Today at City Council there is an agenda item:
Approve the Transit Feasibility Study Interview Panel’s recommended consultant, and authorize the City Manager to negotiate an agreement with Parsons Brinckerhoff in the amount not to exceed $100,000 to assist the City in developing the Transit Feasibility Study.Before saying more, this blog is against the city recommendation primarily because Parson's Brinckerhoff sounds like a character on Gilligan's Island, or one of Mitt's friends.
Seriously . . .
The real reason for rejection of this recommendation is NOT disappoval of a study. Criticism centers on the SANDAG and NCTD connections to this firm appear hard wired in the agenda packet information We in the public know that neither power base, SANDAG or NCTD, or their Encinitas vassal, Mayor Jerome Stocks, is receptive to public sentiment or any dissenting council voices and have never been. We don't need to pay money for we Encinitas serfs to be targeted for the continued assault of these unelected overlords.
That said, the concept of 21st century revised way of thinking about circulation in a multitude of forms is not in and of itself bad or wrong headed. Not just shuttle buses, not just bike lanes or traffic calming - but a serious pedestrian commitment are all needed. Examples extend back thousands of years and even in just the last century there have always been exemplars of allowing for all forms of travel in cities around the world. If you have lived or traveled in the cities described below, you know this to be true.
Look at cities such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, Paris and Barcelona. These cities have beautiful streets that encourage walking. Commuters in these cities happily walk 15 or 20 minutes from a subway or rail station, or from a parking garage, to their home, workplace or school. They don't hesitate to walk a half-mile to visit their favorite shop, cafe or friend.
In addition to changing terminology, we need to modify a pervasive American planning standard: the dogma of the one-quarter-mile walking radius. If you look at development plans, you'll see circles drawn around transportation nodes to show the presumed limits of how far Americans are willing to walk. [ . . .] A quarter-mile is 1,320 feet, walkable in about five to six minutes.
Walking infrastructure is a lot cheaper than subways and buses. It is good for your health. It makes our cities lively and supports the businesses along the way. He is right; it is time to change our mindsets.
More in the Washington PostWe know that our traffic engineers are riddled with dogma from another era, so vigilance is appropriate. A fully integrated system of shuttle buses, commuter buses are a necessity for a city committed to reducing fossil fuel use, carbon emissions, air quality, valued time and money; but, who is designing this master plan is vital.
