By Matthew Barrows
Bee Staff Writer
(Published July 30, 2001)
The Sacramento region's transportation future, at least for now, is covered
with car-pool lanes.
Regional planners envision them running from
downtown Sacramento to the foothills on Highway 50, from Laguna Boulevard to
the airport on Interstate 5 and along stretches of Interstate 80 and Highway
99.
A 20-year plan by the Sacramento Council of
Governments calls for expanding the 14.3 miles of high-occupancy vehicle lanes
now in the area to nearly 100 miles at a cost of more than $300 million.
There's only one hitch: The centerpiece of
these transportation plans -- the city of Sacramento -- isn't on board.
Last week, the City Council voted 8-1
against a plan to study Highway 50 car-pool lanes, arguing that the lanes would
lead to suburban sprawl and empty too much traffic downtown.
The vote not only put future transportation
plans in limbo, it rattled the nerves of nearby jurisdictions and stoked an
already heated debate over the effectiveness of high-occupancy vehicle lanes.
Councilman Dave Jones said his opposition to
car-pool lanes is based in large part on a recent study of the capital region
that concludes that car-pool lanes -- by making it easier for people to commute
long distances -- encourage sprawl.
The result, Jones said, is that outlying
areas build big homes to accommodate the middle and upper classes, leaving the
city of Sacramento to shoulder issues such as affordable housing by itself.
"It encourages the regional division
between the haves and the have-nots," he said.
Mayor Heather Fargo, who also voted against
the car-pool study, said she worries the lanes would only dump more traffic
into midtown and, with more cars and trucks commuting from farther away, would
add to the region's air pollution problems.
"It didn't seem that helping people
commute to the foothills was in the best interest of the city," she said.
But California Department of Transportation
officials said the city's stance not only puts the Highway 50 car-pool lanes in
jeopardy, it threatens an interconnected car-pool system.
Car-pool lanes that would have gone from
Galt to Elk Grove on Highway 99, from Davis to Sacramento on I-80 and from Elk Grove
to Sacramento on I-5 are suddenly at risk, said Caltrans spokesman Dennis
Trujillo.
"These would be new lanes, new
improvements to the system," Trujillo said. "We're not talking about
converting mixed-use lanes."
If the city continues to resist the Highway
50 plans, Trujillo said, it's possible car-pool lanes originating in El Dorado
County would stop just outside the city limits.
"The vote threatens an integrated
car-pool system that could benefit the commuters of the region," he said.
Other transportation officials said the
sprawl and congestion the City Council wants to avoid is here now.
"Development in the foothills has
already occurred," said Tom Zlotkowski, Sacramento County's director of
transportation. "We need light rail, we need improvements to the existing
systems, and we need the HOV lanes. We need it all."
Perhaps the biggest disappointment from last
week's vote was felt on the El Dorado side of the county line. Caltrans and El
Dorado County have already teamed to build car-pool lanes from Sunrise
Boulevard to El Dorado Hills on Highway 50. El Dorado County officials, who
will put forth as much as $16 million by the time the entire car-pool project
is complete, had hoped the lanes would eventually stretch from Shingle Springs
to downtown Sacramento.
Nancy Knofler, the executive director of the
El Dorado County Transportation Commission, said there has never been anything
in writing that said Sacramento would support the lanes. But, she said, the
city had signed off on long-term regional plans that included the lanes,
creating the impression it was on board with the car-pool plan.
"This commission contributed a
significant amount of money, especially for a rural county, to implement this
plan." Knofler said. "If the city had a concern, it should have been
discussed years ago."
Not everyone is as critical.
Robert Johnston, a professor of
environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis, helped
write a study on Sacramento-area HOV lanes last year. Johnston said the City
Council made the right choice.
"What we're doing (with car-pool lanes)
is spending a lot of money allowing sprawl and then wondering why our
facilities -- especially our transit systems -- aren't working very well,"
Johnston said.
Pete Hathaway, deputy executive director for
the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, said there is still a chance the
Highway 50 car-pool study, a prerequisite for building the lanes, will be
pushed through despite the city's resistance.
Sacramento County supervisors will address
the issue Tuesday and could vote to split the $5 million cost with Caltrans. Or
the Sacramento Transportation Authority -- composed of representatives from the
city, county and smaller jurisdictions such as Folsom and Elk Grove -- could
approve funds for the study.
"Right now it's the balance of power in
the region vs. the city's persuasiveness," Hathaway said. "It's hard
to do a good study without the city's support."
If the study is indeed thwarted, Hathaway
said, regional planners likely will turn their attention to car-pool lanes on
other corridors, with I-5 south of the city at the top of the list.
"The city may have a different feeling
about coming in from a different direction," he said. "We just don't
know."