Making the Grade

Why doesn't the 2005 Infrastructure Report Card which gives the County a "C+" in for its transportation efforts,

Orange County Infrastructure Improving, Though Not Acceptable, New Report from UC Irvine Civil and Environmental Engineering Affiliates Finds; Annual Investment of $4.8 Billion Necessary to Improve County Infrastructure over Next 10 Years,

square with the OCTA being recently named "No. 1 transportation system in the United States" by a professional association? 

The Report Card was put together by the UC Irvine Civil and Environmental Engineering Affiliates and the Orange County Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers.  It's supposed to be available here but it's not; so we're left with the Summary which says rather little, but does shill for Measure M:

Transportation - Orange County has achieved high standards for transportation system maintenance and improvements through Measure M. Additional progress will require high levels of investment. To continue maintaining and improving our transportation system, we need the reauthorization of Measure M.

The OCTA also scored high in the Register's "Innovators in O.C." series.  Per this week-long focus piece, the OCTA gets a stroke in Trains and buses on 10/23, quoting their Chief Engineer,

We have bits and pieces, but not the whole integrated system, OCTA planning director Paul Taylor says. We mainly have cars, plus the nation's 11th-largest bus system, and Metrolink, which is mostly for commuters to Los Angeles.

It's those damn cars, Mr. Engineer.  And it's not acceptable that a freeway interchange gets prejudicially shut down as we're about to see in a few hours: 22/5 connector to close tonight.  Such a loss of service wouldn't be acceptable to your bus or train riders.  While the need for an "integrated" system might make for good reading and strokes from the academicians and press, the real need is simpler: pavement.  Autos carry more people than trains and buses, and deserve the transit system's priority -- and no more car pool lanes, please -- just pavement, as much as you can afford and as fast as you can put it down.

Comments

[calwatch]

Except that we need more carpool lanes because the carpool system is actually jammed a lot of the time. Actually, even better, make them HOT lanes, and make the lanes pay for itself. You laissez faire people should love that.

The problem is that we are sizing our roads for peak flow, which is an extremely inefficient way to size things. I am more annoyed when I am stuck on the 405 at 4 pm on a Saturday moving 15 mph because that is supposed to handle that level of traffic. But I expect traffic congestion at rush hour. Free roads should be able to handle the "85th percentile" of traffic, and toll lanes can siphon off the rest. And OCTA does need to run buses and trains, because otherwise the economy would suffer. Look at all the handwringing that occurred after "Straightlining", for instance, when the maids found out it took them twice as long to get to work.

As for the 22/5 connector, what alternative do you want them to take? Extend construction even further instead of the temporary inconvenience? The option of taking the 55 to the 5 seems like a perfectly good route during the midday and weekend. Sure, you don't get to cut the corner by taking the 5, but Downtown Santa Ana drivers can exit onto Bristol or Main, and everyone else can take the 55. If they cut out the 22 to the 57, there is a legitimate complaint there because the detour is many miles out of your way. But the 22/5? That's minor in comparison.

[Logical]

This blog should be at the forefront of an effort to defeat the extension of Measure M. Most all electeds support the extension because it's not a new tax. I believe this tax is unnecessary regardless of all the propaganda to the contrary. As usual, efficient planning and spending without the usual waste will allow for the standard transportation funds to fulfill the needs without Measure M extension (unless, of course, they waste billions on that tunnel nonsense).

[rational exuberance]

Calwatch believes that "OCTA does need to run buses and trains because, otherwise the economy will suffer." And is an apologist for ridiculously long construction delays and closures? It's this type of "staffthink" that drives OCTA and wastes our time and money. I'm with Logical . . . Vote No on the Measure M extension. By the way, an extension is a NEW TAX when the original tax is slated to expire!

[Allan Bartlett]

Get rid of the measure M tax I say. It should not take a year to finish that 22/5 connector lane. That is completely ridiculous. It's all a matter of priorities. The OCTA is trying to blow the M money for mass transit when they should be concentrating on widening the roads and freeways and adding tunnels and other capacity. No one rides mass transit in OC. Everyone uses their cars to get around. This is like the elephant sitting in a romm. It's so obvious. Why do they keep trying to shove more monorails/centerlines/light rail projects down our throat? It's so wasteful and useless. While they're at they can get rid of the carpool lanes and make them for everyone. No one carpools to work so get rid of those stupid lanes.

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[RoadWarrior]

Actually, OCTA has more people riding its buses and trains than most major metropolitan cities... I think they're in the top 15. Though you do have a point -- I'll agree that no one who reads this blog probably ever steps foot on a bus. That would be a risky venture -- you might get "transit cooties."

