Who wants $1.44 billion?

The world population is projected to double from its 2000 figure by 2050. DOUBLE! Urban areas are going to be hardest hit as population grows faster than schools and roads and homes can be built. The only way we can survive this kind of population growth is to change and change fast. But the key is that we can’t stop changing. We’re not moving from point A to point B, it’s not just about taking ten new technological anti-global warming actions. It’s about shifting our slow and steady thinking to something much faster, simpler and smarter. Los Angeles is already in a transportation crisis. We have to think NOW about how to accommodate 50% more people, because in twenty years, they’ll already be here.

A while back, I wrote a letter asking Gov. Schwarzenegger (do you know his name is now included in Microsoft Word’s dictionary?) asking him to support high-speed rail. The proposed train would provide transportation between San Francisco/Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego. His office wrote back:

In November 2006, California voters approved one of the largest bond packages in the state's history. This money represents a considerable down payment on repairing and building our infrastructure and boosting the public services necessary to preserve our quality of life. And, with the tremendous population growth expected for California over the next two decades, the Governor has put forward an even broader proposal that will include funding for flood control, schools, courts and the correctional system.

But the Governor's proposed budget does recognize that high-speed rail is a viable transit option worth exploring for the future, and so it includes $1.2 million for staff support of the High-Speed Rail Authority. He is also willing to consider other potential payment options for such a rail system, including private financing.

So we're not building light rail because we’re still playing catch up trying to build more prisons and schools even though veryone already thinks those two systems are broken and need a major overhaul. Meanwhile, for the last ten years, there’s been a whole staff of people working on a light rail project that isn’t being built. In the private sector, I got laid off after two months without a project! Yet I get a letter saying from my government saying we don’t have enough money to build something we clearly need but rest assured, they've spent $1.2 million x 11 years or $13.2 million on this non-project. WHEW, that's a relief!

I-5 is really the only quick way to get through the state from one end to another. In these summer months, the highway is packed with people all day long and there are only two kinds of travelers: tourists and locals going from Southern California to the Bay Area (there’s not much in between) and trucks hauling stuff from one end of the state to another. I tried to drive up last weekend but the highway patrol closed the northbound 5 for over four hours after a big rig flipped over. Closed! I had to turn around and go home but not before sitting for two and a half hours on the freeway with thousands of other people trying to leave town. Everyone’s car was running the entire time because we would have cooked in the 100-degree heat without air conditioning.

The quickest way to get to San Francisco is to fly. If you plan the trip a month or more in advance, the lowest fare is $120 plus taxes and fees, plus the cost to park at the airport or get a taxi there. But get a last minute flight and it’ll be $250-$300. The flight is only an hour and a half but include the one-hour check-in, the one-hour driving and parking and shuttling to the terminal, and the one-hour on the other end, it’s 4.5 hours. It took me almost 7 hours to drive but at the right time it can take only 5 and it costs three tanks of gas or $120.

CalPirg estimates that “between 2000 and 2020, traffic on I-5 between San Diego and Los Angeles will increase 64 percent and between Los Angeles and Bakersfield will increase 56 percent” and light rail decreases overall oil use by 20%. Amtrak’s existing train along the coast takes TWELVE hours to travel from LA to SF and costs more than flying and yet they expect to triple their customers to 12 million riders by 2020. By comparison, the high-speed rail would take 2.5 hours and is easy and comfortable and people would be willing to pay $120 for the ticket!

According to an article in Wired, transportation is the single biggest household expense in the U.S. at 18%. The average American spends $8,344 per household on transportation, compared to $7,432 for shelter. That makes transportation a pretty good business to be in, so why isn’t anyone stepping up to build the light rail? 12 million estimated rail customers x $120 per ticket is $1.44 billion per year. Any takers?