Campus Times Online

Taking the traffic bull
by the horns

Posted November 18, 2005

Tom Anderson
News Editor

This Monday morning started out like any other Monday morning at Casa de Anderson: Your cantankerous author rolled out of bed, put on his robe and parked his posterior at the breakfast table to eat the first meal of the day and watch the KTLA Morning News. Those of you familiar with Channel 5’s morning show know that its collection of talking heads is a rather eclectic one.

When the time came for the traffic update from SkyCam 5, I was expecting to be greeted by its regular skipper, the likable, if not warm, Willa Sandmeyer. Instead, a certain Antonio Villaraigosa was riding shotgun. That’s right, kids, the mayor of Los Angeles was playing eye in the sky for the House that “Dawson’s Creek” built.

Naturally, my first reaction was that this was some publicity stunt cooked up by one of City Hall’s spin doctors. Then I remembered that Villaraigosa is also the chairman of the board for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and that transportation improvement was one of his main campaign platforms when he was running against that thumb-twiddling meat sack named Jim Hahn.

After making a feeble attempt at delivering a live traffic report, one of the anchors asked Villaraigosa what the region’s traffic situation is and what’s being done to improve it. Immediately the mayor lit up like a child on
Christmas morning, passionately and articulately outlining what is being done and what still needs to be done to keep L.A. and it’s neighbors moving.

Could this all have been just a bunch of grandstanding aimed at bolstering
Ant’s poll numbers and distracting the sheep-like masses from something else? Absolutely. But the important thing here is that, unlike so many other SoCal politicos who simply cower under their desks and just hope that this problem will be handled by someone else or, better yet, go away on its own, Antonio is not only acknowledging the existence of this problem, he’s also taking steps to correct it.

One of his ideas to alleviate congestion is to synchronize and reprogram traffic signals. Hallelujah! Seriously, I’ve encountered way too many stretches of street that have their stoplights precisely timed so that you’re stopping at every freakin’ intersection for as far as the eye can see. Not only is it frustrating as heck, it probably causes even worse gridlock (and the wasted fuel and pollution that goes with it) than signals timed in the opposite manner would. It’s high time somebody force fed traffic
engineers the proper definition of the word “logical.”

Villaraigosa is also a staunch supporter of expanding the region’s rail transit system. While today’s Metro Rail system will probably never reach the size, scope or overall cool factor of the Pacific Electric “Big Red Car” network of yore, the mayor has affirmed his commitment to extending the Gold Line from Pasadena to Montclair and building a new light rail line to Culver City along Exposition Boulevard.

So while I normally disdain all politicians, regardless of party, I’m making an exception for Villaraigosa, if only because he’s actively addressing the biggest problem that almost every Angeleno has to deal with. Fixing the inadequacy of transportation here in the L.A. area is going to take a lot of time and money, and plenty of people are going to get mad, but if you’re willing to stay the course, Mr. Mayor, I salute you.

Tom Anderson, a junior journalism major, is news editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at tanderson1@ulv.edu.