Controlling Chaos
Eric Santana
Controlling Chaos There is a common understanding that growth in any aspect of the economy is a grand concept. However, when growth begins to start spreading out in such a manner that it becomes uncontrollable, there is an inherent issue. Such is the case in David Carle’s essay “Sprawling Gridlock”. Carle mentions several pervading issues and problems with the rapid growth and spread of Southern California, and outlines measures taken against the expansion. Carle’s resolve and purpose of this essay is to describe and illustrate the issue of the uncontrolled spread of urbanization, and the relation of this rapid growth to the quality of life of its inhabitants. Carle outlines rapid, spread out growth for problems such as traffic congestion, land developers putting pressure on land owners, and the accountability of citizens, businesses, and developers in financing the repairs to this damaged infrastructure. According to Carle, the traffic congestion that was consuming Southern California through the 1990’s was becoming a nightmare that threatened the livelihood of all of its participants. “Road Rage” was born and was the result of creeping, gridlocked freeways that frustrated commuters spent hours in getting from point A to point B. The spread, development, construction, and growth of urbanized communities along these freeways compounded and multiplied the severity of these congested motorways. This was costing two billion dollars in wasted time and petrol. The correlation between these motorways and the urbanized spread began in the early 1900’s. Back then, the Pacific Electric trolley cars carried more than one hundred million passengers over around one thousand miles of track. The independence an automobile represented appealed to citizens and soon changed the way they commute from “mass-transit” to “rapid-transit”. This change begun with the construction of the Arroyo Seco Parkway in 1940 (the first motorway opened in California and connected
Controlling Chaos There is a common understanding that growth in any aspect of the economy is a grand concept. However, when growth begins to start spreading out in such a manner that it becomes uncontrollable, there is an inherent issue. Such is the case in David Carle’s essay “Sprawling Gridlock”. Carle mentions several pervading issues and problems with the rapid growth and spread of Southern California, and outlines measures taken against the expansion. Carle’s resolve and purpose of this essay is to describe and illustrate the issue of the uncontrolled spread of urbanization, and the relation of this rapid growth to the quality of life of its inhabitants. Carle outlines rapid, spread out growth for problems such as traffic congestion, land developers putting pressure on land owners, and the accountability of citizens, businesses, and developers in financing the repairs to this damaged infrastructure. According to Carle, the traffic congestion that was consuming Southern California through the 1990’s was becoming a nightmare that threatened the livelihood of all of its participants. “Road Rage” was born and was the result of creeping, gridlocked freeways that frustrated commuters spent hours in getting from point A to point B. The spread, development, construction, and growth of urbanized communities along these freeways compounded and multiplied the severity of these congested motorways. This was costing two billion dollars in wasted time and petrol. The correlation between these motorways and the urbanized spread began in the early 1900’s. Back then, the Pacific Electric trolley cars carried more than one hundred million passengers over around one thousand miles of track. The independence an automobile represented appealed to citizens and soon changed the way they commute from “mass-transit” to “rapid-transit”. This change begun with the construction of the Arroyo Seco Parkway in 1940 (the first motorway opened in California and connected