Information about http://www.sensibletransportation.org/pdf/plan_c.pdf
Plan C: Community Needs, Choice, Corridor Mobility and Climate…
Tags: ballot measure, bicyclists, c community, climate protection, gallon gas, highway 1, hov, multifaceted approach, no doubt, occupant vehicle, oppo, principal feature, santa cruz county, sensible transportation, traffic lanes, transportation demand management, transportation mode, transportation modes, transportation systems management, watsonville,Pages: 5
Language: english
Created: Wed May 2 10:59:11 2007
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Plan C: Community Needs, Choice, Corridor Mobility and Climate Protection
(A Plan offered by the Campaign for Sensible Transportation)
The intent of this Plan is to work toward a Transportation System for Santa
Cruz County that includes both private and public transportation modes serving
all segments of our community, with the goal of increasing mobility throughout the
county and beyond. The system we envision is also designed to reduce the need for
and use of the single-occupant vehicle as the primary transportation mode. If we can
create such a system we can take pride in doing so.
We are keenly aware that the current functioning of Highway 1 between Santa
Cruz and Watsonville is not effective. The route is congested. To deal with this
situation we suggest a multifaceted approach, which includes projects directly
related to the Highway 1 corridor, including the modification of intersections and
on-ramps to include metering and bypass lanes, institution of transportation demand
management (TDM) and transportation systems management (TSM) programs,
and the provision of increased support for short distance travel by pedestrians and
bicyclists.
The total cost for this Plan is approximately $340 million.
It could be funded by a half-cent sales tax lasting 20 years.
Other funding mechanisms, such as a 10-cent per gallon gas tax or an increase in
the vehicle license fee could prove more palatable, but we do not yet have sufficient
knowledge to make a recommendation, so we are not recommending any particular
funding strategy. No doubt there will be polling related to this topic.
A principal feature of this Plan is that it does not include adding traffic lanes to
Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. There are several reasons leading us
to this approach:
1. If the addition of traffic lanes to Highway 1 (whether HOV or not) is included
in a ballot measure, there will be significant opposition to the measure, and the
measure is not likely to gain the necessary 2/3 vote.
2. Any project that would add lanes for the full distance is too costly for the
available resources of our small (and not overly wealthy) county. To devote the
bulk of our resources to the widening of Highway 1 is likely to mean that other
projects, such as those described in this Plan, will end up short-changed. This is
what is happening now. We are also aware that construction costs for typical
Highway 1 widening projects are very likely to increase with time, perhaps
dramatically, owing to the increasing cost of the energy required to produce
and deliver the asphalt and concrete needed for construction. Therefore we may
expect cost overruns.
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3. A significant result of adding lanes (which would increase the capacity of the
highway) will be to increase both the number of vehicles on our local streets and
the need for additional parking spaces. This will be especially true at the north
and south ends of the widened highway.
4. There is a large opportunity cost resulting from the inclusion of the project that
would add lanes to the highway, since this project, once constructed, cannot
be easily undone. If the widened highway fails to solve our transportation
problems, what then?
Therefore, we drop the project that would add lanes to the highway, and work
instead to develop less expensive and possibly more effective measures to enhance the
mobility through the corridor and to meet perceived community needs. We discuss
projects that seem worthy of consideration and analysis in the following paragraphs,
in the same order as they appear on the attached spreadsheet.
Local road maintenance ($70 million)
Every community in the county currently lacks sufficient funds to maintain its local
streets. These needs are now well-documented. In addition to focusing on local
streets in each community, attention could also be given to enhancing mobility
on routes parallel to Highway 1 (e.g., Soquel Drive and frontage roads) through
improved signal timing, appropriate turn lanes and elimination of bottlenecks, similar
to treatment recently given to Capitola Road.
Highway 1 projects ($74.2 million)
· Allocate funds to rebuild Highway 1 on-ramps, in order to incorporate ramp metering
and on-ramp bypass lanes for access by buses, emergency vehicles and carpoolers.
· Conduct origin/destination studies so as to define particular mobility bottlenecks
and problems. For example, how many commute from the South County to jobs
in the North County (or vice-versa), or how many commute to jobs over the hill,
or what fraction of Highway 1 users travel for only short distances? Our Regional
Transportation Commission has yet to conduct comprehensive origin/destination
studies within the Highway 1 corridor and so cannot answer these crucial questions.
The knowledge of such data will allow our transportation planners to design
particular remedies that could draw from other items on this list.
