I was sorry to read the article, “Locals celebrate highway opening” in the latest Free Lance (June 13 edition), as well as the letter calling the California High-Speed Rail a “boondoggle.”
Supervisor Kosmicki is correct in saying Highway 156 will “drastically” improve our quality of life, as it will further contribute to global warming and fires here, and a future where residents will wonder what we were thinking when we continued building roads for cars.
Highways are enormous boondoggles, not railroads. While the High-Speed Rail is estimated by the state to cost between $89 billion and $128 billion, an equivalent highway would cost between $179-$253 billion. Our own little seven-mile stretch between San Juan and Hollister cost $142 million.
Not only are cars a major contributor to global warming, they are also a major contributor to ocean pollution because tires disintegrate and their runoff poisons our seas. Electric cars don’t improve things much, because their manufacture leaves half the carbon footprint of gas powered autos.
There’s also the ecological damage done by the mining for minerals necessary for batteries, not to mention threats of war over Greenland to extract these.
And while we are busy congratulating ourselves, it might be less comforting to know that most highway widening projects end up with traffic congestion as bad as it was before in as little as three to five years after construction.
So while Los Angeles has built a subway and San Diego a great railway system, it’s distressing to know that we in Northern California continue our love affair with Henry Ford’s vision of a traffic jam of the people, by the people and for the people—and a future vision of hell on earth for which none of us are prepared.
Trains and bicycles would have been a better solution to what we leave for future generations. When will we ever learn?
Paul Hartnett
Hollister
