L.A. Times Solves Issue of Why Traffic Sucks in Southern California, By Looking at Every Answer Except the Obvious One
An L.A. Times article pretends to tell you why traffic sucks in Southern California:
Many factors conspire to produce Southern California’s traffic. The most consequential is the collective impact of millions of individual choices. In Reliford’s case, her loathing of the commute is outweighed by her love for her home in Rialto, with its big backyard where her two young boys can play safely.
Those choices play out in a region that sprawled long before the freeways were built. The pattern of development in Southern California as far back as the era of the Pacific Electric Railway’s Red Cars created a horizontal city, one in which people frequently settled far from where they worked.
But individual decision-making alone does not account for Southern California’s massive traffic congestion. Actions by government at the state and local level also bear a big share of the blame.
OK, let’s hear about the actions by government.
Two decisions stand out:
* State and local officials have not expanded the region’s highways and mass transit systems enough to keep up with population growth.
The population of the five-county Southern California region grew 22% from 1990 to 2006, and the total miles driven by motorists has increased about 42%. But the number of miles of highway in the region has increased by only 7.5%.
OK, never mind the second decision. It’s not relevant anyway.
Here’s what is relevant:
Gee. Why did Southern California’s population grow 22% by 1990 to 2006?
Huh?
And did any level of government have anything to do with it?
These questions, dear readers, I leave to you to answer.
They sure as hell aren’t answered by this article.
P.S. Here’s a hint.
traffic was nice on the day all the illegals and their supporters boycotted and stayed home….
ergo, i’m willing to bet that if we got rid of them permanently , a good portion of our traffic issues would go south at the same time too.
deport them all: si si puede!
redc1c4 (e3877d) — 6/10/2008 @ 12:55 amIn 1990, you didn’t need to “dial one for English,” — can’t imagine why that changed.
Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 6/10/2008 @ 1:14 amWhy did suburbs grow?
Cali sucks.
Cali’s cities suck more.
And this is from someone who was born in Cali….
Foxfier (15ac79) — 6/10/2008 @ 1:55 amI think the new word is “other migrants”.
tyree (e24364) — 6/10/2008 @ 6:37 amI saw that article on the news stand yesterday and I laughed out loud and said to my self, “I know that article doesn’t implicate population growth due to illegal immigration.” And I was right, again, for the 50th time. Historians of the future will be poorly served by the archives of the LA Times.
There is a reason I didn’t buy a copy of the paper.
tyree (e24364) — 6/10/2008 @ 6:41 amI can’t believe you’d suggest it was because of illegal immigrants.
You just hate mexicans.
Racist.
Scott Jacobs (fa5e57) — 6/10/2008 @ 6:43 amI would also think that the “sanctuary city” policy might have had a little to do with turning Los Angeles into the second largest Mexican city in the world.
tyree (e24364) — 6/10/2008 @ 7:06 amreconquista is under way. i’m not sure that it can be stopped.
assistant devil's advocate (dcbb12) — 6/10/2008 @ 7:51 amScott, triple racist.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/10/2008 @ 7:56 amOne cannot discuss the budget devastations and closures of Cali’s hospitals, schools, and traffic woes unless one also addresses illegal immigration. They are mutually inclusive. Unfortunately, the LAT is at the top of the denial list and the government follows in lockstep.
If this undeniable cause & effect is not included in any article addressing the issue (while ironically attempting to enlighten the masses), then it is dishonest, patently disingenuous, and simply a waste of time.
Dana (b4a26c) — 6/10/2008 @ 8:37 amBeating a dead horse. To expect the L.A. Times to admit to the burden that illegal migrants have on Southern Calif. is to wait forever. The Times is a tabloid, in broadsheet form, hoping that Sam Zell won’t discover the pretense.
C. Norris (487044) — 6/10/2008 @ 8:53 amada…
If the reconquista is unstoppable, do you have any evidence that it will stop at the OR border?
All that it takes for evil to succeed, is for good men to do nothing.
ENFORCE THE LAWS!
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:25 amHaving run a trauma center for seven years, I would add that their driving skills leave something to be desired, as well. In his book Mexifornia, Victor Davis Hanson points out that illegals had n opportunity to learn to drive in Mexico so they come here, buy a car (often a junker) and off they go ! He wrote that he finds a car in the ditch by his farm every weekend.
Mike K (2cf494) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:34 amAround here, the immigration status of the driver in a traffic accident is usually announced after an accident when the vehicle in question has all four doors fly open and the driver and passengers run in all directions.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:39 amThe answer is higher gas taxes, more car pool lanes, subsidized public transportaion for the poor and tax rebates for renters.