· Provide for Transportation Demand Management (TDM) and Transportation
Systems Management (TSM) programs. Such programs might include rideshare and
van pool incentives, car-share programs, parking cashout and telecommuting, and
might focus on large employers such as UCSC, Dominican Hospital, Cabrillo College
and various government entities.
· Pedestrian and bicycle bridges spanning Highway 1 at key locations. Currently those
wanting only to cross the freeway at locations between interchanges must either use
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a car or travel an inconvenient distance to do so. Improving pedestrian and bicycle
access through bridge construction would reduce the need for auto use.
Rail-related projects ($74.5 million)
Provide for projects related to the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, including needed
safety improvements to the rail line, starter passenger rail service, recreational
use of the rail line, support for the Pajaro Station (which will provide access to
CalTrain and Amtrak), and design of the long-planned rail trail network. Funding
is already available (approximately $20 million) to acquire the rail corridor, and the
acquisition is currently being negotiated with Union Pacific. It is expected that these
rail corridor negotiations will be successful. Also included in this category is a small
amount ($0.5 million) to study the feasibility for the use of PRT (personal rapid
transit).
Bus system projects ($68 million)
Provide for capital improvements to our heavily used but underfunded (Metro) bus
system, such as additional buses and the needed space to park them. Focus might
be given to the most overtaxed routes, such as those serving UCSC, the San Lorenzo
Valley and those traveling between Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Additional funding
is also suggested to provide for the expansion of our school bus fleet.
Specialized transportation modes ($55 million)
· Provide for the needed Mobility Management Center to benefit the specialized
transportation facilities serving the elderly and disabled.
· Provide for a Safe Routes to Schools program, with particular focus (at least 75%)
on capital infrastructure projects that would include sidewalks, bicycle lanes or paths
and other projects that would benefit those traveling to schools. Special focus should
be given to routes in the San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley.
Special programs ($2 million)
This program would require cooperative transportation and land use planning among
Santa Cruz County, its four cities, and transportation agencies, in order to create
a balanced, safe and efficient transportation system and to manage the impacts of
growth. It could be patterned after policies now in effect in Contra Costa County
(included in their successful transportation sales tax measure passed in 2004--see
http://www.ccta.net/EXTENSION/TEP/TEP.pdf).
The item amounts suggested in the above list (which now sum to a total of
approximately $344 million) are necessarily just suggestions, intended to be modified
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through further analysis of each item (or possible addition or subtraction of items
from the above list).
Finally, each project undertaken should
include an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions
and impacts on global climate change. Such
analyses will become increasingly mandated in
California and throughout the country. The City
of Santa Cruz already requires CEQA analysis of
global warming impacts. The bar graph is from
George Monbiot's Heat: How to Stop the Planet
from Burning (Doubleday, 2006). Forty percent of
carbon dioxide emissions currently originate from
private automobiles.
This is not meant to constitute a detailed
Expenditure Plan for a ballot measure. Instead
it is a more fluid approach, since (a) we do not have sufficient data to define our
transportation problems in detail, and (b) there will be sufficient time prior to
November 2008 (the next opportunity for voter input) to develop a well formulated
ballot measure.
A spreadsheet summary of Plan C appears on the next page.
May 2, 2007
The Campaign for Sensible Transportation P.O. Box 604, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 www.sensibletransportation.org
Participating Organizations: Fishhook Neighbors y Santa Cruz Friends Meeting y Sierra Club y National Bicycle Greenway
Aptos Neighbors Board of Directors y The Coalition for the Environment and Jewish Life y Mission Pedestrian y People Power
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Project Plan C
Local road maintenance
Road maintenance and repairs 70
Sub total 70.0
Highway 1 projects
Ramp metering and ramp bypass lanes 50
Origin/destination study 0.2
TSM/TDM efficiency programs 14
Pedestrian/bicycle bridges 10
Sub total 74.2
Rail-related projects
Pajaro Station 10
Rail line upgrades and starter passenger rail service 48
Rail trail network 16
PRT feasibility study 0.5
Sub total 74.5
Bus system projects
Metro bus service expansion 40
School buses 28
Sub total 68.0
Specialized transportation modes
Mobility management center for elderly & disabled 15
Safe routes to schools (75% infrastructure) 40
Sub total 55.0
Special programs
Transportation/Land use cooperative program 2
Sub total 2.0
------------------------------------ -------------
Grand total 343.7
Years at $17 million per year: 20.2
See text for a more detailed discussion of the above projects.