Dispatches from the War on Cars

'Let’s Go! San Diego' Is a Golden (and maybe our last) Opportunity

“Small but loud” is how a local TV News story described a group of Pacific Beach residents who successfully halted a city street calming project involving putting up traffic-calming barriers or bollards on Diamond Street.

Among the claims being made against the project, along with the usual private property trumps public good arguments, was that slower cars equal more pollution. If this group really cared about this topic, their now-canceled protest involving driving cars very slowly on Diamond Street was the height of hypocrisy. 

Here’s Scott Chipman, a long-time resident of Pacific Beach, quoted in the Fox News story:

• “It’s fine exactly the way it is. What problem are we solving here?” asked Chipman. “It’s just some environmental symbolism that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”

This whole “fast streets” business stinks to high heaven. Why would anybody with children, for instance, oppose a reduction of traffic and slower speeds in their neighborhood? I read this as a few people inconvenienced shutting down a project aimed at the common good. 

Side note: Perhaps calm streets projects wouldn’t be so necessary if people didn’t treat residential streets as their personal raceway, or there was a consensus that bicyclists and pedestrians matter, or if right on red didn’t mean mash the accelerator. 

Here’s how Ryan Stock, vice president of the nonprofit beautifulPB, described the situation in a KPBS story:

• "We're talking about two intersections where you can no longer take a left turn in a private vehicle — that's it," Stock said. "That's like the bare minimum we can do to encourage more biking and running and other users of the street."

• Researchers from UC San Diego evaluated an earlier version of the traffic calming measures on Diamond Street, which were installed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage safe outdoor recreation and exercise. They measured a 56% decrease in vehicular traffic volumes on Diamond Street, but only a 36% increase in volumes on a parallel control street.

• They also measured a 41% increase in pedestrian activity and a 231% increase in biking.

Whoa. Calming worked. So what we’re really dealing with is the dark underbelly of NIMBYism. 

We really need to do something to ensure the rights of people using all manner of transportation. Pedestrian deaths rose a troubling 77% between 2010 and 2021, compared to a 25% rise in all other traffic fatalities. And those folks opposing changes need to get home faster.

One of the ways car-ists brush off pedestrian and bicycle deaths is with smart assed comments about smartphones being the problem. In Europe, where stricter laws discourage monster SUV and truck use, most countries are seeing declining pedestrian deaths.

Attempts in San Diego County for ballot measures involving incremental sales tax increases to fund mass transit infrastructure are mostly doomed to fail; partly because of the two thirds approval needed hurtle and partly because of the sacred cow nature of personal transportation aka autos.

We have a car and truck problem. And a traffic problem. And a parking problem. Many local political leaders believe the only viable solution to our ongoing rush hour traffic jams is to add to road capacity; additional lanes, sometimes paired with restrictions or tolls. 

Transportation improvement projects county-wide, according to SANDAG, are slated to cost almost $19 billion in 2023, with a lion’s share going to freeway upkeep and expansion. 

The underlying issue with our transportation challenges is the basic assumption that automobiles (or something like that) are foundational for our economy, our politics, and our culture. All the arguments against changing the way we get around start with the supremacy of cars in our corner of the universe.

Even as more fuel efficient/electric vehicles enter the marketplace, the corporations with a vested interest in the way things are now are working hard to undermine expectations of the future for their product lines.

Fuel economy standards don’t mean much when car manufacturers are selling the public on increasingly large vehicles exempt from stricter standards. If you drive a sedan on freeways visibility is limited by the height and width of monster trucks and SUVs. It’s getting ridiculous.

While San Diego has fiddled away time on the eve of dire weather events brought on by climate change, Los Angeles has completed a light rail project enabling riders to travel on one train nearly 50 miles from Azusa to Long Beach via the A line or East Los Angeles to Santa Monica via the E line. It wasn’t easy, but regional governments persisted.

From the Los Angeles Times:

• It took nearly a decade to build the $1.8-billion rail route. The four-stop, subterranean light-rail line was three years behind schedule and $335 million over budget. Initial funding for the project came from the 2008 Measure R half-cent sales tax, but the bulk of the money came from nearly $1 billion in federal funding. State dollars helped close the gap.

What I believe will be San Diego’s last stab at enabling a functional transit system is underway, as a citizens group backed by labor unions is circulating petitions for Let’s Go! San Diego, a comprehensive program to fund multiple modes of transportation. Since this effort is privately funded, the margin needed to win is 50% plus one vote.

