The Voice of San Diego reported on a refreshing statement of the obvious as to the level of changes needed in the county’s transportation planning to meet State climate goals:
The region simply can’t meet state requirements for thwarting climate change the way things are and the way they’re headed, Hasan Ikrhata, director of the San Diego Association of Governments, said at a Friday board meeting. Even if the region built the trolley lines and bus services leaders have been discussing, it would not change enough. Either state law would have to change, or regional leaders need to reimagine plans on the books now with something meaningfully different than the status quo.
It was a major acknowledgment that the sprawling, car-centric way the county has grown for decades is incompatible with the state’s vision of itself as a global leader on climate change.
TRANSDEF has been asserting this point for the past decade, with no acknowledgement of its truth by the governing bodies that control transportation and air quality in this State. The Bay Area would do well to think seriously about the need for profound change. Ikrhata did offer hope, though:
He said all the transportation network scenarios the agency has tested – essentially, all the transportation projects and ideas the region has been wrestling with in recent years – simply don’t measure up to the state’s requirements. “Let’s face it. If we continue like this we will never meet it,” Ikhrata said.
… He assured the board that his new vision, built from scratch, would far surpass the 19 percent reduction.