[SDCBC] Fwd: UT Mid City Transit Article Saturday

[John Forester]

I disagree with Abulifia's description of motor traffic as "the 
gunshot wound", and with his description of the conditions necessary 
for "serious consideration of mass transit in California." I also 
disagree with the conclusions stated in the article in Saturday's UT.

Nowadays, by and large, motor traffic congestion drives business 
away.  This leads to decentralization, which makes it much less 
economic for mass transit. There a few cities in which mass transit 
has propped up the urban centers. Manhattan in NYC is the prime 
example, Boston is less so. But these are old cities in which the 
mass transit system was developed before the prevalence of auto 
traffic. San Francisco is the only modern example, with BART propping 
up the SF financial district. I think that the extent to which San 
Diego's mass transit props up its downtown is small, despite the 
success of the traffic from Tijuana.

The individual chooses motoring over the other competing modes when 
that decision provides the most benefit to him or her. If conditions 
occur that make motoring very difficult, there will be enormous 
dislocation in both economic and social activities that mass transit 
will not be able to solve. Even the extent to which mass transit 
would alleviate those difficulties is beyond prediction today.

I also think that the proposal for mass transit along 805, as desired 
by the Normal Heights residents and as promised by Caltrans, was 
never well thought out by either party, and that failure was not 
noted by the reporter, either. Just having a "station" is only the 
beginning of a story and does nothing for the analysis.




At 07:20 AM 1/14/2008, Abulifia wrote:
>And there lies the crux of the matter.  Mass transit does not equal 
>the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ San Diego County can collect in 
>tolls from individual vehicles.  When toll lanes reach critical 
>mass, and those lanes are just as congested and clogged as the 
>regular routes, and gas goes up to $10.00/gallon, only THEN will 
>mass transit be given serious consideration in California.  Until 
>then Caltrans, just like the feds, will continue to dance around the 
>issue and apply band aids to the gunshot wound.

John Forester, MS, PE
Bicycle Transportation Engineer
7585 Church St.
Lemon Grove, CA 91945-2306
619-644-5481 www.johnforester.com
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