Allan, you should really take a field trip to central Santa Ana -- there's a whole part of the county there you've probably never seen. It's a strange place, where not everyone is white and rich, where some of the signs aren't in English (hablas espanol?) and where the buses are (gasp!) almost always full of people.

How is OCTA "blowing" all the Measure M money on mass transit? 75 percent of M goes to freeways and roads... 25 percent to transit, mostly Metrolink, which rich, educated working professionals actually use.

Have you ever been to L.A.? The freeways suck there -- OC's are all twice as wide, but just as crowded. On the other hand, L.A. has tons of mass transit service and OC has a very minimal system. So where do you really think the priorities have been?

I hope OCTA builds a new freeway through your backyard. That would be money well spent.

[Allan Bartlett]

"Allan, you should really take a field trip to central Santa Ana -- there's a whole part of the county there you've probably never seen."

Actually I know downtown Santa Ana real well. I went to high school in the ghetto at Mater Dei. I had two of my vehicles stolen by the F-Troop gang while I was in class. We played all our football games at Santa Ana stadium. Other than that the place is a complete slum and I have no need to visit the place if necessary.

"It's a strange place, where not everyone is white and rich,"

So what you're saying is that the citizens of Santa Ana are poor and brown. I'll go along with that not to mention that probably half of the people there are illegal aliens. Thanks for that insight Roadwarrior.

"where some of the signs aren't in English (hablas espanol?) and where the buses are (gasp!) almost always full of people."

I have nothing against all those illegals except that they all broke the law and should be deported. It's nothing personal. They just broke the law that's all. Last time I checked, English is the official language of the United States so they might want to speak it if they're going to assimilate into our culture. So in addition to subsidizing the illegals education, health care, other welfare etc, we are subsidizing their transportation. I got it. We'll be transferring the deed to Mexico for Santa Ana in what, a couple of years?

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[RoadWarrior]

Wow, someone is in desperate need of diversity training. Your intolerance is just astounding. I know you think every brown person you see on the street has come here illegally and that you’d just love to don your Minuteman badge, round them all up, stuff them in your SUV, and use the carpool lane to drive them back to the border, but come on – embrace the melting pot that is Southern California or move somewhere else. Being brown isn't an admission of guilt.

Lest we get off the topic, which is transportation, I appreciate your commentary since it’s now quite clear that you’re not so much opposed to the concept of public transportation, you just can’t handle being in a confined space with other races. Anyone who can't afford a car should be packed on a bus and removed from the county, right?

So the only solution to all our traffic woes is to lay down more pavement. I definitely agree that we need more and better roads, but where??? No one supports the government taking private property by eminent domain, but Orange County is built out – every freeway is lined with homes and businesses, and no one wants elevated lanes. So what’s the answer?

[Allan Bartlett]

I do support the taking of property for public uses i.e. widening the freeways, etc. As long as it is not being done for economic develoment i.e the Kelo decision I don't have a problem with eminent domain. It helps to also give fair market value for any property taken.

I must also thank you for outing yourself as being for anarchy and against the rule of law. Now I know from what perspective you see things. You can call it whatever you want, but most illegal aliens have brown skin. If you're going to enforce the laws and you are a cop or an ICE agent, you go where the crimes are. Every person who has crossed the border illegally into this country is a felon. Sorry if you can't deal with that.

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Allan-
Maybe I'm confused, but last time I checked, there was no "official" language of the USA. Can you please tell me when/where that changed?

[OpenMinded]

Allan,

I applaud your efforts in keeping the illegal hispanic immgrants out of of this country and upholding the laws of the United States, but why are you so focused on hispanics? How come you're not protesting all the illegal asian immigrants, and how about the ones from Eastern Europe? Also, how far back should we go in enforcing immigrantion laws and getting rid of immgrants? Should we go back 1, 2 or 3 generations? And what about all those illegal Italian, Irish and Western European immigrants?

Getting back on the topic of transporation, OCTA has done what it was supposed to under Measure M. M clearly spells out what the sales tax money was supposed to be spent on, and it was. Many of the freeway projects under M were completed on time and on budget!

All you posters can rant and rave about adding more pavement, but realistic. Provide us, the unenlightened ones with a detailed plan on how to do it. If I'm correct, the SR-22 project underway is only going to take 800 days! Originaly, Caltrans wasn't going to have that project done until 2009. That seems pretty efficient to me.

"Someone is in desperate need of diversity training"-Roadwarrior, it may shock you, but many of us don't need or want diversity training. We want to be able to go into Mission Hospital ER, and not feel like we are in Tijuana (and if you want to put some big $ on it, I GUARANTEE the large majority are illegal). We want to use the billions of dollars that we spend on illegals to improve our schools and public services. My LEGAL Italian descendants assimilated into this society three generations ago. I don't need training to learn that Santa Ana gangs are not my friends.

