the orange grove

Railroad job

January 1, 2001, Orange County Register

DAVE MOOTCHNIK

If you listen to transit advocates and environmentalists you might get the message that the future for Southern California is to eliminate the car and substitute mass transit for everyone. Transit advocates and environmentalists are busy lobbying our planners to stop spending funds on highways and roads and to divert efforts to massive increases in rail and bus systems. The arguments may have an appealing sound: prevent pollution and sprawl and reduce fuel consumption.

But the solutions proposed will not work. They are poor substitutes for the automobile and the advocates never explain the downside penalties and costs involved. The truth is that bus and rail transit is not the solution for our region, and the planners need to keep looking for better approaches. While most governmental planners haven't realized this yet the general public sure has and the evidence is there for the open-minded observer.

The general public likes transit only for the other guy, but we are all the "other'' guy. Several events have occurred this year which demonstrate the public's desire to continue using automobiles despite attempts to encourage use of the public transit facilities. First, we had a major increase in the cost of gasoline since the beginning of this year. Prices increased about 30 percent to 50 percent.

This increase in automobile operating costs should have had the effect of reducing auto travel and increasing the ridership on our bus and rail systems. But during this period, automobile travel has not diminished and has increased in proportion to population changes. In Orange County, bus transit ridership has seen no measurable change in this period. In fact, since the gas increase, bus transit has shown less growth than in the same period a year ago. This experience is consistent with that of European countries where auto usage is growing at a rate three times faster than public transit.

The claim that in Europe everyone travels by rail is a myth. The truth is that 84 percent of travel in Europe is by car. The fact that SUVs are such a large part of the new car sales in the United States attests that the public is willing to spend for the comfort and convenience of the private auto. The second event has been the public transit strike in Los Angeles. This strike went on for a month and the most notable fact has been the relative public silence regarding any pain caused.

Even the liberal media were pretty quiet. Not to belittle the inconvenience or hardships caused to many transit riders, the transit public had in large part found other means to travel, namely automobiles. The loss of transit ridership had minimal impact on traffic. The notion that the Blue Line was eliminating much traffic on the Harbor Freeway was seen to be a myth. Even analysis by regional government recognizes that it would take a huge investment to increase transit usage enough to affect auto travel even a small amount.

Currently the region spends about 60 percent of its transportation dollars on public transit that serves just two percent of the public. To double this percentage would effectively take all the transportation funds, leaving none for highways and streets. To spend all the funds on a 2 percent improvement when the region is expecting a 35 percent growth in population and traffic is irrational, irresponsible.

Our leadership should be pressing for unique ways to expand the efficiency of our roadways and, where acceptable, provide growth and improvements to our roads. We should be pressing for more funding for research on alternative fuels to reduce pollution and on automated highway technology to increase the capacity of existing roads to avoid construction. Capacity of arterials can be significantly improved using overpasses. Judicious use of second decks on freeways can increase capacity and separate truck lanes.

Selective additions to the public transit system will contribute a small but essential element. All these ideas combined are needed to provide for the region's future growth. The environmentalists' mantra of no new roads must be discarded if we are to maintain Southern California as a livable community.

Copyright 2000 The Orange County Register
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