Our
View: L.A. needs sky high transportation
Hey, Cal State Long Beach. Are you stuck on the 405 going 4 to 5 mph? Is it taking
you hours to get anywhere in Greater Los Angeles?
Chances are most, if not all, of you have dealt with and survived the infamous
Southern California traffic. Despite our great land of sublime weather and geographic
diversity, the downside of our daily lives is the congestion of cars on our roads
and freeways.
But there is a solution and it’s not what you might be expecting. No, it’s
not to widen or add new freeways. No, it’s not to add toll taxes (thankfully).
It’s not even to expand bus routes.
L.A. should build monorails — public ones. They’re not just for Disneyland
anymore.
Due to its history dominated by the use of automobile and invention and reliance
on freeways, Greater L.A. has horrible, inefficient public transportation compared
to other metropolitan areas. Combine that history with 18 million people strong
primarily using cars and you have a big mess.
Monorails could alleviate the problem. But don’t take our word for it.
Take Ray Bradbury’s, the famous science fiction author of “Fahrenheit
451” and other stories. On Feb. 5, the Los Angeles Times published a short
opinion piece by Bradbury in which he outlined a need for public monorails.
According to Bradbury, there have been discussions lately to build a subway running
between downtown L.A. and Santa Monica. The problem is subways are expensive,
take too long to build and have the potential to impede local businesses by restricting
customer access.
L.A. is not New York, London or Moscow. Bradbury is right when he said subways
are meant for colder climates like those cities; places where at this time of
year snow falls and outside is not exactly the best place to be.
L.A. does not have that problem. People here like to be outside. Today, Long
Beach is expected to have a high of nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit according to
Weather.com. New York’s high is 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Let New Yorkers
be underground.
We’ll be outside, waiting in the sun for the monorail and enjoying the
view if the smog clears.
Building another subway would be too expensive. Common knowledge tells us digging
holes and excavating them to build things costs a lot of money. Building rails
in the sky, however, is considerably cheaper.
“
The monorail is extraordinary in that it can be built elsewhere and then
carried in and installed in mid-street with little confusion and no destruction
of businesses. In a matter of a few months, a line could be built from
Long Beach…to the mountains with little disturbance to citizens and
no threat to local businesses,” Bradbury noted.
Doh! For the record, no, dear “Simpsons” fans. The Daily Forty-Niner
will not break into song hailing the monorail and L.A. will not be coaxed into
buying a faulty, dangerous monorail for Angelenos.
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