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Re: My Bad, I'm sorry I didn't drink enough of Kopp's "kool aid".....
Author: BOB2
Date: 06-20-2017 - 21:04
So show me the "aviation" capacity crisis that his project was predicated on? Show me the purpose and needs process that identified the key travel demands and purported transportation deficiencies that are being met by the current CAHSRA project?
Yes, there are naysayers, and then there are legitimate critics, and then there are folks like you, who "cite" dubiously anecdotal accounts of opposition to other "visonary" projects, like the Colorado aqueduct. Can you cite what the reasoning was for that purported opposition, or how valid it was at the time, or now?
And, then there are the "promoters" of great "visions", like the parody of the self promoting charlatans in the Simpson's Monorail episode, huckstering the future, kind of like Quentin Kopp and his cronies were doing when they were "planning" this fiasco......
We have billions in cost effective and cost saving transportation projects to meet well identified and documented unmet need for rail, transit, and highways. Unlike CAHSRA these projects were required to go through competent planning processes, but many are not yet being funded, and won't be, in some cases for years. All while we build a train planned by and for a group of politicians without any regard to any other purpose or "need" than justifying a train that would be as fast as China.... So we can be "modern" too....
The fact that the CAHSRA planning was done without any regard to or credible analysis of, any observed or predicted travel patterns, demands, or future deficiencies in mobility, or, most important, without any regard to the cost, or the benefits, compared to alternative investments, to the poor taxpayers who are paying for all of this? And, as a result, we are currently pissing away billions of dollars, on a train to nowhere, while millions sit in traffic.
Maybe, being able to get from LA to San Diego in less than 3 hours by rail, on one of the busiest intercity travel corridors in the US might just be a higher priority, better investment, and have significantly more benefit to more travelers, than California's pressing "need" to get folks from Chowchilla to Fresno in 5 minutes, or even from Fresno to Bakersfield in 45 minutes..... Because, as of right now, that is really all we will be lucky to build, for well into the foreseeable future, with little likelihood of additional funding.
As a taxpayer and gridlocked California resident, I'm just saying that just "maybe" we could spend our limited transportation dollars a whole lot better, to produce a whole lot more benefit, for a whole lot more taxpayers and travelers.
But hey, maybe I'm just stupid, because I just don't have enough "vision", right? Or maybe, I just didn't drink enough of Kopps "kool aid" to "see" the "vision", way back when I was being paid as an economist to review the travel demand assumptions CAHSRA used, and found that they had been pretty much made up out of thin air, in order to sell the project to deceive the gullible voters, who rightly wanted better rail service, and voted for the bonds, that are financing this fiasco....?
Yes, there are naysayers, and then there are legitimate critics, and then there are folks like you, who "cite" dubiously anecdotal accounts of opposition to other "visonary" projects, like the Colorado aqueduct. Can you cite what the reasoning was for that purported opposition, or how valid it was at the time, or now?
And, then there are the "promoters" of great "visions", like the parody of the self promoting charlatans in the Simpson's Monorail episode, huckstering the future, kind of like Quentin Kopp and his cronies were doing when they were "planning" this fiasco......
We have billions in cost effective and cost saving transportation projects to meet well identified and documented unmet need for rail, transit, and highways. Unlike CAHSRA these projects were required to go through competent planning processes, but many are not yet being funded, and won't be, in some cases for years. All while we build a train planned by and for a group of politicians without any regard to any other purpose or "need" than justifying a train that would be as fast as China.... So we can be "modern" too....
The fact that the CAHSRA planning was done without any regard to or credible analysis of, any observed or predicted travel patterns, demands, or future deficiencies in mobility, or, most important, without any regard to the cost, or the benefits, compared to alternative investments, to the poor taxpayers who are paying for all of this? And, as a result, we are currently pissing away billions of dollars, on a train to nowhere, while millions sit in traffic.
Maybe, being able to get from LA to San Diego in less than 3 hours by rail, on one of the busiest intercity travel corridors in the US might just be a higher priority, better investment, and have significantly more benefit to more travelers, than California's pressing "need" to get folks from Chowchilla to Fresno in 5 minutes, or even from Fresno to Bakersfield in 45 minutes..... Because, as of right now, that is really all we will be lucky to build, for well into the foreseeable future, with little likelihood of additional funding.
As a taxpayer and gridlocked California resident, I'm just saying that just "maybe" we could spend our limited transportation dollars a whole lot better, to produce a whole lot more benefit, for a whole lot more taxpayers and travelers.
But hey, maybe I'm just stupid, because I just don't have enough "vision", right? Or maybe, I just didn't drink enough of Kopps "kool aid" to "see" the "vision", way back when I was being paid as an economist to review the travel demand assumptions CAHSRA used, and found that they had been pretty much made up out of thin air, in order to sell the project to deceive the gullible voters, who rightly wanted better rail service, and voted for the bonds, that are financing this fiasco....?
