An Intuitive Observation: Transportation Planning in San Diego

I am currently watching a video on San Diego’s future transportation planning vision. I have only gotten through half of it and it has inspired me to share my thoughts. Other than being a daily transit commuter long ago, I wonder why my mind ventures off in this path. Although I still struggle to arrive at my first project, I am a developer and a builder of cities. My mind is always there. I take long walks through the built environment and it is difficult to explain the immersion of my mind. It sounds crazy but, maybe it is like visualizing the surroundings in the scope of time and volume. I guess I can wonder more about that later; Here are my first round of thoughts and poignant, yet constructive criticisms from my notes.

PART 1 of 5 - SAN DIEGO: THE DREAM OF TRANSIT

There needs to be shift where the brand takes more prominence and priority over transportation modelling, forecasting, and planning. In the past, the automobile industry based its premise upon a dream that drove a vision. This vision influenced the built environment, infrastructure, and public policy at multiple levels. To my observations, current public transportation planning in San Diego, creates visions based upon realities imposed and predicted by machines (i.e. computer systems).

The auto industry created a vivid dream fabricated by humans (i.e. creative advertising) and left the rest to the imagination. These dreams became the collective stories that moved the culture of a nation. The automobile industry clearly understood that making this American Dream a reality entailed disruptions and sacrifices. The most critical of those sacrifices was the system of public transportation. Before I go on, I want to clarify that I understand the basics of the automobiles economics and importance to the nation in regards to manufacturing, labor, and production. I am sure my thoughts have been echoed by more knowledgeable professionals many times over.

Think about it at a basic level: to invigorate and materialize this new culture, the public must be destroyed so that a new public reality can be superimposed. This process occurred slowly spanning many years. No one could have predicted that the destruction would be continuous, evolve into many other areas of society and devolve the very culture it was meant to bolster. Critical systems were allowed and encouraged to be dismantled. This disassembly has eroded our system of mobility and thus, eroded the basis of social system and order. Public mobility is of critical importance. A society unable to move efficiently is one that is stagnant. That stagnation makes our country less competitive and creates equally dull citizens.

Planners must stop thinking that transit and vehicular systems are cohesive systems. It is true that they exist together, but individual car usage is antithetical to transit. If cars and transit were thought to be collaborative systems, rail infrastructure in American cities would have never been dismantled in the first place.

The basis of our infrastructural and societal system was once a strong weave of hubs and connections. A nation moving haptic union became individuals moving in unison, yet isolated and random. In concept, an efficient city functions similar to a computer operating system, on and off, one and zero. In a vehicular system, the randomness of each individual mobility decision overwhelms the system. Too many variables leads to increased demand for disruptive vehicular infrastructure and connections. Therefore, the simplicity of a binary type system: City, transit, station, on or off, is replaced by a network of complex valves that are prone to congestion.

To continue the analogy, a computer CPU is a compact machine that can easily upgrade its capacity within the envelope of the machine. This is similar to a city that exhibits and accretional increase density to evolve with population. In a vast system of conduits and valves, like highways and ramps, the network cannot be contained within the parameters of a vessel. This is how far expansive and far reaching conduits generate uncontained sprawl.

Sex sells and cars are sexy. The convenience of the automobile, laser engraved into the collective mind of the American ethos, is not where the our infrastructural strife is derived. The automobile signifies freedom, independence, and sexual prowess. This nature is exhibited in many low income neighborhoods where luxury vehicles are parked outside of broken down homes and apartments. If taking transit was eye catching to the opposite sex, the public would ride the bus rather than see it as a completely utilitarian function to be utilized in a case of total emergency and last resort.

That brings me back to the main point of this writing: Transit needs to be a brand first. If not, ridership will always remain low. The demographic will always be the stereotypical transit rider. Any rider increases will be the increased socially conscience and victims of skyrocketing oil prices. The target demographic is the wide public which still reside in the hypothalamus: THAT is the target. The target is not to use a variety of analytics to decrease congestion and expand the capacity and convenience of the vehicular commuter - the target is to get those commuters onto a bus or train. Creating this ain’t gonna happen with fancy metrics, numbers, and graphs.

The brand of transit needs to be revamped. The automobile sold a dream to the public and they bought it. Transit needs to take the same approach to get a jump on the next generation. This can be done within the confines of the existing system with moderate capital investment.

I presume it is time to land this plane. I am a crafter of the built environment thought architectural form and construction. I know how to make that increase happen. Fortunately, a ridership increase does not need to be drastic. The auto industry looked to dominate the culture with aggressive ads and equally aggressive financing which the public could afford. In this new era, we can indeed develop new transit infrastructure in tune with vehicular accommodations. For it to work, transit needs to take the priority without exception. The conference room needs to be transit only. With exception to traffic toll strategies, all highway talks should be tabled for a later time.

As of immediately, I am available as a transit brand consultant for a substantial fee! Included in the fee will be a comprehensive report and strategy that begins at ground level (my expertise) and works its way up to the engineer’s data.