Light rail is just a giant hungry caterpillar. Or a grimy burrowing earthworm.
You didn’t know? Yes, according to people in Vancouver, Wash., the public transit system—whether it is crawling above or below ground—would chew through the natural element of the downtown area and leave a trail of dirty crime.
Hundreds of them showed up at a public hearing on what was supposed to be a new $4.2 billion proposal to replace the I-5 bridge. Instead, protests on an extended form of public transportation started clanking louder than an El train car moving full speed through the downtown Loop in Chicago. It would connect Portland, Ore., with Vancouver.
“The line ought to be drawn at the river because I do fear the crime that Portland is experiencing with the system, as well as increased taxes,” Vancouver resident Robert Ross told The Oregonian.
“I do not want the current atmosphere and present community in downtown Vancouver to be erased,” Suzan Hoffmann added. “I do not want to live in a downtown urban setting like Portland. If I did, I’d move there.”
Wow, I did not know gas was locked in at $1.99 a gal in Vancouver. If that was the case I am betting anyone from Portland would be locked up for trying to take advantage of the deal. Hey, I just thought of a great tag line for the city limits sign: “Welcome to Vancouver. We’re No Portland.”
If I could close down La-La Land for just a moment here and get a little serious. The fact of the matter is gas will never again be under $3 a gal. In fact, we are looking at $7 a gal by the end of 2009. I bet when it reaches that level some of those protestors in Vancouver would be willing to lay the track themselves.
In a press conference in Chicago in mid-June, the head of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Jim Oberstar, stressed that the model here in the U.S. needed to mimic Europe’s. He also brought up the $14.4 billion spending bill for Amtrak over the next five years as Congress’ commitment to “move Amtrak into a new era.”
Boy, urban transit must feel like it is left holding a dying corsage at the prom. If you ask me, it has been stood up one too many times—and is being dumped once again. Dwight D. Eisenhower has been labeled a transportation visionary like no other for his plan of a national interstate system. But on top of moving goods and services, as well as nuclear warheads, that vision should have been locked on shifting people quickly and efficiently. When he was over in Germany admiring the effects of the autobahn, he should have made a side trip to soak in the beauty of the Metro in Paris.
Instead, transit in most urban centers has been injected with anti-growth hormones. They did talk about other congestion-relieving alternatives at the I-5 bridge hearing. A Westside bypass of downtown Portland was mentioned, as well as widening I-5 in central and southern Portland, making better use of I-205 as a freight route and constructing an 8-mile elevated freeway from Vancouver to Portland.
Notice there was not another mention of transit. Don’t they know that caterpillars turn into butterflies and earthworms enrich the earth?
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