I am an auto enthusiast. I grew up outside a rural community in the West,
my father raced cars at Laguna Seca in the 50's + 60's, and I enjoy driving.
A lot. I would much rather drive to the places I commute than fly.
Unfortunately, driving is akin to smoking or burning your own trash (also
things we did growing up). It's fine when you live in a widely dispersed
area, where your hobbies won't infringe on the rights and safety of others.
As the population gets larger and denser, we are infringing on the rights of
the individual to restrict smoking in public, burning your leaves + trash,
and driving - in favor of the community at large. If you have visited large
cities around the world, they hold excellent lessons for where a 3 million
population Twin Cities could go in the next 10, 20, or 30 years. Which one
will Minneapolis become when we "grow up"?
Bangkok, Thailand. A thriving city with high growth in wealth, income, and
technology (plagued by occasional poor monetary policy, but that's a
different topic). Extensive, wide road system, culture that enjoys both
cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and (some) public transit. No mass transit to
speak of. 1,500 new cars PER DAY hit the streets during much of the 1990's
and continues today. Traffic cops wear white surgical dust masks that
blacken with the exhaust fumes after 8 hours on the job. Gridlock is so
high, that the 10km commute from the airport to the central district can
take FOUR HOURS by cab.
Los Angeles - Ripped out the mass transit, now adding it back at an enormous
expense. Anyone who drove a car in LA between, say 1955 and today has
experienced it.
London, England. Huge mass of many cities, really. Excellent + inexpensive
underground system meshed with a world class above ground rail system for
longer trips. Cars on narrow streets are basically cabbies and the wealthy.
I have seen leases on garages go for more than the most expensive houses in
Minneapolis.
There are many other, probably better examples than these three.
By my approximations, the Twin Cities has approximately 1.8m drivers, 2.5m
cars, and 3.0m people. The Twin Cities is projected to add 1.5 million
people over the next 20 years or so. If the ratios stay the same, we'll add
more than 900,000 drivers and 1.2 million vehicles during that period,
roughly 50%+ growth.
Where are they going to drive? Do we add 50% capacity to all the roads?
Kings Highway + the Parkways become 2 lanes in each direction? Lyndale and
Nicollet go from 2 lanes each way to 3? I-394 goes from 3 lanes each way to
5? Does your neighborhood street add another lane? In the long run, we
can't continue to add single passenger vehicles to the mix - society must
change and we must learn to accommodate more efficient modes of
transportation.
A rail line can carry more passenger-miles/hour than any other form of mass
transit. Yes, government doesn't come up with the most efficient or
effective solution. Yes, there are better places for a first rail line than
running to the Mall. But, politicians are elected to make the hard
decisions that we wouldn't necessarily do on our own - we waited too long,
focused on too short a time horizon for our planning, and now we have to
make up for lost time. If we all want to live in one place, we'll have to
figure out a method of transportation that works.
Look to the future - the cost of waiting is only going up.
Kurt Waltenbaugh
ECCO, Ward 10
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sources: 2000 census, http://www.disastercenter.com/traffic/State.htm,
http://www.fairus.org/html/msas/042mnmsp.htm
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