California Transportation Commission
Day 22 - Thursday, July 22, 1999
As I begin my fourth week of self-imposed transit dependency I find myself glancing at the calendar wondering when this will all end. If my counting is correct, there are only nine days left. Not having access to an automobile is (to use a 1980's term), the pits. The fact is, I can't wait to get my car back.
But having access to a car doesn't mean to you should use it all the time. In fact, some people's refusal to use public transportation any time, any place or any where has to be a major cause of traffic congestion and air pollution. Somewhere there must be a middle ground between transit dependency and transit avoidance. When my month of purgatory is over, I want to find that middle ground and settle into a socially responsible routine.
Yesterday I took MTA's Blue Line to Long Beach. The Blue Line is a perfect example of how to do things right, and how to do things wrong. If you haven't ridden on the Blue Line, please do so a few dozen times before finalizing plans for rail transit in your community (I.E. Orange County Transportation Authority Board Members).
What's right about the Blue Line is that it moves tens of thousands of people in and around their neighborhood each day. It roughly parallels the Long Beach Freeway which means that it provides congestion relief on our state highways as well as a clean, fast alternative to driving an automobile. Most of the line is completely separated from automobile traffic.
What's bad about the Blue Line is that some of the line is NOT separated from automobile traffic. It is only partially grade separated and, at its' northern terminus in Los Angeles, and especially at its' southern terminus in Long Beach, it traverses regular city streets.
When the Blue Line reaches Long Beach, it drops down onto Long Beach Boulevard and stops at every traffic light just like everyone else. The result is a maddening stop, go, stop, go, stop, go with interminable waits for perpendicular traffic to get out of the way.
The solution is obvious. Rail transit needs to be separated from other traffic either by being elevated or by being placed under ground. Only when such accommodation is temporarily impossible, should rail and automobiles be combined on the same right of way and then, only until the problem can be fixed.
It's time for the MTA and the City of Long Beach to get the Blue Line off city streets! The bottom line is that if people are willing to make the sacrifice to use public transportation, they should not be required to stop at every traffic light. The glory of traffic lights and surface congestion should be reserved for people who don't use public transportation.
More tomorrow...
Day 23 - Friday, July 23, 1999
Eight days to go, and counting!
This afternoon I took MTA's Red Line to Union Station and then Metrolink's commuter train home to Orange County. The Red Line was right on time but our Metrolink train was about 20 minutes late getting into Santa Ana. The primary reason for our tardiness into Santa Ana was that there was an Amtrak train ahead of us blocking the tracks with what our conductor called a "medical emergency."
Now all kinds of emergencies and other bad things happen when you are trying to run a railroad. And, it's a fact of life, that if a train can't maneuver around another stopped train, then everyone just sits and waits for the obstruction to be cleared. The answer, of course, are passing tracks and other operational improvements so as not to slow down traffic which comes upon the problem.
Caltrans is spending, or has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars improving passenger train signals and tracks. While substantial gains have been made, we have a long, long way to go. But, as I said yesterday, if people are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to take public transportation, the least we can do is make sure they are not delayed by stop lights and traffic congestion. Add parked Amtrak trains to that list.
For the commuter who lives in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside or Orange Counties Metrolink is a blessing. While the trains are quite full, I am amazed that even more people don't use it. Maybe there are a lot of people who don't know how convenient Metrolink is and for those of us who do, well we're not talking!
Of course, like any enterprise, Metrolink needs to manage its growth. If, all of a sudden, thousands of additional passengers showed up one day, the system could collapse. That wouldn't be good for anyone.
More tomorrow...
Day 24 - Saturday, July 24, 1999
Seven days left, and counting.Today was the first day this month that I didn't ride on either a bus or a train. But I didn't drive a single occupant vehicle either. That fact is, I didn't do much of anything. Sorry to be so boring but it was just one of those days.
More tomorrow...
Day 25 - Sunday, July 25, 1999
Six days left, and counting.
Today I proved that there are some places in California where you just can't take public transportation. And an Indian reservation in the middle of Riverside County happens to be one of them.
In my real life, I'm an attorney and some of my clients live and/or work on Indian reservations. Today, along with two others, I had promised to meet with some of them at their facility in the middle of the desert. After about a half hour of trying to figure out how to get there using public transportation, I just gave up. We car pooled instead!
As I mentioned earlier, being 100% transit dependent is really awful. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. If my clients, for example, didn't have access to a car, they would be totally stranded because I have yet to find any public transportation on an Indian reservation.
