.

Subways take forever to build and, because the tunnels have to be excavated, are incredibly expensive. The cost of one subway line would build 10 monorail systems.

Along the way, subway construction destroys businesses by the scores. The history of the subway from East L.A. to the Valley is a history of ruined businesses and upended lives.

The monorail is extraordinary in that it can be built elsewhere and then carried in and installed in mid-street with little confusion and no destruction of businesses. In a matter of a few months, a line could be built from Long Beach all the way along Western Avenue to the mountains with little disturbance to citizens and no threat to local businesses.

Compared to the heavy elevateds of the past, the monorail is virtually soundless. Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move.

I can’t express this any better than Mr. Bradbury has.

Cahuenga Pass: 1940’s. Photo courtesy of Tom Wetzel.

In the 1940’s, the newly constructed Hollywood Freeway featured a center median streetcar. By the mid 1950s, the public transportation was gone, the highway lanes were widened, and we suffer the results today.

California cities are once again using light rail systems to get people around. At first these trains seem like fun tourist attractions, as in San Diego or San Francisco, but gradually they become part of a genuine urban revival. Opposition to the trains usually comes from anti-tax advocates who see any spending of funds for the good of all as being individually harmful.

In Los Angeles, the constant traffic and congestion on the San Diego Freeway (405) would seem evidence enough that we need a light rail system from Santa Clarita to Long Beach. Most of the growth in Los Angeles is occuring in the northern part of the county in places like Valencia, Palmdale, Lancaster. As thousands of new single family homes are built up there, the roads are overwhelmed with cars. Pollution, stress, wasted hours spent in traffic…the need for an alternative to the car is clear.

While we are building a light rail system, we can also start rezoning the San Fernando Valley to allow for 8-10 story apartments along streets like Sepulveda and Van Nuys Blvd. with retail shops on the ground floor and a streetcar line running down the center median………..more on this concept in future articles.

What would Henry Ford say?