Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Highway 1 widening is the traffic bottleneck solution


No more "help" please from the Joker or Lex Luthor
 Pacifica Tribune 6/11/13, Letters to the Editor.  "We need highway widening" by Bob Hutchinson

"In regards to the ridiculous letter from Peter Loeb and his attorney Hal Bohner to our city council. Are you kidding me? Mr. Loeb haven't you done enough damage to this town? Please don't "help" us anymore or we may soon be bankrupt.

In case you didn't know, these two characters wrote a funny letter to all our councilpersons. In a NUT-shell they said due to some 1980 city plan our council cannot support the Caltrans widening of Highway 1. Really that's the best you can do? I know our council (except for one) won't fall for this garbage. It is Caltrans who is planning and building this badly needed project, not our council.

Pacifica has needed Highway 1 widened for over 20 years. It has become a real safety concern for Fire and PD getting through. The traffic backups are causing more pollution and carcinogens to be spewed into our air and environment. And it is not just the morning school traffic that's the problem. It's the afternoon and weekends, too. 

The traffic congestion cannot be solved by changing school hours, timing traffic lights or getting more people to telecommute or car pool as the anti-widening group has said. These are the same people who have opposed any progress in Pacifica. I hope our city council continues to ignore them."   Read article.

Note:  Bob Hutchinson has submitted the full letter to the editor for reprint.  The abover photograph is from  Comic Book movie. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

LTE of the year!

Good job Hutch!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's nice, but for a more immediate and certain benefit to Pacifica I wish our city council had ignored them and their friends Monday night with that planning commission dud. That was something wholly within council's control.

Anonymous said...

Council is going to find out the hard way when Bohner and Loeb, sue them over highway 1.

The hippies will bite the city council right in the ass.

Tom Clifford said...

Cal-Trans has again pushed back the date it will release the FEIR It is now sometime in July.

Anonymous said...

There are so many ways this thing can get derailed. Loeb and Bohner are just firing the first shot.

Just take a look at the tunnel history and the pressure brought to bear on Caltrans by the Sierra Club and others. As early as the mid-70's Caltrans wanted to build a bypass calling it the best and most economical solution. That was their expert, professional opinion. Sound familiar? Nonetheless, enviros and others wanted a tunnel. As the fight wore on documents were found in the 90's by tunnel supporters that proved that Caltrans had grossly overestimated the cost of a tunnel. This resulted in the Federal Highway Admin ordering Caltrans to re-evaluate the tunnel solution.

Meanwhile county voters passed Measure T calling for a tunnel solution. Caltrans agreed and construction finally began in 2005 with the opening earlier this year. $439 million price tag and several decades, old-timers will say as many as five, to get it built.

You better believe the enviros will join forces to change a highway-widening plan they see as growth-inducing, a progressive segmentation of highway 1, and not the best solution to traffic congestion. They'll fight for the coast. Deja vu.

Anonymous said...

Has Loeb ever made a rational argument about anything. While on council he looked like he was suffering from a hernia while thinking of what to say. Bohner used to be the city attorney so he's feasted at the city trough. These guys are relics. It's time for Pacifica to take a step forward. What's the bitch about making our main transportation corridor safe? Speed limit is still 45 and there are still 2 stop lights. No different than El Camino there at Tanforan. The world's rotation didn't stop when that was improved. I'm guessing that when this is done we'll all say "what was with all the hysteria?"

Anonymous said...

@734 I wouldn't worry about it. Whatever form it ultimately takes, it'll be Lark Scooter or dirt nap time for many of us.