The Auto Club of Southern California has added its voice to the public debate over the region's worsening traffic congestion by issuing a plan that calls for increased spending on transportation, the construction of more freeway lanes and routine evaluations of existing transportation programs, among other ideas.
The plan, which will be released today, is the first comprehensive traffic blueprint issued by the 102-year-old organization and signals a growing frustration among its 5 million members over the region's increasing gridlock.
"We are not prepared to tell our members that we are just going to wait until traffic stops dead," said Auto Club President Thomas V. McKernan Jr.
Dating back to the 1930s, the Auto Club has endorsed transportation initiatives, such as bond measures and ballot proposals.
But for the most part, the organization has limited its public policy initiatives to promoting safe driving programs, such as reducing teen drunk driving.
Over the last three years, McKernan said, Auto Club members have urged the organization--through surveys and polls--to play a bigger role in solving Southern California's worsening traffic problems.
In response, a committee of the club's board of trustees drafted the 48-page plan with the consultation of various academics and transportation planners.
Most of the recommendations are short on specifics and echo ideas proposed by local public transportation agencies.
Still, Auto Club leaders say they hope the plan will spur Southern California policymakers to put traffic on the top of their agenda.
"California transportation needs champions--leaders who will consistently and effectively seek and implement solutions," the plan states.
Transportation experts who have read advance copies of the plan give it positive reviews, saying it proposes--for the most part--common-sense ideas.
"What they are proposing is nothing radical," said Brian Taylor, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA. "Its tone is moderate and promotes consensus-building."
Taylor agreed that Southern California's worsening traffic congestion should receive more attention from state lawmakers.
"Until a crisis occurs, there tends to be not much action," he said. "Unfortunately that is the nature of politics."
Evidence of the worsening conditions on Southern California freeways is without dispute.
