Personally, we think widening I-5 as a solution to North County traffic congestion is a lot like giving an heroin addict a larger needle to help him kick the horse, but we wanted to point out a couple recent articles that discuss the options from the Department of Transportation’s 10,000 page report. We like how the San Diego Union-Tribune puts it:
After $4.1 billion, nearly 20 years of construction, the condemnation of dozens of houses and businesses, and, for some, years spent commuting through a construction zone, here is what it could all come down to: A car traveling from Oceanside to La Jolla on Interstate 5 in proposed new toll lanes would save 10 minutes over the same car traveling the same 27-mile stretch of highway in 2006. A car traveling the distance in the regular lanes would shave one minute off the clock. . . Will it be worth it?
Our answer? Of course not. But then we’re not the North County Times. They think adding lanes is required:
Doing nothing about Interstate 5 widening —- or hoping that somehow mass transit will save us —- is a pipe dream. . . Indeed, anyone driving south toward San Diego on I-5 in the morning lately knows that it’s often congested from Carlsbad until the recently widened lanes near Cardiff —- so don’t bother with the anti-everything argument. . . Hoping that congestion will force drivers onto the Coaster isn’t a solution.
Well, actually, it is. One only has to look to the most congested streets in the world (Tokyo) to see that traffic congestion actually does force people to use public transportation. And you know what? That makes things better for everyone. That’s why it could be argued that the best solution for North County traffic jams would be to remove a couple lanes from Interstate 5 and add 24/7/365 service on the Coaster.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune and North County Times]
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I live within walking distance of the CSUSM Sprinter Station, and my office is within walking distance of the Carlsbad Village station — I’d like to take public transit a couple days a week, but the schedule is pretty daunting. The Sprinter runs through each station only twice each hour, and buses run only twice an hour from OTC to the Village, so if you miss a connection (and my transfer window from Sprinter to the bus at OTC can be less than ten minutes, depending on when I am trying to do it), you can get stuck for a half hour waiting for your next connection.
Running trains/buses every 15 min instead of every 30 min during core commute hours in the morning and the evening would give me greater confidence that if the system breaks down I won’t suffer excessive delays. It would also give me some flexibility in when I have to leave the office to get home.
I will still try to run this route once a week or so, but plotting my path through the system feels like planning a military campaign. I’m motivated to figure it out but I can’t see most people giving up their cars to sort through these details.
For all the inconvenience of infrequent trains and the possibility of delays I still prefer (infrequent) public transit to widening the freeway. It’s just that more frequent public transit would be welcome. The Sprinter is clean and timely and I would use it more if there were more trains.
Mass transit works all over this country in major metropolitan areas…it can work here too.
NY/CT/NJ Metro Area
Dallas/San Antonio
San Fran
LA
Baltimore/DC Metro Area
Etc, Etc, Etc…
It works, plain and simple.
Widening the freeway is much too costly. I agree with making the Coaster more efficient with adding more passenger cars for commuters. Several years ago, I took the Coaster from Poinsettia station to Sorrento Valley for about 6 months. I loved it but hated the 20 to 30 minute wait if I miss my train. The MTS shuttle also had a limited time for pick up. Maybe we need to really look at making the service commuter friendly before we tear up our cities for this freeway expansion.
I ride the coaster most days to work and completely agree with the idea that “not” expanding the freeway will helpfully push people onto public transit. But…
The Coaster needs to operate like the Sprinter – much more often, much longer hours of operation and much much cheaper to the passenger. Round trip Sprinter fare from Oceanside to Escondido: $4. Round trip Coaster fare Oceanside to Sorrento Valley: $12. I don’t care that the Sprinter is “light rail” and the Coaster is not