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 nyone who makes the statement that "People can't
be coaxed out of their cars" is unaware that they can
be coaxed. Commuters are neither stupid nor stubborn. Provide
people with a transit system that meets most of their needs,
as well as enabling them to get to and from their destination
in less time than they can drive, and they will use that system.
The greater the time saving, the greater the patronage.
 Imagine
San Diego with an integrated transit system that enabled you
to ride from Oceanside or Carlsbad to downtown San Diego in 15
minutes, rain or shine, at any time of the day or night.
If you commute
to and from Temecula, it would take you 15 minutes to get to
Escondido and about 20 minutes more to catch a plane at Lindberg
Field, whether it was 8 AM on a wet Monday or 6am on Sunday.
The system would provide you with the capability to get from
Descanso to the University Town Center in 30 minutes. Disneyland
would be 20 minutes from Oceanside. Add up to 20 minutes to these
times to use the local feeder service, and it still beats driving
your own car.
Consider that
the ride is community friendly, quiet, vibrationless (there are
no moving parts), nonpolluting, very reliable, very safe and
FAST. Would you use it?
Is this a
pipe dream? No! The technology exists. In fact, the system was
invented over 30 years ago and approved by the US Department
of Transportation for use in the Northeast Corridor (Washington,
Boston, New York). It is a magnetic levitated and propelled train
called Maglev. A prototype model was tested, but under pressure
from special transportation interests, the program was terminated
by Congress.
Now, SCAG,
the Southern California Association of Governments (Los Angeles,
Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside) has selected Maglev
for their regional transit system. Their Metrolink train system
has proven too costly and does not attract sufficient passengers
because it is too slow.
One proposed
link would connect Riverside (March Airforce Base) and San Diego
along the I-15 freeway. They have asked for San Diego's support
in securing federal funds to build the system. SANDAG, with its
usual "hemming and hawing" wants more studies comparing
steel wheel rail and Maglev.
Over the past
30 years, studies have shown that such transit systems attract
private financing, are cheaper to build and maintain than other
modes of transit, and will pay all operating costs while repaying
some of the interest-bearing bonds. If they are designed to also
carry freight, the cost-benefits markedly improve.
The State
of California's High Speed Rail Authority is charged with the
responsibility to develop a system linking Sacramento, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, and San Diego. They too have been analyzing conventional
steel wheel on steel rail systems for over 5 years, and still
have not made up their minds. It seems every politician and transit
bureaucrat is afraid of technology. In the meantime, the Germans
and Japanese have committed themselves to Maglev. In fact, SCAG
is favoring the German "Transrapid" design.
This country
has made tremendous progress in almost every industry except
transportation. Automobiles and busses are basically the same
as they were a hundred years ago. Electric and internal combustion
engines may be far more powerful and efficient, but they are
still electric or internal combustion engines propelling cars
with sleeker lines. Steel wheeled trains traveling on steel rails
are still driven by steam, diesel or electric engines that have
been around for over a hundred years. We deserve better than
this. 
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