Why the Delay on Mass Transit?
Reading articles on transportation trends and megatrends, population shifts and traffic/smog makes me wonder: What are we waiting for?
Or, more to the point, what’s taking us so long to start?
Baxter Ward proposed a light rail in 1976! We would be riding that now! Of course there’s special interest groups (Detroit, oil, etc.), but what about our health? Let’s convert the buses we now have to electric like Toronto, string the wires and start cleaning the air in a year or two instead of 10.
Maybe electric buses aren’t cosmetically pleasing, but (a) This is California, the design capital of the United States. We could change that. (b) Have you looked at buses lately? Belching black smoke, engine bay doors flapping. Hey! It’s ugly. And I’m talking after it’s washed. But they serve a need.
Use routes already developed--electrical/train, whatever for mainlines, and main roads (elevated) for “spurs.” Why not? Nobody would have to move that way. The course is already 75% (or more) mapped out.
TERENCE WARD
North Hollywood
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