With voter approval in 2024, Let’s Go! San Diego will fund repairs and updates to transportation infrastructure throughout all of San Diego County, including: 

• fixing roads and potholes; 

• adding carpool lanes; 

• expanding bus and rail services; 

• fixing the crumbling coastal rail line; 

• adding an airport rail connection; 

• making safety improvements to bridges, sidewalks, and bike lanes

• ensuring transit passes are affordable for seniors, youth, and the disabled. 

Needless to say, with organized labor’s backing the measure, these investments will be built via local union jobs in construction and transit operations. (And for those who would blow raspberries about union backing, I would challenge them to come up with a doable plan to get a project on the ballot.)

At a press conference this week, the group released polling promising strong support for their ballot measure’s aims.

• “Overall, fifty-nine percent of respondents support the measure. Additionally, fifty-eight percent believe the city needs additional investments in public transit, and seventy percent want to see improvements in our region’s roads.”. 

Let’s Go! San Diego gathered over 15,000 signatures in its first week of canvassing, putting the ahead of schedule to get 102,000 valid signatures qualifying the measure by the November 29 deadline.

***

Moving Through Some Other Headlines

***

“Moms for Liberty chapter apologizes for quoting Hitler in its newsletter,” Via the Associated Press.

• Some who encountered the newsletter interpreted Moms for Liberty’s use of the quote as a tacit endorsement for Hitler and his beliefs. Moms for Liberty has faced criticism for its activism against school inclusion, including trying to remove books related to race and gender identity from school libraries.

• “It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that the largest anti-student inclusion movement organization has allegedly used a quote from one of the appalling figureheads in history,” said Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director of research, reporting and analysis for the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. The center labeled Moms for Liberty as an “anti-government extremist” group in its 2022 annual report.

• Moms for Liberty has come under increasing national scrutiny as it has become a power player in Republican politics. Five presidential candidates plan to speak —- and several grassroots groups plan to protest —- at the group’s annual summit in Philadelphia next week.

***

Opinion: California might have thousands of cops who are unfit to wear a badge. This is why Via The Los Angeles Times. Waaay overdue.

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce — comprising some 39 million Americans — is regulated by certification or licensing. Not just lawyers and doctors but also plumbers and makeup artists are regulated and investigated by state agencies that oversee their licensing. But in California, until this year, cosmetologists armed with cuticle scissors were more vulnerable to delicensing than police officers able to deploy lethal force.

• That is no longer the case, thanks to a successful push for similar legislation the following year. As a result, the newly empowered police standards commission recently estimated that it could decertify or suspend up to 3,500 police officers each year for serious misconduct. According to a commission budget request, approximately 4% of the roughly 90,000 officers working in California are expected to be decertified or suspended for serious misconduct such as sexual assault, excessive force and perjury.

***

Orwellian Language and the Moral Perversion of American Politics Via blogger Jan Resseger (H/T Thomas Ultican)

• We ought to take some time linguistically to reflect on the meaning of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” as  Orwellian language.  When our lawmakers ban “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” are they endorsing separation and segregation, inequality, and exclusion? Or are politicians simply employing the phrase to fan the fears of voters who are uncomfortable in our multicultural society?

• We need to demand that our politicians be precise in their choice of words. When they try to ban “diversity, equity and inclusion,” what is it about our society that our politicians are rejecting, what kind of bigotry are they appealing to in an effort to get elected, and what sort of barriers are they trying to impose?

***

NOT A GUILT TRIP. Unlike many other Substack authors, I don’t count on subscriptions to fund my efforts. But if you should decide to commit to a paid subscription, I’ll use it to support many of the deserving  newsletters providing me with useful analysis and information. Just hit the “subscribe” button and do what feels right.

Currently, I pay monthly for: The Present Age (Molloy Parker), Popular Information (Judd Legum), Men Yell At Me (Lyz), Spy Talk (Jeff Stein), Jill Filipovic. I have free subscriptions to a bunch of other Substack Newsletters, and would like to convert some of them to paid. 

Just hit the “subscribe” button and do what feels right. –Thank you

You can follow me at:

• Post —→DougPorter@wordsdeedsblogger

• Tribel ——> DougP Porter@dougporter506

• Mastodon ——> DougPorter506@mastodon.social

• Spoutible —>@dougporter506 

• Facebook —----> https://www.facebook.com/WordsAndDeedsBlog

Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com