I was very disappointed with the
comments of Mr. Peter Naghavi, Transportation
Director for the City of Costa Mesa, as reported in
your front-page article of July 19. Mr. Naghavi said,
"Right now we're behind other areas, like the
East Coast, that already have developed mass transit."
You seem to have attributed to him the concept that,
"Customers would ride these mass transit systems
to make short trips, like those to the local grocery
store."
Goatwash. Southern California pioneered
the most advanced form of mass transportation known
to man, the multi-faceted road system, including
arterials, expressways, and freeways. Unfortunately,
we have lost sight of our heritage and our road
systems have not kept pace with our population. But
the solution is to repair and expand our roads,
certainly not to go back to old ideas from the 19th
century.
We couldn't build enough mass transit
systems in a hundred years to allow everyone to go
directly to the grocery of their choice. The rail
systems that have been proposed won't handle even one
percent of the trips people in Orange County make
daily. And, like Irvine's Great Pork, no one talks
about their true cost, ignoring the fact that fares
wouldn't cover half of operational expense, let alone
capital cost.
California has always been a semi-mythical
place, from the Spanish explorers on. One reason has
been that people from elsewhere look at California as
a land of limitless possibilities. It has been, and
can still be. This is a big place; we certainly
haven't run out of space.
But we do seem to have run out of
optimism about our future. Instead of finding new
solutions to problems, too many of us act as though
history is over and our task now is to make do with
what we already have. This attitude shows not only in
our approach to roads, but also in the electricity
and water problems we face.
Transportation officials have become an
inbred species. They talk to others in the same field
and reinforce each other's bad attitudes. They
treat motorists as too dumb to be allowed to drive
efficiently or safely without special provisions by
the traffic "engineers". It's time for our
elected officials to stand up to the bureaucrats and
show that they believe in the people. Bring back
optimism!
Dave Close
Costa Mesa
