11-05-2012, 03:51 PM
CONNECTING PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES
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TRANSPORTATION TRENDS AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES
It’s no surprise that California traffic is increasing—even with higher fuel prices and
economic difficulties, the state’s expanding population is likely to keep traffic on the rise.
However, while in past decades vehicle miles traveled have grown faster than the population,
there is recent evidence of a slowing or even reversal of this trend. Meanwhile, while
California is spending more on highways than ever before, construction costs have grown
faster than spending, resulting in reduced purchasing power—and a decline in per capita
lane-miles.
THE CASE FOR MODAL INTEGRATION
While trips by rail and air are increasing in California, a true multimodal system does
not yet exist here. Transportation planners have always accepted the integration of modes
as a sound principle, but daunting challenges prevent its realization. Yet integrating the
modes could produce better service at lower cost than the current mode-by-mode approach.
For example, consider the problem of providing intermetropolitan passenger transportation
in California. The distances between major Californian cities are large, so driving
is time consuming even in the best of circumstances. Congestion on many of the routes
increasingly makes driving long distances unpredictable and tedious. Airplanes provide
an important alternative to car use between the largest and farthest apart of the state’s intercity
markets, especially between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But because of strong
economies of scale, air transport services concentrate in the major airports that can sustain
them efficiently. This leaves vast intermediary regions with only limited—and costly—
air transport options.
MULTIMODAL PLANNING AND PRIORITY SETTING
The lack of multimodal planning also reduces our ability to discuss investment priorities
and trade-offs among modes. For example, the state is considering a major investment
in high speed rail to connect its cities and link to airports and urban transit systems. In
evaluating this proposed investment, we ought to be comparing high speed rail’s costs—
dollar and other—to the costs of expanding congested airports or highway systems. We
should consider capital outlay, operating costs to public and private parties, environmental
costs, energy impacts, social equity, and public acceptability. The different modes offer
different advantages in travel time and cost, community and environmental impacts,
economic development effects, safety, comfort, and convenience; investment decisions
should weigh these factors across modes.