cartoon by Adam Omernik
Campus Times
March 4, 2005
One dominant aspect of California widely separates our state from the rest of the nation: traffic congestion. Everyone who lives in California has seen it and been a part of it. Waiting for hours on a jammed highway has practically become second nature to Californians, especially toward the South.
A common treatment for traffic problems has been public transportation. Big cities such as New York and Chicago, and even San Francisco, control traffic with buses and railways.
Metro Gold Line has brought Southern California into the public transportation age, serving an area of more than nine million people within 1,433-square-miles. In attempts to cure specifically Southern California’s traffic epidemic, the Metro Gold Line has begun construction on an extension of their railway East of Los Angeles.
According to Metro’s Web site, www.mta.net, the Light Rail system will add six more miles of track to form a single line extending from East Los Angeles to the San Gabriel Valley.
With the construction of the Eastside Extension, areas such as Long Beach, Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena will connect with East Los Angeles and Little Tokyo to form 70 stations total.
The Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension, set to open in late 2009, will include six miles of Light Rail service, an estimated ride time of 17 minutes between Union Station and the Atlantic Station and faster, easier access to 73 miles of the Metro rail system.
Two of the eight stations will be constructed underground in the highly populated area of Boyle Heights, the remaining stations will be at street level.
The existing Gold Line served nearly 15,000 riders on an average weekday in January 2005.
Mobility 21, a coalition for transportation advocacy in Los Angeles County, reported that the estimated rider flow on the Eastside Extension is projected at 23,000 weekday boarding passengers by the year 2020.
With Southern California containing some of the most congested highways in the state, improvements and strong efforts are long overdue. According to www.cahighways.org, the I-10, running from Santa Monica to the Arizona border, through downtown Los Angeles, was ranked number one with approximately 363,000 vehicles per day. The I-210 also found its way into the top 10, ranked ninth in California.
As a part of Metro’s transportation plans, preliminary designing on the Eastside Extension to the Claremont area has begun.
A hopeful light shines for Southern California’s traffic nightmare with Metro’s plan finally underway.
To satisfy San Gabriel Valley’s great need, the Gold Line will hopefully finalize and put in effect these plans soon after the project 2009 Eastside Extension is completed.
Considering Southern California’s large population, it is surprising how we have not become like other dense demographic areas. Commuters in New York and San Francisco rarely even own vehicles and largely depend on public transportation.
Clearing our highways with the Metro’s Gold Line will provide countless transportation improvements including reduced pollution, less auto accidents and a smoother commute for those only 30 minutes away from their destination. A heroic solution for Southern California’s traffic plague is on the horizon, let’s just hope it comes in time to save the day.