Flickr user Vrysxy.
A bill about to be considered in the state senate could reshape freeway expansion debates all along California’s populated coastline. If it becomes law, it would require building out mass transit before any major highway expansion could be completed in a coastal area. The California Coastal Commission voted to endorse it this week, and an initial hearing could come as early as next month.
The bill introduced by Senator Christine Kehoe, a Democrat of San Diego, could put the brakes on the controversial proposal to expand Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County to as many as 14 lanes. By favoring mass transit over more lanes, it could also help the state’s regions meet ambitious SB 375 goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In its current form, the bill requires:
- that Caltrans work with local agencies to make a list of congestion reduction goals and state how the proposed project will meet those goals without “compromising the unique features of the coastal zone”;
- that Caltrans consider all modifications that will need to be made to local streets as well as other road projects nearby and include this analysis in the expansion project’s environmental review;
- that projects projected to increase traffic on local streets must identify, fund, and implement mitigation measures before the expansion project can continue;
- that, when there are multiple proposed projects in a corridor, projects be implemented one at a time – construction on project B could only start after project A is finished – and that projects be monitored to make sure that they are meeting their goals before continuing to the next project, and;
- that if there is a public transit service in the corridor that will be affected by the project and there is a program for investment in this service as part of the corridor plan, this will be completed first and any highway expansion component would not start until the transit upgrades are completed.
SignOnSanDiego.com reports that, at the request of the Coastal Commission, Senator Kehoe will be revising the bill to focus more on meeting SB 375 goals. The report also indicates that the revised bill will clarify the transit options section and will stipulate that Caltrans base construction decisions on the most recent Census data.
It has a long way to go before becoming law, but this bill has the potential to become another tool that will give communities more say over what gets built in their towns.
Download Senate Bill 468 as a PDF.
I wonder if this will be more effective than the SF transit first policy…
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This sounds very good. Many other parts of the state would stand to benefit from this, too. The “Novato Narrows” project along the Marin-Sonoma line is one such place (not having read the bill, perhaps this area would be covered by it, too).
Somewhat relevant to this bill, is the absurdity of the MTC funding major highway expansions (like the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel) adjacent to publically funded mass transit lines. It’s as if the government is decreasing the value of its own investment in mass transit and undermining the ridership by further facilitating greater car travel adjacent to it.
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I live near this area in South Orange County and can testify that current rail, roughly along the I-5 from SD to OC is nice, I use it often, but trains are over crowded with infrequent service, not enough bike racks, all this largely due to the fact that its mostly single track with only few points where trains can pass, antiquated stations, basically 1 slow down and whole day is full of delays.
Expansion of rail to at least 2 tracks and other improvements are sorely needed, this is one most heavily used segments in the country after all, but the main problem is super rich NIMBYs on the beach that will fight any upgrades to this track, later train running times etc. I-5 having been built much later and hence a mile or so inland, is correspondingly located next to much less flush neighbors.
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