<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<small><font face="Verdana">I see the "old cities" argument never does
quite go away even when it flies in the face of ::REALITY:: <br>
<br>
Exactly how long does a city have to be existence in order to get its
mass transit act together - 100 years? 200? If that is the criteria,
then San Diego, having been visited and named in 1542 by Juan Cabrillo,
has that covered and then some. Now to be fair, San Diego didn't
really start to pick up in population until WW II, but even then, we're
talking over 50 years to get some kind of mass transit system in
place. The city has had more than enough time to plan for future
population growth; It simply chose NOT to. Whether that was due to
political expediency or just plain laziness, is immaterial. San Diego
did not just come into existence 10 or 20 yrs ago. It did not just
discover that it had a traffic problem. BTW - If you want to get
technical, then SF is actually younger than San Diego having been
settled in 1776 vs Cabrillo's 1542 visit. And Boston, as well as NYC
are also considerably younger cities than San Diego by at least almost
100 years. But I won't quibble with technicalities. The fact remains
that San Diego has had the time to plan for growth. <br>
<br>
And as to your assessment that San Diego's mass transit rider
population is "small," let me ask you this much - Have you ever taken
the trolley downtown? Or the bus, for that matter? Have you ever
actually been downtown during the week and experienced the magnificence
of gridlock and mind numbing fees for parking? I'm guessing not in
this lifetime, otherwise you wouldn't casually make such a staggeringly
ignorant statement. <br>
If the mass transit numbers were so small, Mr. Forester, then 67% of
the voters in 2004 would not have approved a 40 yr extension of
Transnet, which has been estimated to generate an addtl $14 billion to
improve the region's transportation infrastructure. If your statements
were to be given any kind of credibility whatsoever, then you would
have this listserv believe that San Diego didn't have a congestion
problem OR need to plan for future growth. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></small><br>
<br>
John Forester wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid7.0.1.0.2.20080114093214.02e39e88@johnforester.com"
type="cite">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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>