Lack of PLANning
Headline from the front page of today's paper:
"Highway of future could be a tunnel." Because of
the scarcity and consequent high value of land in
southern California, highway engineers have been
increasingly considering the viability of
underground tunnels for freeway expansion. A tunnel
project is under consideration to close a
longstanding 4.5-mile gap in the Interstate 710
freeway in Los Angeles. A similar project is on the
table in San Diego to divert traffic from the
Coronado Bridge to North Island Naval Air Station
underground to relieve overburdened surface
streets.
I find such ideas compelling, to say the least.
I have often dreamed of a long, exit-less
expressway that cuts directly through L.A., a true
"free"-way for those of us who just want to get
from one end of L.A. to the other. Though I hadn't
envisioned such a route as a tunnel, it would
probably be the easiest way to do it—and with
real estate prices at astronomical levels, it might
even be the cheapest way.
Discussion of building tunnels where the surface
can no longer accommodate ever-widening freeways
seems a creative approach to solving California's
traffic problems (setting aside the obvious
earthquake concerns). But it ignores the underlying
problem; it treats the symptom while overlooking
the illness. There are, quite simply, too many
people here.
We can rape the land to build thousands of more
cookie-cutter homes. We can spend billions of
dollars boring through clay to build underground
freeways that will themselves be jammed at rush
hour as soon as they're built. We can continue to
allow droves of transplants to move here when the
sewer, transportation and utility infrastructures
can barely handle the current load. But the only
way to truly solve the problem is to stop people
from moving here.
I've watched this sleepy beach town become
an urban sprawl over the past 15 years. Returning
last summer after living in L.A. for several years,
I couldn't believe the traffic problems and
over-development that now plagues San Diego. And
the problems show no sign of abating.
At one time, a group named Prevent Los
Angelization Now (PLAN) did what it could to keep
San Diego off the course down which it has already
made significant headway. Unfortunately, PLAN met
the same fate as thousands of acres of open space
did. In this town, land developers are the new
robber barons. They rule this city. Underground
freeways may be a feasible, if costly, solution to
the region's traffic woes. But as long as acre
after acre after acre falls under the bulldozer's
blade to make way for 20,000 more homes and the
attendant Starbucks on every corner, they'll have
as much a long-term effect as an aspirin for
someone with a brain tumor.
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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