A member of Citizens Against Freeway Expansion gives his take on the widening of I-5.
The proposed expansion of I-5 has exploded in size and cost from the original project approved by SANDAG in 2000, which was projected to cost $516 million, cover 20 miles and last 13 years. The current Caltrans proposal is projected to cost $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, cover 27 miles and last up to 40 years.More importantly, SANDAG stated emphatically at that time (as former Solana Beach Mayor Marion Dodson has repeated for 10 years) that there was to be "no taking of private property." When Caltrans Manager Arturo Jacobo was questioned about this contradiction at a June 2010 Solana Beach City Council meeting, he replied that with the present Caltrans proposal it was not possible to avoid taking private parcels.
A Caltrans document (see PDF) lists up to 230 homes or businesses that could be "partially acquired" and up to 36 parcels that could be "fully acquired." Six homeowners in Solana Beach have already received notices that Caltrans wants to acquire their property by eminent domain and as many as five parcels could be condemned in Encinitas.
Will the proposed expansion of I-5 relieve traffic congestion? The Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A & M University, which Caltrans helps to subsidize, states bluntly in its annual report on Urban Mobility: "You can't build your way out of congestion." After the proposed 40-year expansion program, it is doubtful that traffic would run smoothly for more than five years. Why? Because a freely running freeway attracts traffic from other routes of transportation, thus clogging itself—a major new freeway or freeway expansion attracts more development, which adds more traffic. In plain English, expansion doesn't solve the problem.
What are the alternatives? Mass transit is something the San Diego region has barely explored. Los Angeles, home of more freeways per square mile than any other city in the world—and the nation's worst congestion—is embarking on a crash program to rebuild the light rail system the city foolishly dismantled in the 1950s. A trolley line is now scheduled to be built from downtown San Diego to the UC San Diego campus and the UTC shopping center. It should be extended all the way to Oceanside.
Unfortunately, trolley lines cannot share the tracks with passenger or freight trains due to federal safety laws. The heavy truck traffic from San Ysidro transiting our county could and should be diverted to freight trains or barges to remove the slow-moving, highly polluting and very dangerous monster trucks from our freeways. Germany has banned such heavy trucks from their highways except at night, which would also lessen the congestion at rush hour.
Finally, some countries are beginning to charge drivers by the total number of miles they drive each day. Some also charge extra for entering heavily congested areas during weekdays, as the Conservative Mayor of London, England, has already done.
The 800-pound gorilla in the room is growth. Why is San Diego County the only California coastal county that does not have a Slow Growth or No Growth law in place? Have we ever had a referendum on the continuation of decades of rapid growth? These factors should all be considered when discussing the proposed I-5 expansion.
Steve Goetsch is chairman of the Solana Beach Public Safety Commission and the Solana Beach Clean and Green Committee. He works as a medical physicist at the San Diego Gamma Knife Center, assisting neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists in treatment of patients with brain tumors. He also teaches graduate students in medical physics at San Diego State University.
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