Getting More Drivers to Destinations Faster
Hartgen and other transportation experts say a vast majority of Californians will not use mass transit. They believe bigger, faster freeways are a must. Although most new freeway lanes eventually do become crowded, Hartgen said the extra roadway serves its purpose by getting more motorists to their destinations faster.
One example of a city that has lived by such thinking is Houston.
Throughout most of the 1990s, the Texas Department of Transportation battled traffic congestion around Houston by spending nearly $500 million a year on new freeway construction.
"We were building as fast as we could," said Norman Wigington, a spokesman for the Texas agency.
It worked. From 1990 to 1997, Houston was one of the few major cities in the nation to report a significant drop in freeway congestion. But budget restraints forced a construction pullback in the late 1990s. Freeway tie-ups and gridlock around Houston have since shot up.
"We realized we couldn't [afford to] build our way out of congestion," Wigington said.
The 101 Freeway project showed that Caltrans could not build a permanent solution to gridlock. But the construction did serve a purpose.
In 1990, before the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley was widened, the freeway served an average of 280,000 motorists a day at the intersection with the San Diego Freeway. At that time, the average speed on the 101 from Woodland Hills to downtown Los Angeles during rush hours was 32 mph.
The expansion project that took nearly two years to complete added a fifth lane in each direction, plus a sixth lane for eastbound traffic just west of the San Diego Freeway.
Today, the 101 Freeway from the San Fernando Valley to downtown Los Angeles during the rush hours averages about that same 32 mph. However, the freeway now serves about 15,000 more motorists each day, an increase of about 5%.
More cars are on the way, though. By 2025, traffic on the busy freeway is projected to jump by an additional 37%.
3 Plans Launched to Fix 1 Bottleneck
State officials already have launched three improvement plans, totaling $50 million, to fix the bottleneck at the interchange of the 101 and the San Diego freeways. All three projects are expected to be completed in the next six years.
The latest 101 Freeway expansion plan will consider everything from widening the freeway again to adding a second deck with new vehicle lanes or a trolley line.
Franklin Cofod, a film editor who commutes along the 101 Freeway from his home in Thousand Oaks to his job in Burbank, said he enjoyed the benefits of the widened freeway.
"I'm convinced it did help," said Cofod, who leaves home at 6:30 a.m. to miss some of the freeway's notoriously slow rush-hour traffic.
Another widening project might ease Cofod's commute even further. But he wonders if it makes sense to go down that road again.
"It works, but it doesn't get people out of cars," he said. "It's not a long-term solution to the problem."
