California's Goofy Train Fixation Could Bankrupt the Country

[Geee]

Human Events:


Ronny and the Daytonas 1964 hit song "G.T.O." ("three deuces and a four-speed, and a 389") was the beach culture anthem to the freedom of convertible cars, the open road, and California's endless summer.

In the '60s, Gov. Pat Brown didn't talk about building infrastructure, he built it. On time and on budget. Especially the freeways. California's population exploded but Brown, and Ronald Reagan after him, kept building ahead of need the finest freeway system in the world.

Pat's son Jerry and California's liberal elites decided in the 1970s that the party was over. Era of Limits. The population kept coming, but the infrastructure investment stopped. The freeways were canceled but people kept buying cars. The environmental movement triumphed. Congestion, frustration and pollution followed.

Not to worry. California's liberal elites had the solution: Back to the future. Cars from the 20th century should be replaced with 19th century trains and trolleys. The liberals brave new world for California meant you had to abandon the GTO and line up for the "new and improved" (union-built and operated) public bus and train systems

California government, after fostering the car culture for decades, did an about-face and started making it as expensive and annoying to own, operate, maintain and park your car as possible. Voter discontent with this betrayal finally surfaced when skyrocketing car registration fees became a principal factor in the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

One of the first train systems built in California in the 1970s was the San Diego Trolley from downtown to the Mexican border. Mayor Pete Wilson's trolley was built frugally on existing train right-of-way, came in on time and almost on budget. It's annual operating budget was nearly covered by fare-paying customers. It was the last such project to meet these criteria.

Expansion of the San Diego Transit (bus and trolley) system in later decades proved costly and ineffective. To this day, less than 4% of commuter traffic is carried on a system that eats up well over half of the transportation dollars allocated to San Diego County.

Undeterred by experience and commuter preference, California planners pushed ahead.

Where else would mass transit work better than in densely developed San Francisco? The Bay Area Rapid Transit trains provided relief for suburban commuters clogging the Golden Gate and Bay bridges during rush hour and sparked a downtown San Francisco office building boom. But buses clogged San Francisco's surface streets, especially in tightly packed areas like the city's famous Chinatown.