How do we keep Bakersfield's road system from turning into a copy of Los Angeles' dysfunctional, unpleasant spiderweb of streets?

I spent the last three months looking for the answer to that question.

http://www.bakersfield.com/...

I still haven't found a good answer. And I've become certain there is no easy one.

For decades Bakersfield has been completely unwilling to solve its own transportation problems. The average joe won't agree to let themselves be taxed. Developers don't want to be taxed any more than the next guy — so they've tried to limit increases in transportation impact fees the city and county charge. Failing that, they pass the cost on to the people who buy their homes and rent space in their office buildings and strip malls.

There is no counting on the state and federal govermentment — with the obvious exception of former Congressman Bill Thomas and his $630 million gift — for any cash to help us out with our $2 billion to $4 billion problem.

The result — our ambitious plans to build a system of new freeways and traffic outlets are drastically short on cash and way behind any schedule that would build freeways fast enough to avoid L.A.-style congestion.

"But Bakersfield traffic isn't that bad," you'd say.

And you'd be right, in a self-centered sort of way.

Solving a transportation problem takes decades of work. You cannot look at traffic today and say, "We're ok. We're not as bad as Los Angeles." That leads to procrastination and the assumption that the problem isn't pressing enough to solve as fast as humanly possible.

Let me explain it with a real world example...

The city of Bakersfield has been trying to build the Westside Parkway since 1980. City leaders think they can get work started by 2008 or 2009 — if they can figure out where to find $120 million they don't have.

That is 29 years to build one freeway. That's enough time for you to have a child, raise them, put them through college, see them start a career, get married and have children of their own.

In 29 years metro Bakersfield has grown from around 70,000 people to 350,000 people.

And that's just one freeway. Bakersfield needs to start building five new freeways immediately or it won't be handle the next 20 years of growth.

So what does Bakersfield do?

Do we build a mass transit system in a city where taking the bus is looked at as only an option for the chronically poor?

Do we outlaw cars?

Do we outlaw  new real estate development?

Do we try, once again, to pass a half-cent sales tax to fund road building?

Do we hope and pray the state will give us freeway money? They didn't this past week, but maybe if we pray long enough and hard enough the state bureaucrats will relent.

Do we double or triple the trasnportation impact fee on new development?

Do we do all those things?

Like I said — no easy answers.

What do you think Bakersfield?