By Matthew Barrows
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Aug. 1, 2001)
Sacramento County supervisors set the stage for a regional showdown over
Highway 50 car-pool lanes Tuesday when they endorsed a study on building new
lanes from Sunrise Boulevard to downtown Sacramento.
In unanimously supporting the $5 million
environmental impact study, the supervisors placed themselves in opposition to
the Sacramento City Council, saying the car-pool report is critical to a
regional approach to traffic congestion. Last week, the council rejected the
study in an 8-1 vote.
The debate now goes to the Sacramento
Transportation Authority, a regional body composed of county supervisors, city
council members and officials from smaller cities, such as Citrus Heights and
Elk Grove.
There are 11 members of the authority, which
has the final say on funding the report. County supervisors outnumber their
city of Sacramento counterparts 5-4 on the authority.
The state Department of Transportation,
which is offering $2.5 million for the study, is asking that another $2.5
million come from regional transportation funds.
In its rejection of the proposal, the
Sacramento City Council majority argued that car-pool lanes would encourage
suburban sprawl by making it easier to commute long distances and empty too
much traffic into the city.
A number of speakers Tuesday echoed those
concerns.
Walt Seifert, executive director of the
Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, said many of the region's transportation
woes -- congestion, air pollution, lack of parking -- are a result of
automobile-oriented planning.
Building more car-pool lanes, he said, would
just add to those burdens.
"To me, if the scale is out of balance,
you don't add more weight to the side that's already the heaviest,"
Seifert said.
But the supervisors pointed out that the
study in question is designed to address the concerns the council raised.
"What is being suggested here is to
study these contentions," Supervisor Roger Dickinson said. "It
carries a hefty price tag. But to me, it makes sense."
Others challenged the reasoning of some City
Council members that the Highway 50 car-pool lanes would mostly benefit those
living in the foothills of El Dorado County.
Caltrans figures, for instance, show that the
bulk of the drivers heading to downtown Sacramento on Highway 50 are starting
their trips much closer in.
About 67,000 cars and trucks cross the
Sacramento-El Dorado county line on Highway 50 every day, according to Caltrans
statistics. But at Sunrise Boulevard, 170,000 drivers use Highway 50, and at
Watt Avenue, it's 226,000.
The supervisors also noted that an
interconnected system of car-pool lanes has been in the plans for years and
that abandoning a regional approach to transportation planning now would leave
some jurisdictions in the lurch.
The El Dorado Transportation Commission in
particular is spending up to $16 million to build car-pool lanes from Sunrise
Boulevard to El Dorado Hills.
Caltrans and Sacramento County also are
funding that project.