TRAILGATE — A New Paradigm: Intra-County Transportation

JULY 1, 1993

BY PATRICK SEIDLER

Part I: New Roads

Last year the United States Government approved the expenditure of $123 billion on highway appropriations. Every county in America is benefitting from this program, and Marin County is not exempt. We need look no further than around the next corner. Road construction is booming everywhere in the County.

Most federal highway money is spent on the roadway infrastructures of our country; i.e., the backbone of commerce that supports our lifestyles. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the jobs we go to, are all dependent on the greater workings of our road system. It's overwhelming if you stop for a moment and ask: How much of my life and the resources that I use are connected to the automobile and the road it travels on?

Things Were Not Always This Way

Before the Industrial Revolution we lived in an agrarian society where work and communities were centered around providing sustenance for the people in the community. This was changed by the Industrial Revolution, which refers to the period of English history (1750-1850) marked by striking changes in economic structure produced by the transition from stable agricultural and commercial society to modern industrialism. Several developments opened the way to this industrial and commerce revolution: (1) The crude steam engine was invented in 1705 by Thomas Newcoman; (2) John Kay developed the Flying Shuttle in 1733, allowing one person to operate a wide loom; and (3) in 1741 a frame for spinning cotton was developed.

In the mid-1850s, several technological breakthroughs launched us into our current automobile culture. Edwin Drake discovered oil in 1859 in Pennsylvania. This discovery was made more formidable by the development of the internal combustion engine. Nikolaus Otto devised the four-stroke cycle engine in 1876. In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler developed the carburetor, which ushered us into the automobile age. In 1903, Henry Ford’s third try to establish Ford Motor Company succeeded. In 1908 Mr. Ford introduced the Model T, which really took off after World War 1. He sold over 15 million cars. By 1926, the Model T had a retail price of $290, sales increased rapidly, and so did the construction of U.S. infrastructure for the automobile.

As the automobile allowed people and products to be transported more easily, industry and business concentrated people and commerce in “City Centers.” Although there were cities before the Industrial Revolution, population density was lower, and the development of infrastructure was negligible compared to today’s standards. Commerce and business expanded rapidly. Fewer people were needed to work to produce food, so they could engage in business activities. All road and highway infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, tunnels, trains, tracks, cabs, trolleys, buses, etc., was built to draw people toward the City Center, and the large cities grew. (These cities are sometimes known as the “Major League Cities” (after baseball franchises). In the last half century, we have been busy building the most massive infrastructure system ever known on the planet: The U.S. road and highway system, almost all of which points to, was built for, and is geared toward the City Center.

Times Change 

Another revolution has been taking place in the last 20 years: The Information Age. No longer do people need to commute into the City Center to contribute to the economy. Instead, people can work in front of computers and use telephones anywhere. In the meantime, the road and highway system pointing toward the City Center continues to grow. Modern society is witnessing the disintegration of the City Center. Every major corporation in America is aware of this trend. For this reason, corporations are relocating to the suburbs, and leaving behind the many problems with City Centers, for most pollution, crime, and traffic congestion are located in the City Center.

Paradigm Shift 

Roads and cars remain important contributors to our economy and lifestyle. But, we need to move away from the “Ant Hill” mentality of the 19th and early 20th century. We no longer have a need for City Center concentration. Most all of the $123 billion spent on roadways perpetuate the City Center, Ant Hill mentality. An inordinate share of the money being spent in Marin is on the Ant Hill infrastructure. Something has to change. We must move towards improving infrastructure geared towards meeting the transportation needs of our new economy. In Marin County only 20% of automobile trips on Highway 101 are made by city-bound commuters. The other 80% are made for purposes of intra-county commerce and commuting. We must realize a new way of viewing the situation, a paradigm shift, before we waste any more resources developing an inappropriate and outdated system. It is time to concentrate our attention on intra-county transportation infrastructure. 

Intra-County Transportation

We need to invest our share of the billions of dollars of federal highway money into improvements on multiple-use intra-county infrastructure. But what solutions are at hand? The bicycle, the most efficient form of transportation known, holds the key to the answer. A complete restructuring of our intra-county infrastructure to accommodate bicycle transportation is the most practical solution to our current transportation dilemma. How can we make this happen? The solution is at hand. It is staring us in the face. Most of the work has already been done. The new paradigm will unfold.

Part II: Bicycle Freeways — A New Paradigm

Between 1849 and the late 1860s, California’s population boomed, largely as a result of the Gold Rush and partially as a result of Anglo expansion west in our young country. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad, and its concomitant building boom, reached California. Starting in the 1870s, a network of railroad tracks began to criss-cross Marin County.

