Tollways

In regard to the Feb. 24 Times article on new tollways being acceptable to the majority of Orange County residents, I see your poll as being inadequate. Conduct of such a poll should include the interviews of thousands of local residents. The benefits that the tollways would provide should be weighed against the monetary cost, destruction of existing wildlife habitat, increased air pollution and increased population pressures that would result from the tollways' growth-inducing impacts.

Because of the weakened financial condition of Orange County's largest tollway network, a new study recommends that its leadership postpone a road project and stop borrowing money until state authorities can review the operation. The assessment released Wednesday by the nonprofit Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco is the second critical review in recent months of the Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, which oversees 51 miles of tollways, the biggest system of its type in the state.

The main roadblock to new tollways is that not enough people will use the tollways to pay off the costs of building them ("Move Toward Tollways Hits Numerous Roadblocks," March 1). Although not featured in the article, an analysis of the problems affecting the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor toll road should be done, in particular the low usage of this road. Every time I have been on this road, there are not more than 30 cars going in both directions. The toll booths have lots of empty lanes.

Re "O.C. tollways to stop taking cash," July 1 So let me make sure I understand. If you have a product for which you are losing customers, and you want to increase revenue, you should raise prices and make it less convenient to use? That appears to be the strategy of the Transportation Corridor Agencies as it raises prices 5% to 10% and eliminates the use of cash on the tollways, requiring all users to have a FasTrak or other account. Who is the business strategy genius they're getting their advice from?

People who drive a truck, a bus or a car with a trailer will pay more than motorists in single cars to use three tollways in Orange County. By unanimous votes, the boards of the San Joaquin Hills and Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor agencies approved a seven-tier system of charges for the tollways at meetings Thursday in the Santa Ana City Council Chambers. However, the twin boards won't set the actual tolls for each class of vehicles for several months.

After years of protests and legal battles, the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor opened shortly after midnight Wednesday, drawing thousands of Thursday-morning commuters who took advantage of the introductory free ride. Despite a handful of sign-toting opponents and rain that contributed to at least 14 accidents, most of the motorists sliced through at high speed--in dramatic contrast to fellow travelers crawling bumper-to-bumper along the waterlogged San Diego Freeway.

Los Angeles County's venture into toll roads advanced early Saturday with the opening of 14 miles of express lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway - the second project of its type to begin operation in the region since November. At 12:01 a.m., the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority allowed drivers to travel the 10 Freeway's new high occupancy toll lanes - so-called HOT lanes - between Interstate 605 in El Monte and Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles. "This shows we are willing to address traffic, gridlock and congestion in the region," said Los Angeles Mayor and MTA board member Antonio Villaraigosa at a dedication ceremony in El Monte on Friday.

Anyone who has ever tramped through a dim, Escher-esque parking garage in search of a "lost" automobile might welcome an abracadabra technology that could help locate it. But what if that magic involved an array of 24/7 surveillance cameras and was also available to police and auto repossessers? What if it could be tapped by jilted lovers, or that angry guy you accidentally cut off in traffic? Would the convenience be worth the loss of privacy? Those are some of the questions civil libertarians and others are asking as technology capable of spying on motorists and pedestrians is converted to widespread commercial use. Santa Monica Place recently unveiled the nation's first camera-based "Find Your Car" system.

Whether talking about the Mexican toll roads (June 25) or the L.A. subway, it seems like a case of dumb and dumber. IRWIN SPECTOR Toluca Lake

Your readers count on you to provide factual, unbiased accounts of the news, and I am no longer convinced you are doing this when it comes to the toll roads. It seems that long ago when they were in planning and construction phases, you reported on facts. Now that they are open and successfully being used by residents, businesspeople and visitors to Southern California to improve their lives, you slant every story against them and print only toll road opposition letters. Isn't it true that some 1.4 million people take the toll roads every week?

Each time Stephanie Hatch drives from her home in South Orange County to San Diego, she takes a deep sigh. Hatch of Trabuco Canyon avoids taking her toddler son south — despite attractions such as Sea World and the zoo — for one reason: traffic. The last time she drove that way was last spring. But if there were an alternative to the 5 Freeway, she said, that would change. "You think, 'Oh gosh, this would be so much nicer if we had the toll road,'" she said. Hatch is referring to an extension of the 241 Toll Road, which has been discussed for years but is vehemently opposed by environmentalists, among others.

Drivers on the San Joaquin Hills toll road through western Orange County could be paying tolls for an extra six years under a proposed agreement that would restructure about $430 million of its $2.1 billion in debt. The agreement is asking bondholders to lower payments for 13 years and restructure the way the agency pays interest on certain bonds. An agreement, which would push back the bond maturity dates by six years, to 2042, is expected in two weeks. "Basically … what we're trying to do is be proactive about the way we manage finances here at the agency," said Tom Margro, chief executive of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which also operates the Foothill and Eastern toll roads, which includes a portion of the 133 Freeway.

Motorists in the Irvine area can expect increased traffic into next week as roughly 10 miles of toll road remain shut down until crews can clear mud and debris left by the recent rainstorms. California 241 between the 133 and the 261, is expected to be closed until Wednesday, according to Allen Shahood, spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. Water continues to seep out of the hills, adding to the water already flooding the road. Shahood said the closure will increase congestion on nearby freeways.

Once the dust settled from the U.S. Commerce Department's refusal last week to back a proposed toll road extension through south Orange County, one thing became clear: Traffic planners have a problem. Environmentalists who had railed against the proposed Foothill South route because of its potential effect on wetlands and San Onofre State Beach are clamoring for Interstate 5 to be widened instead. But no funding exists for that, and it would require bulldozing homes and businesses.

Seven months after thousands poured into the Del Mar Fairgrounds for a raucous state Coastal Commission hearing on whether to build a 16-mile toll road through a state park in north San Diego County, both sides are set to be back at it today. Repeat or not, the stakes remain high. Advocates say the toll road is critical to untangling freeway congestion across the region, while opponents contend it will be ruinous to one of the state's most popular coastal parks and famed surf spots.

Federal officials have set a Sept. 22 hearing date in Del Mar to take public testimony regarding a proposed 16-mile extension of the 241 toll road through an ecological preserve and a popular state beach in northern San Diego County. In February, the California Coastal Commission overwhelmingly rejected the plan, finding it violated the law designed to protect the coast. The decision seemed a death blow to the toll road, but supporters appealed the ruling to the U.S. Commerce secretary, saying that the thoroughfare would be critical to alleviating traffic congestion in southern Orange County and that the proposed route is the best way to do that.

A faction of a Native American tribe against a proposed toll road through south Orange County has agreed to drop its opposition -- and stands to make $350,000 because of it. David Belardes, who heads one of four Juaneno groups, said he signed a letter of intent with the Transportation Corridor Agencies by which the toll road operator would help pay for a tribal museum and genealogy studies to further the tribe's efforts to gain federal recognition.

The proposed toll road through San Onofre State Beach would not jeopardize sensitive wildlife species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. Nine species were reviewed, including endangered and threatened species, said Jane Hendron, a wildlife service spokeswoman. In some cases, the project footprint was outside the species area, she said. But in others, such as the endangered Pacific pocket mouse, the toll road agency is taking measures to manage the area for the benefit of the species, Hendron said.