Transportation Summit II
* The well-meaning Valley Transportation Summit II (“Gearing Up to Improve Valley’s Bus System,†Dec. 14) was a decidedly lopsided affair.
No pro-rail speakers were at either event. The first summit featured homeowner association types who actually bragged that they never have, never will use public transportation. This recent second event went even further with the sanctimonious demagoguery of Sen. Tom Hayden and the smog-brained “freeway only†histrionics of Assemblyman Tom McClintock. This should have been labeled an “Anti-Transportation Summit.â€
Today’s transit buzzword and mode du jour seems to be “dedicated buswaysâ€--a worthy notion only if there is a full commitment to its land use. The Ottawa system took an aggressive transit-first approach that demanded that new developments integrate into their transit system before they could even build. The Brazilian system has taken almost 30 years to develop and is based upon high-density corridors that do not remotely resemble our residential Chandler alignment.
Where will all these politicians be when it comes down to taking away car lanes to make signal-exempt bus-only lanes on our major boulevards? Where were they when NIMBYs shot down a far less controversial plan to build a bus transit hub on the Cal State Northridge campus? Did anyone sense the irony when advice from Brazil was to be willing to be patient and go slowly--this to a group that mutters “rail is dead†over a mere five-year delay in projects?
My kudos to any leader not willing to bail out of the long-range vision.
ROGER CHRISTENSEN
Sherman Oaks
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