Prior to the advent of the railroad, the century-old fir and redwood growth along California’s rugged north coast thrived relatively undisturbed. The lack of sheltered harbors hindered 19th century exploitation of these vast timber resources. In the 1870s, however, railroad tracks extended into the virgin forests, providing access to enormous stands of quality lumber. Although railroads were built primarily to transport harvested timber from the northwest, limited commuter lines were initially introduced as connections to the ferries to San Francisco. Once San Francisco had been built and most of the lumber harvested, however, the rail lines began to emphasize commuting to perpetuate the economics of the City Center. The railroads of Marin were built at a time when there was little or no existing infrastructure for transportation. Rail lines often followed the most efficient path between towns, creating wide and easy gradient passages for the steam and electric engines. There were three primary ferry landing spots, one each in San Quentin, Tiburon, and Sausalito, which served as the destination points for the rail lines.

As the railroads transported the harvested timber and suburban dwellers toward the City Center, the railroad companies did not anticipate the impact of the automobile. By the 1930s, America’s love affair with the automobile was in full bloom. Two bridges were open to San Francisco, highways were expanding, and the train system needed upgrading. The demise of the Bay Area’s retail systems was hastened by General Motors, Standard Oil, Mack Truck, National City Bus Lines, Phillips Petroleum, and others, who were all found guilty of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1949 for systematically dismantling rail service all across the country and replacing the rails with buses. For this, they were fined $5,000 each. Rail systems disappeared literally overnight to be replaced by autos and buses built by General Motors and Mack, fueled by Chevron and Phillips, stocked with tires built by Firestone. Solely in pursuit of profit, at the expense of the common good, these corporations all but eliminated the rail transit system. (“Bay Area Transit”, Cantenary Video Productions, 1986)

Although Marin County’s railroad system no longer operates, its legacy is an efficient, yet idle, Intra-County Transportation corridor. This corridor could be reintroduced as a “Bicycle Freeway.” “Bicycle Freeways” are uninterrupted and wide-laned, facilitate two-way traffic, feature exits and on-ramps, overpasses and underpasses, have no pedestrians, and allow human-powered vehicles only. In particular, opening Bicycle Freeways between Sausalito, Mill Valley, Larkspur, Kentfield, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Tiburon, Ross, Fairfax, Woodacre, Lagunitas, Pt. Reyes and Bolinas would allow people to commute and travel among these areas, sometimes faster than by automobile, albeit in a much more healthy manner.

“Bicycle Freeways” are 90% complete, would reduce pollution and congestion and would meet the public’s increasing demands for real alternatives. However, current county policy mandates that bike paths cannot be built on any old railways that may be used for rail service in the future.   Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of current thinking is that the planning process does not take into account the potential of the bicycle as a realistic transportation alternative. For example, Larkspur Landing, which is being developed into Marin’s mega-transportation center, relies on autos, buses and a proposed light rail but does not provide for any realistic bicycle access. If the rail lines were made into Bicycle Freeways, access to Larkspur Landing by bicycle would be more efficient than any other form of transportation. Cyclists commuting from the north, south, or east of Larkspur Landing would probably get to work faster on a Bicycle Freeway than they could by any other alternative form of transportation if they lived within seven miles. Ferries could also be made bicycle compatible, complete with storage lockers.

The County has recently retained a firm to study the possibility of developing bikeways along the side of railways. However, this study is constrained by limited vision and an outdated way of thinking. What we need is a paradigm shift which focuses on Intra-County Transportation and the use of alternative resources such as building Bicycle Freeways instead of rail lines, additional auto HOV lanes, or bus routes. This paradigm shift may catch the auto industry and those of the City Center mentality by surprise. The automobile, like the railroads, may underestimate the power of its heir apparent, human-powered vehicles, particularly the bicycle.

Author's Note

Looking back on these pieces always puts a smile on my face. I worked on the history sections with my father quite extensively. He was a history teacher in San Francisco. We always had a fun time going over the historical highlights to weave the story together. I regretted having limited word space limiting my ability to pontificate about what my father and I considered to be additional relevant historical facts, which were left on the editorial room floor. I also smile at radical suggestions such as no pedestrians being allowed on the "human powered vehicle system." Of course, at the time the articles were written bicyclists were 100% excluded from the process so it did look like a zero-sum game from my position then. As we have moved forward we have found that our greatest allies have been other forms of transportation which, while not as efficient as human beings riding bicycles, are nonetheless great partners such as trains, buses, ferries, and pedestrians. In fact, WTB-TAM has incorporated 100% that pedestrian and humans are fully integrated with bicycles in the future vision.