^^ More reason to be scared when global peak oil happens. A place like OC where cars are truly the only real choice, that's a scary thought when you think how expensive gas will be after peak oil.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Orange Grove: O.C. prefers more lanes to trains
Adding roadway capacity provides real traffic relief versus
mass-transit schemes.
By JERRY AMANTE
Mayor Pro Tem of Tustin, a director of the Orange County Transportation Authority
Orange County transportation leaders have a clear-eyed understanding that freeway widenings and
arterial improvements provide real traffic relief, and many officials in Los Angeles County who have
placed nearly all their eggs in one basket – transit basket – don't like the comparisons.
The Orange County Transportation Authority is completing the final couple miles of widening the
Santa Ana (Interstate 5) Freeway, all the way up to the L.A. County line, and a widening of the San
Diego (I-405) Freeway is next on the agenda. This has some L.A. leaders in an uproar because,
while they continue their decades-long practice of flushing millions in transportation tax dollars
down the drain on public transit, their constituents are increasingly noticing the difference between
the intermittent traffic on Orange County freeways and the gridlock they experience on L.A.
freeways.
There is a philosophical difference between OCTA's reputation as a road-builder – at least since the
proposed CenterLine light-right system was laid to rest several years ago – and Los Angeles'
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which focuses its resources on subways and rail. What it
boils down to is that,
in Orange County we're proud to build lanes, not trains.
Many Democrats in Sacramento were apoplectic about the governor's proposal earlier this summer
to help balance the state budget by trimming the bloated public transit budget. But while buses,
trains, monorails and subways seem like enticing transportation solutions in theory, they simply
don't pencil out. Not in terms of true traffic relief for the vast majority of commuters and certainly not
from a fiscal standpoint.
Consider this statistic: Nationwide, spending on public transit has increased seven-fold since 1960.
And what have those billions of dollars done for commuters? Not much. During that same period,
the number of public transit users has dropped by 63 percent and today less than five percent of all
Americans use public transportation.
Over the past 30 years the United States has increased road capacity by 5 percent while we have
143 percent more cars on the road today than we did in 1977. But for some reason, despite the fact
that money put into freeways is 11 times as cost-effective as money put into light rail, in most of
California roadways remain the red-headed stepchild of transportation improvements.
Earlier this summer the Reason Foundation released its 16{+t}{+h} annual report on the
Performance of State Highway Systems. In the category of "Urban Interstate Congestion,"
California ranked dead last of all 50 states. Drivers in Los Angeles spend on average 93 hours
every year sitting in traffic. That's more than two full work weeks – more than most people get to
spend on vacation every year.
It's time to fix our roads and build new ones.
Still,
there are Democrats in Sacramento who are so zealous in their belief that public transit is the
only answer, that they have even gone so far as to try to pass legislation to stop new highway
construction – even if it's hundreds of miles outside their districts.
For example, after 25 years of planning and 10 years of environmental review, the Foothill-Eastern
Transportation Corridor Agency Board, where I sit as vice chair, voted to approve the 16-mile
connection of the Foothill (241) Toll Road to the I-5, south of San Clemente. Despite the fact that
this roadway will be built without any state tax dollars because it is a public toll road, Assemblyman
Jared Huffman, a Marin County Democrat, has introduced Assembly Bill 1457 in an effort to block
this traffic relief project.
This roadway will comply with both the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), but following the environmental process is not
Huffman's goal – killing this road project is.
Whether it is completing the toll road system or implementing Measure M, Orange County's
self-imposed half-cent sales tax that primarily goes to improving our local roadways and freeways,
Orange County will continue to forge ahead with widening its freeways and city streets and building
new roads, even if we make Los Angeles look bad by comparison.
satollparty.com
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Yeah, I’m going write the Mayor of Tustin and thank him for my daily 45 min. to an hour, 16 mile commute to work, while having absolutely no alternative but to drive the freeway, 
which isn’t on the list to be widened anytime soon.
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