But just because you have access to an automobile doesn't mean that you have to use it all the time. Today, we had to drive. There was no choice. But instead of the three of us taking three separate cars, we met in downtown Los Angeles and drove out and back together in one car.
To get to downtown, I took the Amtrak inter city train from Santa Ana to Los Angeles and then the MTA # 60 bus from Union Station to my apartment on Bunker Hill. I changed my clothes and took a later MTA # 60 bus further downtown to my office. I would normally have taken a Dash Bus but they don't operate on Sundays.
Next week will be a busy transit week for me. I'll be at UCLA each day for either my class or the Mercedes-Benz Cup Tennis matches which are being held on campus. In addition, I have an appointment in Woodland Hills on Thursday and I plan to take the bus.
As I wind down my month's experiment, I am still hoping that the Bus Riders Union will e-mail me a list of the bus lines they think are particularly troublesome. While I have had to stand a few times this month, I have never had to stand more than about 10 minutes at a time. And, while the service could be improved, it's not so bad that I would sue over it.
More tomorrow...
Day 26 - Monday, July 26, 1999
Five days left, and counting.
Went to UCLA last night for the tennis tournament and saw USA's Michael Chang begin his long comeback towards the top ten. He beat some guy from Zimbabwe 6-3, 6-1. Of course, as promised, I took the bus both ways.
Memo to the State Legislature: Would you like a couple of modest suggestions to improve public transit?
FIRST: Pass a law giving transit busses the right of way. That's to say, when a bus has pulled over to pick up or discharge a passenger and has its signal on to get back into traffic, people should slow down and let the bus back in. If they don't, they should get a ticket. And if they honk their horn and shake their fist at the bus driver, as too many people do, they should be extradited to Arkansas.
Also, when a transit bus is trying to change lanes or make a left hand turn, they should have the right of way over automobiles.
SECOND: Make it a capital offense to park in a bus loading zone. Well, not really a capital offense. Just impound the vehicle and sell it to the highest bidder. The money could go to the Public Transit Account to provide more transit services.
There really is NO EXCUSE for parking in a bus loading zone. I witnessed the ultimate indignity on my way to UCLA last night. A City of West Hollywood "Parking Enforcement" vehicle was parked in the bus zone on Sunset Boulevard.
Imagine, the man (or woman) responsible for enforcing parking regulations in the City of West Hollywood was actually illegally parked in a bus zone! It boggles the mind.
My MTA busses were on time last night. Thank you, everyone!
More tomorrow...
Day 27 - Tuesday, July 27, 1999
Four days left, and counting.
Well, lets get the important things out of the way first!
Both Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi won last night at the Mercedes-Benz Cup tennis matches at UCLA. And, the MTA Bus # 2 to and from Downtown Los Angeles stops less than 1 block from the entrance to the tennis courts.
Is this a great country, or what?
I received an e-mail from Alan Avila, a transit rider in Sacramento who reminded me that I have not mentioned the word "Greyhound" since beginning my odyssey earlier this month. He points out that Greyhound offers non-stop service between Sacramento and San Francisco which, while generally perceived as being less glamorous, is actually superior to the Capitol Corridor trains in terms of price, reliability and travel time.
When I lived in Sacramento, I used to take the Greyhound to San Francisco all the time. I agree, the service is very convenient and these days with HOV lanes on Interstate 80, I can understand why it's faster than the train.
Which brings up a very good point.
If the train isn't faster than driving, why take the train?
A perfect example is the train service up the hill between Roseville and Colfax. Clearly bus or van service is quicker and less expensive. That might explain why ridership on this segment of the train is perpetually in single digits.
The most heavily utilized Amtrak route West of the Washington D.C. - New York City corridor is the San Diegan service between Los Angeles and San Diego. With additional track and signal improvements, running time could easily be reduced to two hours or less.
As everyone knows, you can't lawfully drive between those two cities in two hours or less and by the time you get to and from the airport, you can't fly in that amount of time either.
That should be our goal. Where trains can run faster than busses or airplanes, we should run trains. Where they can't, we should reassess our priorities.
More tomorrow...
Day 28 - Wednesday, July 28, 1999
Three days left, and counting.
Well, if I were ever to do this again, I would choose to do it in February. There are only 28 days in February (usually), and that would mean that after today, I would be through.
But alas, I chose July so I have three days more to go.
I went to UCLA again tonight for the tennis matches. Pete Sampras won in straight sets and has made it to the Quarterfinals. So has Michael Chang. Agassi plays tomorrow night.