(running out of the room)
Tom (496827) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:45 amWould the last tax-payer leaving CA please do us a favor and steal the copper wires leading to the light switch.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:59 amdrew (#12), mexicans prefer warmer climates, and oregon is a place a little chillier than california, except for three days, a chilly may has given way to a chilly june. oregon is also not part of aztlan, the territory mexico considers to be temporarily occupied by us.
assistant devil's advocate (dcbb12) — 6/10/2008 @ 10:02 amI have driven in LA and the overall level of bad drivers contributes greatly to the traffic problem. As Jim Rome once said, when it starts raining in SoCal, people start driving their cars into buildings.
JD (5f0e11) — 6/10/2008 @ 10:03 amSo, ada, you believe that you will be eaten last, then?
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 10:35 amand, if their climate choices are so important, what explains the large numbers of Latinos found in the Upper Mid-West?
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 10:37 amAD – I think that http://www.labambaburritos.com has a lot to do with it.
JD (75f5c3) — 6/10/2008 @ 10:53 am“IF we don’t build it, they won’t come.”
The Small Is Better theme of Moonbeam Jerry Brown.
A generation of public administrators/planners have been corrupted by that philosophy, which was so obviously wrong when it was promulgated, and is demonstrably wrong today after its’ implementation.
As to driver skills: We know the failings of skill sets from immigrants from other countries; but, little is said about the lack of skills from migrants from other areas of the U.S.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:03 amWe have been the recipient of a great many who were non, or very occassional, drivers in their lives back east due to the availability of public transportation that for the most part does not exist in SoCal.
These people have not adapted well to the freeway system here.
Prior to the 55, they were usually intimidated enough that they returned to the East, or never came. With the 55, it enabled their marginal skills to cope. Now that we’re back to a rational speed-limit, those shortcomings are evident again, but the infection has spread into the native class, for we haven’t been able to re-acquire those skills we enjoyed prior to the double-nickel.
In my mis-spent youth growing up with the freeways here in SoCal, most were 3-lanes and their was an informal (though enforced) inter-lane speed differential: 45 on the right, 65 on the left, and 55 in the middle. People were given tickets for driving too slowly (If you’re passed on the right, you’re wrong) in any lane if traffic was piling up behind them (when was the last time you saw that?).
And yet, the traffic moves when it can.
So all in all, I blame Richard Nixon!
JD…
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:06 amIsn’t amazing how similar Champaign IL is to Acapulco or Monterrey?
no drew, i have no fear of our upcoming new brown overlords. i will never run short of tortillas, beans, rice, cheese, peppers…
assistant devil's advocate (dcbb12) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:08 amNeither is North Carolina. Good thing we don’t have any illegal aliens here.
Xrlq (b71926) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:44 amAD – Champaign is a great placem the birthplace of burritos as big as your head, and Chief Illinwek, peace be upon him. Having lived in Champaign, and Monterey, CA, however, I see no similarities whatsoever.
JD (75f5c3) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:46 amI wasn’t talking about Monterey CA; but, sarcasm is sarcasm without respect for borders.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 1:32 pmRight, Xrlq?
Because every woman of child bearing age had 18 children during that time period?
Patricia (f56a97) — 6/10/2008 @ 2:28 pm#28…
Another Drew (0ed22f) — 6/10/2008 @ 2:37 pmWell, we’ll just have to resurrect Margaret Sanger, and impose mandatory abortion (PP needs the money, they only grossed $1B last year).
And, just think of the revenue from Child-Bearing Permits (this could be out-sourced to the Chinese)?
Illegal aliens Undocumented workers are causing heavy traffic in LA? Oh, you racists, you! Just wait until Obama becomes President.
Today’s Dog Trainer explains that is all that freight being transported east from the port that is tying traffic in knots.
Stu707 (adbb5a) — 6/10/2008 @ 4:15 pmExcept, it is uneconomical to transport, via road, containers destined for more than 500-miles away. If that is their rational, it just explains their lack of vision as to why a large number of Angeleno’s et al, moved to southern Nv, southern UT, and AZ.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/10/2008 @ 4:25 pmContainer traffic from the port destined to go east goes through the rail corridor.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/10/2008 @ 4:27 pmIt isn’t a simple matter of speculation.
All you have to do is go to the official census.gov website and look around for their population estimates and projections and all the numbers you need are right there in spreadsheet form to see the data.
They break it down in a number of ways to allow you to see it all from many perspectives.
Another source of this data is the FEC which does it’s projections for the purpose of determining the Voter Age Population which also has all the spreadsheets you need to make the determinations.
No bias just simple data and facts.
SlimGuy (ea6549) — 6/10/2008 @ 5:42 pmTsk, tsk.
The millions of illegals are but a sliver of the SoCal drivers. How could you have forgotten LAT math?
Ed (532eeb) — 6/10/2008 @ 9:58 pmThe new euphemism is “unauthorized entrant.”
Although it also be used to describe a rapist, so I’m not sure it will last.
GaryC (e23438) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:01 pm