Will We Ever Get Out of Cars? No Way
By Walt Brewer, Klamath Falls, Ore.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | Re: Will We Ever Get Out of
Cars? by Marco Gonzales.
We will if and when a better process appears to carry
individuals directly and rapidly to their real
destinations. Decades ago, society chose automobiles
for the individual transport essential to economic
wellbeing and social lifestyle. But simplistic
slogans, “get people out of cars,” ignore the mission
and don’t offer an equivalent alternative. The real
“squandering”, Mr. Gonzalez, is 20-plus years’
attempt to reverse the public’s demands with nearly
40 percent of transportation funds wasted on mass
transit. Meanwhile travel has increased 120 percent,
new roads only 32 percent, and transit absorbed a
meaningless 1.3 percent of growth. That’s the real
reason for the 53 hours per year lost in congestion,
and regionwide, $1.8 billion yearly cost you mention.
But the San Diego Association of Governments keeps
right on attempting to build its way out of congestion
with mass transit even though a whole new transit
system would be needed every 12 to 18 months. Mass
transit has less market share than Ford’s Edsel.
Ford stopped production after two years instead of
increasing it.
Of course new roads fill fast! There’s a lot of
catch up after 20 years of meeting only one-fourth of
the real needs. A desirable commercial product would
empty the shelves too; and not be replaced by an
inferior one.
Underused transit requires more, not less land per
trip than the auto/highway system. Can San Diego fill
a 60-passenger bus every 2 minutes on every rush hour
arterial lane to replace autos? Apparently, in its
attempt to promote less rural land for transportation,
Save Our Forests and Ranchlands doesn’t care about
inefficient urban use.
Except in a few very dense “back East” cities, mass
transit and autos energy use per trip is similar. The
Department of Energy shows that buses use 15 percent
more energy than autos. Improving autos is the
positive approach. A reduction of less than 2 miles
per gallon saves more than the entire transit system
uses.
Want more proof autos are the “The Way to Go”?
Metropolitan Transit System headquarters in downtown
San Diego, a few steps from the trolley line, has a
massive multistory parking garage alongside.
But there truly is a technology-driven way to go.
Automated cabs on narrow guideways use one-fourth the
land and half the energy. And people will use this
form of public transport. Like private autos, it
preserves the fundamental transport of individuals.
Punch in the destination and away you go.
But retrograde “more of the same” planning Gonzalez
and associates advocate and massive failure of mass
transit are blocking both development motivation and
funds.
Perhaps Gonzalez should flex his legal-leverage
muscles to entice action in new positive direction.
Then a meaningful incentive to “get people out of
cars” would begin to materialize.