Holding out hope (but not my breath)

The people have spoken, and last Tuesday we declared our position: We hate traffic. We hate congestion. We hate polluting our Earth.

Passage of Measure R and Proposition 1A clearly shows that we have hope — hope that transportation change is coming; hope that our daily commute will become shorter, less rage-inducing and cheaper; hope that California will lead the nation in becoming the first state with high-speed bullet-train service connecting the major metropolitan areas; hope that our existing mass-transit systems can be expanded so that we can take a subway to the sea and get to San Francisco in 2.5 hours without leaving the ground.

I share these hopes with the millions of voters who turned out to support both of these initiatives. I live for those rare occasions when traffic is so light that you almost wonder if you missed the memo announcing National Do Not Drive Day. Unfortunately for me though, I’m lacking in the patience department, and though passing Measure R and Proposition 1A do indicate that change is coming, many changes will certainly not be felt by any of us for quite some time.

According to californiahighspeedtrains.com, construction of the first rail tracks for the high-speed trains connecting San Francisco and LA “could begin as early as 2011.”  Sweet. I especially like the use of the word “could.” That means that if all goes well (as I’m inclined to expect with an undertaking of this magnitude), we might break ground right around the time we’re starting to look at electing a new president.

As for changes from passage of Measure R, Pasadena may actually see results soon, relatively speaking, of course. According to the proposed expenditure plans available on metro.net, funds should be available for the Gold Line Eastside Light Rail Access in fiscal year 2010, making the Gold Line more accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists. The proposed completion date for that is slated to be in fiscal year 2013. Yippee! No, we’re not getting a new line. We’re just making it more accessible, and it will only take four years.

But the Gold Line Foothill Light Rail Transit Extension, extending it toward Claremont, should also have funding available beginning in fiscal years 2010 and 2012, with a proposed completion date between fiscal years 2015 and 2017. 

Other improvements included in Measure R should help ease traffic, including new left-turn traffic signals, signal synchronization, major street resurfacing, pothole repair, bikeway installations and pedestrian improvements. Funds for this work will also be available in fiscal year 2010 with an estimated completion date of fiscal year 2039. Heck, that’s just around the corner!

Of course, these and all other projects included in Measure R are subject to revisions and postponements at the discretion of the MTA, which ultimately decides which projects will take priority. And although I am hopeful that change is coming, my knee-jerk reaction is that LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s subway to the sea dream is going to supersede the rail improvements in Pasadena.

But back to the message of hope. I sincerely do hope that Pasadenans are rewarded with transportation improvements in proportion to the amount of money that we agreed to contribute by voting for the sales tax increase. I also hope that when the high-speed trains are actually up and running (probably around the time I go to try to collect Social Security, only to be told that I’m living in the new Dark Ages), that people actually use them. To that end, I hope that Proposition 1A’s promise to make high-speed train service affordable comes true.

Only time will tell if our votes will make a positive difference to traffic congestion. Impatient though I am, I will continue to hold out hope (but not my breath) that we made the right decisions in passing Prop 1A and Measure R.

Who knows? By the time all this work is completed, maybe we’ll have ceased making same-sex couples ride in the proverbial back of the bus and let them on the high-speed trains with everyone else.

Contact Jennifer Hadley at jmhadley624@yahoo.com.