RAPID TRANSIT

[Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] We live to move and move to live. Get up and go is a quality to be admired in men, in animals, and in machines. Any kind of slowpoke is a fit subject for humor. [Music] Well, nearly any kind of slowpoke is a fit subject for humor. Complicating our urge to move is our urge to merge. We like to flock together in cities. And that, of course, is as it should be because that's where the people are, in the cities. And people are more interesting and stimulating and helpful to other people than anything else on earth. Our cities must grow and prosper. A going city is a growing city. New buildings pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. Property values going up, too. Busy, vital, productive people on the go. Moving and merging. Going and growing. And our cities can grow and prosper. To do it in grace and convenience, they need many things. And one of the most needed of these is a balanced transportation system. Such a system uses buses and automobiles to do what they do best, as well as rail rapid transit to do what it does best. In this kind of balanced system, going downtown on a field trip or coming home from work at rush hour is no trouble at all. And because rapid transit makes it easy to get downtown and get home from work, metropolitan areas all across the country can become better places to live, work, and play. When rapid transit brings a transportation system into balance, the center city becomes revitalized. a brighter, cleaner, more attractive place to work or shop. More city properties stay on the tax roles, and new ones are added. Suburban values build, too. Some of the country's most spacious suburbs didn't even exist until after rail transportation made the location easy and fast to reach from the city. For the ultimate convenience, some office people have moved in right on top of the tracks. They don't even have to go outside to catch a ride home. In some places, suburban apartments are going up at the end of the rapid line long before service is even scheduled to begin. [Music] And where rapid transit service has begun, buildings and property values go up all along the right of way. [Music] The system is fast. It's clean. It's quiet. It attracts people and business. It creates jobs. It builds prosperity for the metropolitan area. [Music] But most important of all, people can live better lives with rapid transit as the vital link in a balanced transportation system serving the lowdensity suburbs. Joe Corby, for instance, who likes country living, drives an easy six miles in 10 minutes to a spacious parking lot. Then he walks a very short way to the station. Sam Riddle is a kiss and ride passenger. His wife Helen doesn't mind driving him. The station is only a short run from home, and she likes having the car all day. [Music] Charlie Ferman takes a feeder bus to the station. He should. He lives right on the bus line. And Sally Carson, well, Sally still drives her own car all the way. And with so many people now riding rapid transit, driving is a lot better. Even so, the people who ride the rapid will get there just as soon as Sally will and just as comfortably, too. Today's rapid transit cars are clean and bright and cool. They're quiet for relaxing conversation and smooth for easy reading. And downtown, there are no parking problems, just a short walk to the office. Best of all, at the end of the day, Rapid Transit riders will get home easily and quickly and refreshed for the fuller life that the rapid has helped them to achieve. With Rapid Transit, there's more time for evenings with the family or for pleasant relaxation at the pool or even for enjoying the family car. for a change. With rapid transit, more people go in more comfort and more safety to more ball games. [Music] [Applause] They get a bigger bang out of living. [Music] All kinds of people live more, go to more places. do more things when the irritations are removed from the process of getting there. Do people like going places by train? When they can go in speed, in comfort, in convenience, they do every time. In many ways, rapid transit has proved itself to be the vital link between the lowdensity suburbs where people live and the downtown educational, cultural, and commercial centers where they draw their sustenance. And what makes this vital link so fast and efficient is its use of an exclusive right of way. An exclusive right of way through open cuts in outlying areas. An exclusive right of way on existing railroad property. An exclusive right of way down the center mall of expressways. an exclusive right of way underground where surface land is precious and needed for buildings, taxes, and jobs. It is this exclusive right of way that makes it possible for rapid transit trains to move large numbers of people swiftly and economically without interfering with normal local traffic. Among American cities soon to enjoy the advantages of balanced transportation is San Francisco. And what the Bay Area has done, other metropolitan areas can do also and in the same way. First, as a result of a special study commission recommendation, the state legislature established a rapid transit district with funds to plan a balanced transportation system. Second, a public information program explained to voters the millions of dollars that a coordinated transportation system would save. And finally, the voters of the region passed a $792 million bond issue. What area residents will get for this investment is a 75m rapid transit system linking all parts of the Bay Area together in the world's finest regional balanced transportation system. Bay Area planners estimate that it would cost more than twice as much to handle the same peak hour load with new freeways, bridges, and parking spaces, even if there were space without destroying the city. Residents who will be using the system expect to save more on their auto insurance than the rapid transit will cost them in increased property taxes. Costly. The Bay Area expects that the economic benefits of the system will outweigh costs by better than 3 to one. Fast speeds up to 80 miles an hour and a train every 90 seconds during rush hours. Comfortable, whisper quiet, smooth riding comfort. Good for the economy. 100,000 new jobs and paychecks. Good. It took big thinking and big doing. But if the people of the San Francisco Bay area can do it, so can the people of all other metropolitan areas with more than a half million population. These are the areas that should be considering now a balanced transportation system built around rapid transit. It starts with recognition and acceptance of the idea that rapid transit is the vital link in a balanced transportation system that will help your city grow and prosper and meet its tomorrows as a better place for everybody to work and live and play. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]