Yogi Berra Attacks Pasadena!

Plans are afoot to slash traffic in central Pasadena...by force. Actually, it's not quite as nefarious as it sounds. Charles Cooper in the Arcadia Weekly reports:

The City Council Monday approved a plan to reduce vehicle trips by local employees to businesses within the central city, including the city government itself.

Pasadena now has a trip reduction program in place, ordered by the Southern California’s Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), to required businesses to have 1.5 employees riding per car driven into the city center.

So, if they won't carpool voluntarily, SCAQMD (pronounced "ScackDoctor") ought to just force them. Of course.

But there's more to this story:

The city is also looking to reduce available parking in the downtown area, to force both employees and visitors into alternate mean of travel.

Oh, not just the local employees. Visitors get the boot from the car as well. But how could they "force visitors into alternate means of travel," just by reducing parking? Sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism. "No one drives there anymore. It's too hard to find a place to park."

That strategy isn't as bad as the one I've actually heard praised by officials in cities across the Southland. The latest dirty phrase seems to be "good congestion." Simply put, you should strive to "achieve traffic," because it will compel people from their cars and onto the streets; walking to the grocery store instead of driving or taking the Gold Line to Downtown LA instead of the 110. YB could have done even better with that sentiment: "Nobody drives there anymore. There's too much traffic."