By the way, the stars were out last night including Johnny Carson, Brooke Shield, Daisy Fuentes, William Shatner, etc. I didn't ask, but I don't think any of them took public transportation.
If you don't know who Daisy Fuentes is, ask any 17 year old boy.
I took the MTA Red Line to Hollywood & Vine and then the MTA # 2 to UCLA's tennis facility. A reporter and a photographer for the Los Angeles Times tagged along to see what all the fuss was about. I hope I didn't make them mad by making them ride the bus.
I took the MTA # 2 back to my apartment after the match, transferring to the MTA # 60 at Sunset and Figueroa.
Tomorrow I take the MTA # 427 to Woodland Hills. I am meeting Acting Caltrans District Director Bob Sassaman and we are going to discuss the Route 101/405 interchange and other Caltrans projects in the San Fernando Valley with the editorial board of the Los Angeles Daily News.
See, I'm multi-modal! I can talk about highways for a few minutes if I have to.
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed reading my journal half as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I really appreciate all the various e-mail messages I have received during the month. At the very least they made me know that people were out there and that they care about the state of public transit.
More tomorrow...
Day 29 - Thursday, July 29, 1999
Two days left, and counting.
Today I took the MTA # 429 from Los Angeles to Woodland Hills. For those of you not familiar with the City of Los Angeles, Woodland Hills is a community in the far reaches of the San Fernando Valley. It's just about as far away from LA's City Hall as you can get and still be within the City limits.
Actually, Woodland Hills looks a lot like where I come from in Orange County, but without the beach. Its buildings are new, its streets are wide, its shopping is trendy, the busses were almost empty and a lot of the cars there were built in Germany.
I was in Woodland Hills with Acting Caltrans District Director Bob Sassaman to meet with the Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Daily News. The LA Daily News has been running stories over the past few years about the horrible traffic Valley residents must endure... especially at the confluence of Routes 101 and 405. We wanted to talk with them about the problems.
My bus was right on time. We left downtown Los Angeles at 8:11 A.M. and I reached my destination (about a city block from the newspaper) at 8:54. Bob was there to meet me and we were actually able to start our meeting a few minutes early.
The Valley (my apologies to those in the Fresno area who think theirs is the only REAL Valley) does have serious transportation problems, there is no doubt about that. But, according to Caltrans' Sassaman, the fault lies primarily in the fact that one or more freeways planned for the area were never built, and yet, the population continues to grow.
Today, there are really only three major freeways traversing across the Valley floor. The 101, the 405 and the 5. I suppose you might count the 210 as a fourth one, but it's pretty far North. Also, a couple of short freeways such as the 134 and the 170 are available if you happen to be in the right place at the right time.
Sassaman said that another major freeway was on the books years ago but was removed by the political leaders of the day. It's too late now, the right-of-way has been sold. Homes, schools, parks and businesses have been built where the extra freeway was supposed to be.
Sassaman also said that people's driving habits have changed...for the worse. The freeways, he said, were designed for long trips. Shorter trips were supposed to be taken on the Valley's wide surface streets. But alas, the freeways are so popular, they are being used for both long and short trips alike.
And then I remember the High Occupancy Vehicle lane (HOV) flap in the 1980's.
There was a Valley legislator named Marion LaFollette. She hated HOV lanes and, in one of her rare legislative accomplishments, was able to persuade her colleagues to prohibit Caltrans from building them in the Valley. I don't know if that law is still on the books but it sure is the cause of a lot of headaches today.
With a growing population and no availability to build additional freeways, the Valley is going to have to adopt some form of mass transit. Be it rail, bus or HOV lanes, something has to be done and the solution would be best if it came from the Valley residents themselves. Maybe the Daily News can help get them organized.
Caltrans engineers can make some improvements to the existing freeways, and they will. But the long term solution, like almost everywhere else, is to get Valley residents out of their cars at least one day a week.
As I've said before, if everyone took public transportation to get to and from work just one day a week, commuter related congestion and pollution would be reduced by 20%.
More tomorrow...
Day 30 - Friday, July 30, 1999
Uno mas, and counting.
The Los Angeles Times ran a story today by Staff Writer Bob Pool about my journal and printed it, together with the CTC's web site address, on page 1 of its Metro Section. As a result, over 100 people logged on, read my journal and e-mailed me their reactions. To those of you who took the time to e-mail me, thanks. I have read every one of your comments.
While many of the e-mails were thoughtful and important, one in particular caught my eye. It was from Peter Adams, a student at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a member of that institution's environmental study group.