[Lurk]

Open: You might check back on our posts re. the OCTA (try this Google search: octa site:www.ocblog.net) and you'd find the 22 expansion is a miserably designed $400+ million insult to our intelligence. Its only COMPLETE end-to-end lane is for HOVs (car pools). It will provide for some "auxiliary" lanes which run between certain exits, but they don't provide the capacity this wasted HOV lane does. Further, this lane does NOT join with other HOV lanes at either end of the freeway, or at the Crush -- therefore, it dumps its soccer mom users into two of the busiest interchanges in the country.

It doesn't matter how fast they build it -- it's virtually useless.

[Allan Bartlett]

I say deport every illegal alien regardless of the country of origin. It just so happens that the vast majority of the illegals are hispanic. That's just the truth. Sorry if it hurts so bad. They're either here legally or not. If not, send em on the first bus back to Mexico City or wherever they came from.

As for how Measure M money should be spent, I think they should dump all mass transit projects except for buses. It really isn't up to me though because I am not one of the persons entrusted with the sacred duty of spending taxpayer funds wisely. That is up to the OCTA board and they don't have a very good track record in that department if you asked me.

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[calwatch]

Orange County spends a pretty high amount of money on highways and local streets today, compared to other counties. Sure, the percentage for transit can drop to 20% (San Bernardino) or 18% (Riverside), but it wouldn't make that much of a difference.

The fact is that the CenterLine was a waste of money, but it's been cancelled and put to death. Metrolink is too expensive for the average Joe and is essentially a train service for those who can drive but don't feel like doing so. When you count the money originally budgeted on the Centerline that wasn't spent on the project, it puts OCTA's actual contribution on transit in the below 20% range. It is pretty likely that the OCTA Board won't figure out what to spend the money on in the "fixed guideway transit" portion before the time runs out.

As far as the carpool lane, Lurk, what else do they expect them to do? The EPA (i.e. the Bush Administration) has essentially banned construction of mixed flow lanes in urban areas because of air quality restrictions. Never mind that Orange County is a distinct air basin from the rest of Southern California, and that the Santa Ana Canyon is too narrow for the bad air to waft into Riverside County. They are tossed in the same boat with LA. It's either a carpool lane or no lane at all, and I would take the carpool lane. Perhaps you should try taking the carpool lane sometime and find your own frustrations with the lane. It's not as free flowing as it may appear at first glance.

[Logical]

Hey calwatch, how about a little documentation on this:
>The EPA (i.e. the Bush Administration) has essentially banned construction of mixed flow lanes in urban areas because of air quality restrictions.<

What do you mean by "mixed used"?
What do you mean by "essentially"? It's either banned or it's not.
I'm not sure if pointing out that the EPA is part of current administration was some kind of dig, but you're correct, it is part of whichever administration is in office:
W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, Carter (I think that's where the EPA began).
SO, in regards to the restriction you point out, if accurate, during what administration was that restriction established?

[calwatch]

A "mixed flow" lane is basically a freeway lane that is used for through traffic for anyone. Not an auxiliary lane, not a truck lane, not a carpool lane, etc.

The technical term for this is "conformity", i.e., a Metropolitan Planning Organization (in this case, SCAG) must conform to the EPA regulations as laid out by the EPA Administrator, who of course is a member of the Administration.

See this link: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/conform/2004trng/session12.ppt Note that when an area is under a "conformity lapse", that means that no projects except transit, park and ride, and "safety" projects can continue. Atlanta was under a conformity lapse a few years ago, which essentially halted highway construction in that metropolis. Once again, "essentially" is used because not all construction is banned. If there is a road widening for "safety", as opposed to increasing flow, then that project is allowed. An example might be a sudden lane drop due to an obstruction that has since been removed.

This link explains that carpool lanes are the only way to add lanes while maintaining conformity, because they take longer to congest. The argument goes that if you add another mixed flow lane, it is likely to congest in three or four years (see the 210 freeway in San Bernardino County for an example), and the cars stuck in traffic cause pollution. It is better to have three lanes in each direction stuck in traffic than four, because the pollution goes up by 33%. But the carpool lane might take, say, ten years to congest, like they do regularly now on the Orange Freeway, when I carpool occasionally to do business down there. So the net pollution increase, because the cars are moving at freer flow (50 mph vs. 10-20), is signifcantly less than 33%. It's part of the theory of induced demand, which is under a lot of debate, but has been the norm at government agencies for years.

Conformity is a regulation based off the Clean Air Act, and the interpretations can be modified at any time by the Bush Administration, and the law itself can be changed at any time by the Republican Congress. All they have to do is modify the rule or pass a law amending the Clean Air Act.