Pacifica Tribune Letters to the Editor, 2/18/14. "Fix the highway" by Bob Hutchinson
| The best highway solution proposed came from Caltrans research |
Build an overpass at Vallemar. Highway engineers at Caltrans found this option to be much more costly and destructive of a unique neighborhood. Several longtime businesses would have to be removed and a monstrous cement overpass be built. Caltrans decided widening is a better alternative.
Traffic light timing. A company whose specialty is setting up highly complex traffic light timing systems was brought in to study our problem. This company that is expert in this field found that timing lights in this instance will not work because there is not enough capacity on the road.
School schedule. The school district has stated that changing start times or buying buses is not an option. Furthermore, the school is not the problem, as there's heavy traffic in the evening, on weekends, and in the summer.
The short section Caltrans wants to widen is not a monstrosity that will ruin Pacifica and whisk cars through town, bypassing businesses. There are not huge sound walls or anything that will obstruct views. This very short <1 mile safety improvement will reduce accidents, emergency vehicle response time, gas consumption, and commute times as well as making it safer and easier to exit/enter at Vallemar and Fassler.
Our emergency workers, including three retired fire battalion chiefs, have said this widening is urgently needed to prevent delays that can cost lives.
These "alternatives," including widening the shoulder and building an overpass, not only would not work but would guarantee the loss of $50 million in Measure A money to another city that isn't stuck on fighting progress. And that is the ultimate goal of the Gang of No, to make sure nothing changes."
Note: photograph from The American Genius. Permission to re-print the entire Letter to the Editor article from Bob Hutchinson.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
16 comments:
'Everybody's' late? I'm not, because I know how long it'll take to get through there. The same time it took yesterday, last week, last year and the same time it took me 10 years ago. Why does 'everybody' else have trouble doing math on commute times?
"Caltrans research" is an oxymoron.
Anybody knows that hippies know hell more than Caltrans any day of the week. They's already come up with plenty o super idears. I mean they must be good, I seen them on the interwebz.
Caltrans research is pretty much guided by the need to grow and expand the Caltrans bureaucracy. They serve the public because the public uses the roads they build, but job #1 is looking out for Caltrans.
If you can't come up with a better idea than Caltrans, you're not trying.
Oh yeahs, I would trust out of work artists when designing my freeway. I mean, whenever I need a plumber I just find a homeless person to do the work. Engineering degrees are way over rated. And yeah their super smart ideas so far like like oh um the telecommuting, yeah we should work over the phone more. Or we can bus the chilren. Just bus them. And the chilren can walk and change when they start. It's basically the chilrens doing all this traffic you know.
1042, true Caltrans is the State Department that builds the roads in California. But they don't need Pacifica, Pacifica and the region needs them.
As for your mistrust of professionals and researched findings, well. Maybe talk to 1123, who has undisclosed "creative ideas".
Eh, I don't think so Kathy, but you and I and the fool on the hill with his hippie-schtick, lol, will have no say although we'll talk a lot. Time will tell. The best laid plans of mice and men and Caltrans are all subject to the power of unintended consequences. Time will tell.
An independent report commissioned by the California State Transportation Agency found that Caltrans desperately needs fundamental reforms.
The report recommended a sweeping overhaul of Caltrans. Among the suggested changes were to focus on transportation projects that encourage more dense development rather than freeway-enabled sprawl, management changes to push innovation, and more local control over decision-making. “Caltrans today is significantly out of step with best practice in the transportation field and with the state of California’s policy expectations. It is in need of modernization,” according to the report. Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, said he wanted to “change the culture at Caltrans.”
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/01/30/report-concludes-caltrans-is-stuck-in-past-needs-major-overhaul/
http://calsta.ca.gov/res/docs/pdfs/2013/SSTI_Independent%20Caltrans%20Review%201.28.14.pdf
I wouldn't trust Caltrans as far as I could throw them.
"Local transportation officials are demanding that Caltrans reveal any problems with the new Bay Bridge eastern span after the state agency failed to tell them for nearly two months that potentially corrosive rainwater was leaking into the steel superstructure.
"An oversight committee can't oversee if it is not provided with information from the project staff," said Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. "I have made that clear in no uncertain terms."
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Caltrans-kept-Bay-Bridge-leaks-from-local-5246065.php
In response to the comment thread of anonymous 11:49
CalTrans recommended a bypass. With strong public pressure about a sound alternative, they recently opened "their" acclaimed tunnels to great fanfare. Speaking up and making sure the right approach is taken is what this debate is about. Some level of improvement is needed, but a widening isn't necessarily the answer. Citizens -- all of us -- have the right and responsibility to speak out.
1042, true Caltrans is the State Department that builds the roads in California. But they don't need Pacifica, Pacifica and the region needs them.
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Actually, many regions are now working locally to find the solution that is best for them, from the recent report on Caltrans, it's clear they don't have all the answers, though there does seem to be some willingness by new people in the agency to find consensus.
413, no sale. Here's just me speaking out. The bypass (cut through the mountain) would have been much faster and cheaper. Waiting 20-30 years for a two-lane tunnel was a big waste of time and resources.
And here we go again. The traffic bottleneck in Pacifica has been studied, and the solution is in front of us.
It'll come down to the CA Coastal Commission. They may find an overpass at Vallemar to be preferable for all sorts of reasons and may even address design. It won't come out of their budget.
The coastal commission won't be considering the overpass.
And BTW, the overpass option still incudles significant widening the highway along the same stretch and losing even more businesses.
The only reason the NIMBY's like the overpass is because it will tie this thing up for years and probably stop any project from ever being built.
757 I'm not aware of any Nimbys that like the overpass solution. The only reason you claim they do is because you want to discredit that option for your own probably poorly thought out reasons. Caltrans clearly stated grade separation would provide better traffic operations than the widening. Is there something else you want to accomplish here? Tsk tsk tsk, those fuddy duddys at the CCC frown on projects that enhance coastal development. Particularly when there is an alternative that offers a superior solution to the problem. As far as business loss at Vallemar, without a final design, who knows what an overpass would actually do? I worry much more about damage to our only visitor serving district at Rockaway with all that TOT and other revenue. Meanwhile, you just nimby this and nimby that if it makes you feel better. Nimby on!
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