By way of background, the Times article was headlined "Experiment With Public Transit Becomes Ordeal." The sub-headline read "Transportation: State commissioner spends July carless, navigating the Southland by train and bus. It's an eye-opening trip."
Mr. Adams read the article and my journal. He wrote:
"...(Y)our experiment clearly indicates to me that LA lags far behind most other cities. The fact that using public transportation is an experiment for an interested public official, rather than a habit for the population at large speaks volumes about how public transportation has not been effective in Southern California. In the great cities of the east coast, no one would have to 'try out' the public system to see how well it works. It's part of everyday life. Moreover, the numerous frustrations you experienced are much less frequent in those cities."
Adams is quite right, of course.
First, I want to thank both Bob Pool and his bosses at the Los Angeles Times for caring enough about public transportation to run the story. The purpose of my journal was to try to inspire transit operators to improve their busses and trains and the additional publicity will help a great deal.
But can you imagine the New York Times running a story, on page one no less, that a transportation commissioner took a subway or bus? Or can you see the
Chicago Tribune or Washington Post doing the same thing?Of course not! Only in parts of California is public transportation so bad that it's news when someone involved in transportation policy actually eschews an automobile to use it.
And, in a nut shell, I think that's the problem. Throughout most of California, the very people who are in a position to make a difference, don't ride the bus.
The men and women responsible for the day to day management of public transportation are, for the most part, elected officials. They have the transit position BECAUSE they were elected to a City Council or Board of Supervisors.
But in cities and counties from Montague to Holtville, and almost everywhere in between, the ink is hardly dry on their certificate of election before they are given a free parking space at City Hall and either a free car or a car allowance. It is just assumed that they will drive a car in the furtherance of their duties.
A modest suggestion, sure to displease my friends on City Councils and Boards of Supervisors everywhere. Instead of a free parking space and automobile, why not give each official, on the day he or she is elected, a free bus pass?
Two things would happen. The taxpayers would save a lot of money and public transit would get a lot better, and quickly.
This is my penultimate journal entry. For the last time, I say, more tomorrow...
Day 31 - Saturday, July 31, 1999
No mas. This is it!
A few years ago, we were having a terrible problem with our judiciary. Some judges just weren't doing their jobs. They would conduct their trials just fine, but they wouldn't make decisions in a timely manner. Litigants were left to wait and wait to find out who had won and who had lost.
In a modest response to this problem, the California Legislature enactedGovernment Code Section 68210 which reads:
"No judge of a court of record shall receive his salary unless he shall make and subscribe before an officer entitled to administer oaths, an affidavit stating that no cause before him remains pending and undetermined for 90 days after it has been submitted for decision."
Well guess what. With those 46 words, the problem was solved, overnight.
Today we have a problem with our public transportation. The fact is, most members of the governing boards of transit agencies...the very people in the best position to fix problems...don't ride the bus.
Again, I present a very modest proposal. How about adding the following language to Government Code Section 68210?
"(b) No member of a governing board of any transit agency shall receive his or her salary or any other remuneration from any governmental agency in this state unless he or she shall make and subscribe before an officer entitled to administer oaths, an affidavit stating that he or she has used public transportation at least twice within the last 30 days."
I predict that if such a law was passed by our Legislature, public transit in California would improve exponentially. It worked with the Judges. I bet it would work with transit operators as well.
Before I sign off for the final time, I want to thank a few people.
First of all, to DEBRA REED, my wife, a very big THANK YOU. My littleexperiment was hard on me, but harder on her. You see, during the entire month she couldn't count on me to go to the grocery store or help with other household errands. She was very supportive and I appreciate that very much. I want her to know that I'll make up for my unavailability in the months to come.
I also want to thank CTC Executive Director ROBERT REMEN for his advice and wisdom. It was his idea that I keep a daily journal and he arranged to have it posted on the CTC's web site.
CHRIS POMMERENCK of the Department of General Services and MARY LEA FILBERT of the CTC staff took my daily journals and, somehow, made sure they got posted for everyone to read.
PETER HIDALGO of Metrolink knows more about public transportation that just about anyone. He was very helpful in planing my routes and fielding the calls from the media.
Finally, to my law partner CARY DAVIDSON and the attorneys and staff at our law firm, REED & DAVIDSON, for their understanding and support. They all kept the office afloat while I was trekking around Southern California riding busses and trains.
That's All Folks...
Email your comments and questions to: danareed@politicallaw.com
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