The biggest problem with freeway congestion here is that the I-5 and I-15 are the only north/south freeways available. Other coastal north/south alternatives such as Coast Highway, El Camino Real, or even Vulcan Dr in La Costa/Encinitas is that they are all littered with stops or traffic signals and there is no interconnection. You might luck out one day and get 2-3 green lights in a row. More often than not, however, you are bound to be stopped at EVERY darn traffic signal. This is probably as bad as sitting in freeway parking lot.
I think the Coaster is an ok alternative, but its service range is limited. Taking the bus is just not an option for most people. Cities like New York, Boston, and San Francisco have a more developed mass transit system, but even they experience a boatload of gridlock every day. Forget about carpool lanes, too, as they don’t work. How many more freaking car pool lanes do we need to build to realize that they don’t work!
CalTrans is proposing to widen the I-5 up to as many as 8-10 lanes EACH WAY! Can you imagine the huge costs and damage to residents and business that would go with all of the right-of-way acquisition alone? What’s more, I think there have been studies that show that the more you widen a road, it will eventually just fill up again. All of the development and traffic impact reports use the new traffic figures to justify building their development. Next thing you know 5-10 years have passed and traffic is back to where it was before the widening.
Ultra narrow vehicles, a better mass-transit system, and increased tele-commuting (working from home) will help to reduce the traffic load on our freeways. Mass transit alone, widening freeways, and stinking carpool lanes won’t solve our problem.
