Politics of Urban Growth

A modern philosopher stated that a bird requires two wings to fly, otherwise it goes nowhere. Writing about politics is challenging because its nature is to ignore or discredit an opposing viewpoint.

The advantage of invisibility is the ability to observe. To watch, listen and learn by observing political exchange, knowledge is gained by understanding procedure. Education goes beyond academia.

Urban growth and transportation are very political. As are nearly every aspect of society and life.

One of the highly controversial projects of political process is California’s High-Speed Rail

The California High Speed Rail (CA HSR) project was initiated in the early 1990s from global interest for the rising magnetic levitation (maglev) train technology. The project was influenced by Governor Deukmejian’s Bi-state High Speed Rail project, a privately funded rapid train from Anaheim to Las Vegas.

With the interest towards the innovative maglev form of transportation, it reached the Governor’s office and was deemed as advantageous for California to become the world leader in innovative transportation. A group was appointed to investigate the possibility for California to lead the world in advanced transportation and the California High Speed Rail Commission was appointed to produce a feasibility study.

In 1996, upon fulfilling the task of producing its feasibility study, the California High-Speed Rail Commission sunset-ed. California Governor Pete Wilson then established the California High-Speed Rail Authority to produce a business plan.

In 2001, State Senator Jim Costa pushed legislative bill SB 690 that eliminated the State’s pursuit of maglev technology at that time. The bill stated that California would not consider non-established technology that hasn’t been implemented into public service for a certain amount of time (minimum of 5 years). This terminated the German Transrapid maglev train system technology that had been heavily developed over the previous 30 years and was ready to be fully implemented into public service.

The same Transrapid technology was acquired by the Chinese government in 2000. In 2000 the Chinese government began designing a 19-mile train line and began developing the line from the Shanghai airport to Downtown Pudong. In 2004 the 19-mile line opened to the public. This short line remains the fastest train in the world. Its top speed of 260mph runs the 19-mile run in eight minutes.

California’s version of high-speed rail is patterned to meet requirements of Alstom.

The CA high-speed train is patterned to accommodate heavy rail train technology

In 2008, California placed a bond measure on the ballot for the California voters. The bond agreement to the voters was to allocate $9billion for the project. At that time, however, the CA HSRA announced the proposed cost of the project was $98billion. That estimate came after much heated debate from the Stanford Peer Study Group's estimated price of $212billion which the Board refused to accept.

Unsustainable politics

The CA HSRA has always vacillated on the project’s cost. When Jerry Brown became re-governor, he issued a decree that pushed the project ahead and declared that the project would only cost $57billion: “Because that’s what I say it will cost.” A statement illustrating the level of arrogance found in politics.

It’s somewhat puzzling as to why elected policy makers intentionally mislead voters. The language of the short intro paragraph for the $9billion bond measure in 2008 for California’s High Speed Rail project was deceptively written to lead voters into believing that the $98billon project cost was only $9billion. The vote was 52% to 47%. There is no sustainability in politics, lies are not sustainable.

Trains are a 200-year-old technology. Modern rail vehicle sets are updated with current communication and computerized information, however, the fundamentals of steel track and wheels, and its load range are the same. Trains were built for a society 200 years ago. Trains lack the ability to provide independent delivery, making them incapable of being a passenger transportation solution for Western Society.

Regarding the politics of California’s high-speed rail project, it’s being built to the specifications to Alstom. Motivated to serve politics. Alstom is the company that owns Europe’s power and Europe’s trains.

Modern transportation needs

Today’s culture is a progression of intellectual achievement. Forcing a modern civilization into a 200-year-old transportation mechanism opposes sustainability. The increase of population enlarges city and urban expanse. This expansion demands the ability of transportation to have greater diversity of passenger delivery.  Building antiquated transportation devices to meet transportation needs of a modern society is ludicrous.

Transportation is the foundation to all urban growth, and plays a primary role in society. Transportation decisions based on political motivation are both asinine and disastrous to human development.

Fluid transportation development

In a society based on intellectual progress, transportation has to be fluid to move with advancement. The six modes of transportation adhere patterns of societal growth.

From the CATTCC page of Advanced Transportation: “New technology transit systems fit into the model for environmentally sustainable urban growth by using clean advanced transit technology, which also provides the convenience of on-demand and direct-to-destination capability.

“What’s environmentally sustainable about these advanced transit technologies? Many system designs include solar electric generation for power, computer operated for increased vehicle frequencies, stress relief of navigation, low noise levels, public accessibility, public Rights-of-Ways (ROW), and as a convenience, they maximize overall economic productivity by reducing wait times. To afford increases of heavier ridership, new technology transit is automatically able to comply with an increase in the frequency of a vehicle’s headway (distance between vehicles) via the computerized technology, which shuttles more vehicles to particular locations. 

“In urban planning, the demand for transportation is proportionate to the increase in population. As populations grow, transportation loads expand at a proportionally greater rate, and there is an increased appetite for land consumption and improved mobility. By investing in an on-demand transit system, traffic congestion is mitigated through the use and application of this advanced technology. By the implementation of new technology transit in regional urban planning, the increased traffic loads are mitigated.”

Transit only works in designated transportation corridors. Growth in Earth’s population necessitates new transportation options. With the risk-averse nature of bureaucracy and government policy, transportation solutions require privatization for technology advances in transportation. It is the CATTCC mission to research and develop sustainable transportation solutions.