At the Jan. 22 city council meeting, representatives from The Boring Company gave a short presentation to the City Council and present members of the public, outlining Elon Musk’s vision for an underground transit system passing through Culver City.
“The tunnel will alleviate soul destroying traffic and augment public transit through the construction of a tunnel network,” said Jehn Balajadia, Boring Company operations coordinator.
The presentation included plans for a loop – high speed underground public transportation that will allow for single cars or multi-person pods.
Council Member Goran Eriksson said that Culver City should be a part of emerging technologies, while Mayor Jeffrey Cooper said that his fear of the unknown is overcome by his excitement for the project.
“We need other options,” Cooper said. “The traffic is horrible, and it’s getting worse.”
Not everyone was as excited though, with Council Member Meghan Sahli-Wells calling the idea “half-baked” at present. She also said that she was mad about comments recently made by Musk, referring to people who use public transport as “unsavory.”
“That means me,” Sahli-Wells said. “And my family.”
Local resident Marleen Pugach said that, while the idea isn’t without merit, she doesn’t want Culver City to be the guinea-pig. Meanwhile, Ken Mand said that the project looks fantastic, but there are many questions to be answered about while specific areas will feel the burden by construction and implementation, and how it will tie into existing planned transport initiatives.
Daniel Lee, running for City Council this year, said that we need to consider where the access points will be, and whether they’ll connect to existing transport infrastructure. He also wanted to encourage local hire, while asking how much it will cost.
Alex Fisch, also running for City Council, brought up the issue of first responders having to go underground if there is an incident during construction.