We have to make commuters “an offer they can’t refuse’ if public transport is ever to replace the automobile which is choking our planet and through Global Warming threatening the future of our children.
In January, 2011 several community groups began to question the priorities of SANDAG, the regional planning authority’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. As usual, the plan allocated far more of the proposed $100 billion for freeway improvements rather than rapid transit. In addition, sadly, its public transit funds were earmarked for big, cumbersome buses.
The Coalition for Fair and Honest Government’s call for a sleek, rapid, overhead monorail system was not even discussed because planners, staff and representatives are vehicle owners and addicted to the destructive nature of the automobile. Not one person who voted to implement the plan was a public transit dependent individual.
These people, on SANDAG, for all their goodness as individuals, family members and civic leadership are, nonetheless, part of the world’s immediate problem. Their myopic transportation vision which neglects to address climate change and adds the San Diego region as a major contributor of global economic destruction makes them an enemy of their own children.
Many of us are addicted to the pleasure and convenience of our personal mobility; even considering it a sacred right (I know, I’ve been driving for almost 50 years). But like any addict in a ten-step program (call it Drivers Anonymous) the first step is to recognize the addiction. Then like anyone who has tried to lose weight knows, we begin, haltingly at first, two steps forward, one step back, but whatever the addiction, whether food, cigarettes or driving, we have to have support and effective systems in place to make the transition easier.
In San Diego only 3.5 percent of the population regularly uses public transportation, while in Portland, Oregon it is over 14 percent and in San Francisco almost 35 percent. In 2010 ridership on public buses and the trolley fell by over 10 percent when the Transit District foolishly eliminated free transfers and cut back on routes, eliminating some all together, in favor of buying sleek new trolley cars to impress the city oligarchy and their visitors rather than serve the needs of transit riders.
I believe that in offering free public transportation within the City of San Diego we will provide the incentive and support necessary for us to help one another use public transportation more often. Of course, we need to see that buses and trolleys are not only safe and comfortable but run on time and serve more neighborhoods.
I also propose a “Global Warming Mitigation Registration Fee” for every non-commercial vehicle in the City of San Diego to pay for not only free public transportation but to upgrade our system for the 21st Century.
We can become global pioneers in the new frontier of personal responsibility for our unsustainable habits and systems. When our children and grand-children ask us what we did in the early 21st Century to help save the planet, we can proudly say “we helped take our city to the leading edge of that struggle. We began to experience our lives as authentic human beings in solidarity with Mother Earth."
Begin a Monorail System.
San Diego transit needs must meet the 21st Century. A Texas A&M University Study ranked San Diego the 9th worst city in the nation for traffic delays and congestion. We need to scrap the Mid-City Rapid Bus program, which is opposed by the North Park, Hillcrest and Uptown planning groups. Spending $43 million to increase bus traveling time by nine minutes is dim-witted.
I am proposing we use funds from my proposed “city vehicle global warming mitigation registration fee” to build two monorail lines from SDSU to the Cruise Terminal downtown. Similar to Japan’s and our own Disneyland’s, the trains and platforms would be above College Avenue, El Cajon Blvd., Park Blvd., and Broadway. The college area to bay system would be the first. Others to UCSD, the Airport and Otay Mesa border crossing would follow.