LA Traffic Panel Discussion - Volume I

1 minute and 55 seconds of the video clip are dedicated to the reception: people snacking, drinking and mingling to the tune of the Beatles' "Baby, You Can Drive My Car." Then the three panelists are introduced by Mr. Johnston and given an opportunity to give a "brief summary of the crucial issue facing us this evening." This is where it gets interesting... Watch!



So Mr. Tom Rubin goes first, and what he has to say in this brief intro. is very interesting: "Transportation decisions in the United States really have virtually nothing to do with transportation. And that pretty much drives the results. When you're making transportation decisions ignoring transportation impacts, [you get] a transportation system that reflects that in its performance."

That's a very interesting observation, but what the heck does it mean?

If transportation decisions are not based on transportation issues, then WHAT, pray tell, are they based on? And WHO makes them? WHO's accountable?

Obviously, this is the approach that's behind the current mess (and a former insider like Mr. Rubin should know better than anybody else).

So right off the bat, we get confirmation of something we've been saying over and over here on this blog, that at the policy decision-making level, a paradigm shift has to take place. The whole approach to how these decisions are made and who makes them needs to change. Or the "high expectations" that Mr. Balaker trumps about later are an illusion. NOTHING will change for the better or for the long-term without this fundamental change.

Then it's Mr. Balaker's turn (we don't know whether Mr. Moore got a chance to have his say on "the issue facing us this evening" or whether he got skipped over or simply cut in favor of the reception). Mr. Balaker makes two points we have also been harping on here in this blog since April 2006, perhaps not in the same words, but in exactly the same meaning and spirit:

1. "The point I want to make is that mobility matters... These days the term 'geographically undesirable' is becoming more and more commonplace among people who date in urban areas... Mobility is good."
2. "We've fallen into this fashionable defeatism where we think that there's nothing that can be done about traffic. ... Congestion is something that can be triumphed over. And I think it's about time we did that."

Of course "mobility matters" and "mobility is good." No one is denying that. What you have is a population in denial over whether everybody who owns a car should be on the road at the same time every day. Freedom of mobility should entail some responsibility. If you don't have to drive, why drive? If you need to get some milk at the convenience store two blocks away and you can walk, why not walk it? Why not ride your bike? After all, it's good for you! Perhaps a study should be done on the relationship between heart disease and obesity and driving in America. The French and the Italians are thinner and live longer and healthier perhaps because they walk more.

What Mr. Balaker is, in fact, saying is that mobility equals driving. That's not true at all. The only way to attain mobility is not necessarily by driving. The problem of traffic and congestion in American cities such as L.A. will never be solved until people in L.A. are given as many options as possible OTHER THAN DRIVING to attain the mobility they need and desire (How about, for instance, creating more walkable "downtowns" like Santa Monica's that can be easily accessible by clean and reliable transportation like the Big Blue Bus? That's the kind of mobility L.A. needs).

As to point No. 2 --"Congestion... can be triumphed over"-- of course it can! But it won't be easy and it will take a concerted effort by policy-makers and drivers working together to make it happen. There's no magic formula. Neither "tolling" nor "increasing capacity" alone will do it. As we have documented on this blog, the L.A. area has a lot of fixing to do. They can do all the "tolling" they want, they can add all the road capacity they want, but it won't make that much of a difference in the long run if all the other problems we have outlined on this blog are not fixed as well. People will continue to pour into Southern California and the additional flow created by "tolling" and extra capacity will go up in smog!

Tomorrow we will view and respond to Volume II of the Panel Discussion.

Hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. I did. Don't leave it up to the politicians, the experts, the pundits, the academics, the beauraucrats, the self-serving journalists (hawking you wares, huh? What's this? Oprah? ;-). They created the mess in the first place. As this panel discussion will show, they know the least about how to solve it.

L.A. Traffic.. you hearddd [From: ashleeee]
[a girl telling visiting friend(s) that "this is normal."]



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