Californians will get the opportunity to vote on a high-speed rail bond in November. Before you all start shouting "Monorail!", take a look at this short video that the CA High Speed Rail Authority has put together. As any driver knows, the state's current transportation infrastructure is stretched to capacity and while we could build more roads and more airports, the result will be more pollution and more congestion. California's uniquely positioned to take advantage of high-speed rail. And imagine a world where you hop the Metro down to Union Station, grab the train and two and a half hours later, you're in San Francisco. I can't wait to board the Friday 6'oclock party car.
If ever there was a place for high speed rail in America, it would be California. With it's bifurcated populace concentrated either in L.A. or S.F. the state is in desperate need of a way of tying these two population centers together. It makes sense from an economic standpoint as well as a cultural one. For you transit dreamers, here's SF Cityscape's map of what such a system would look like. While you're at it, check out their map of the L.A. transit system in 2030, where there will still be no simple way for me to get to LAX from West Hollywood.
