Santa Barbara News-Press, 5/29/05
By MELINDA BURNS, NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER

A long-awaited report on a commuter train service from Oxnard to Goleta has reinvigorated South Coast rail buffs, who would rather talk about trains than lanes any day.

The report was first requested 10 years ago by Grassroots 101, a citizens’ group fighting highway widening south of Milpas Street. It concludes that two trains traveling at rush hour to and from the South Coast would attract 900 daily riders by 2030.

Jonathan Maguire, chairman of the Santa Barbara Planning Commission and vice president of the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation, a nonprofit group founded by former Grassroots 101 activists, said the report was an important first step toward bringing commuter rail to the South Coast.

“It shows pretty clearly the service would be feasible and would improve traffic flow on Highway 101,” Mr. Maguire said. “But I think they’re being very conservative. I think three trains in the morning and three trains would be supported and would be desirable.”

The report was prepared by a consulting firm and released this month by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, the regional transportation agency. The association is studying four packages of solutions for reducing congestion on Highway 101, and commuter rail is included in three of them At the same time, three of the packages include widening 101 through the SouthCoast.

“We’re very, very happy to see that commuter rail is in a majority of packages,” Mr. Maguire said. “The train can happen in less than five years, a lot sooner than freeway expansion. It’s just a matter of money and working with Union Pacific. I think people have woken up to the fact that whether or not there’s another lane is not very important.”

But many South Coast residents do support freeway widening including Steve Engles, past president of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce and a member of the association’s 101 advisory committee, representing all the county’s chambers of commerce.

“You can negotiate with Union Pacific and bring Metrolink here but it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg,” Mr. Engles said, referring to the commuter rail service that operates between Ventura and Los Angeles. “Who’s going to take the train when it will only run two times in the morning and two times at night? We’re going to put millions of dollars into running a train that 900 people re going to use. That’s a spit in the bucket.”

The association’s report shows that two trains from Oxnard to Goleta would take less than 5 percent of 10 commuters off the freeway, about the same percent that Metrolink attracts. That’s because a lot f people won’t take the train if their homes or workplaces are not within a short walk or bus ride from the station.

Yet studies show that 101 traffic south of Milpas Street would be moving at the speed limit if just 1100 commuters stopped driving alone. For the six-lane section through Santa Barbara and Goleta, 1800 would have to get to work some other way for the traffic to begin flowing again.

“Taking 900 people off the highway at the peak hour is a significant benefit although by itself, it does not get us to where we want to go,” said Michael Powers, the association’s deputy director.

The report estimates the capital cost of a commuter rail service to Goleta at $67 million, including $26 million for two train sets – a locomotive and four coaches. The cost also includes $23 mullion to add parking at the Oxnard and Ventura train stations and to build a station at Rice Avenue for Camarillo commuters.

If the expense of providing bus and shuttle service from the train stations is included, the cost for commuter rail increases to $103 million, association studies show.

By 2030, the yearly operating cost of commuter rail to the South Coast would be just over $4 million. Riders would pay an average $3.20 fare each way and fares would recover about 18 percent of the operating cost. That’s assuming that by 2030, Highway 101 has been widened to include express bus and carpool lanes.

If, however, no such lanes are available, and the free way congestion is just as bad as it is today, about 1,400 commuters would take the train, and fares would recover about 27 percent of operating costs, the report shows.

By contrast Metrolink, which serves six Southern California counties, recovers 43 percent of its operating costs through its fares. In part that’s because Metrolink offers more frequent service to farther-flung destinations. Also, Metrolink travels rent-free on some sections of track.

The report does not analyze how the coming construction on 101 would affect train ridership. This year, work will begin on a $36 million set of improvements for 101 south of Mi1pas. The construction might last five years or more, and that’s apart from any more ambitious widening plans.

“Eight lanes and six lanes would be a decade of construction if they really did it fast,” Mr. Maguire said. “Is everyone up for that? I don’t know, but in the meantime, they can take the train.”

In the short run, Mr. Engles favors installing freeway ramp metering and changing employee schedules to avoid the rush hour. But in the long run, he said, commuters need a better driving experience.

“The problem is that 101 was built as a parkway,” Mr. Engles said. “It was built to meander through the countryside, not to hold the traffic it holds today. I want to widen the freeway from Milpas Street south. Of course, it will fill up with traffic, but you’re going to get rid of the smog in the air.

“People want little old sleepy Santa Barbara, like it was in the ’60s and ’70s. Sorry folks, this is reality: Eventually all of California’s going to crawl.”

Santa Barbara News-Press, Tuesday 2/8/05

By JOSHUA MOLINA, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis on Monday told the county’s top elected officials not to spend any money on widening Highway 101, urging them to focus all their energies on a commuter rail service into Santa Barbara.

While the exact cost of bringing a commuter train service to the South Coast is unknown, it is clear that it would be an expensive endeavor, with one preliminary estimate at $65 million just to start up.

“I wouldn’t spend another nickel to widen the highway,” said Mr. Dukakis, a former Amtrak board member. “When it’s all done, it won’t work. If you do it, it will be bumper-to-bumper in two years.”

More than 150 people attended a four-hour Monday meeting titled “Getting Commuter Rail on Track” at the downtown library’s Faulkner Gallery. Elected officials from the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Ventura and the county of Santa Barbara packed the room.

With housing prices in Santa Barbara out of reach for most, many people are moving to Ventura County to find less expensive homes and choosing to commute to their Santa Barbara jobs.

The result: Heavy traffic is choking Highway 101 — often doubling driving times — during morning and evening commuter hours.

While sky-high housing prices are nothing new to Santa Barbara, the $1 million median home price is now driving away the middle-class, which is making it tough for government and private employers to recruit and retain workers.

With the traffic problem escalating, officials are scrambling to find solutions.

The idea of creating a commuter rail service to bring people from Oxnard to Goleta, with stops in between, has the most momentum, but such a plan could be decades away — as far away as 2030, according to preliminary estimates by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.

Further complicating matters, the traffic problem is tangled in a broader political debate over what is the best way to relieve congestion.

Some argue that highway widening is the answer, while others contend that luring people out of their cars is the only true solution to solving the problem long term.

Mr. Dukakis, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1988, spoke for about 20 minutes, peppering his talk with humor. He delighted the crowd, most of whom support commuter rail service.

“When you get a retired politician a platform, it’s kind of dangerous,” he quipped.

At times, the Democrat took soft jabs at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s borrowing to help balance the state budget and of President Bush’s federal budget priorities.

On Monday, Mr. Bush announced plans to eliminate $1.2 billion in federal operating subsidies to Amtrak, which was created by Congress in 1971.

Mr. Dukakis recalled his work in Boston to expand commuter rail and said that there needs to be a new way of thinking in Washington.

“The interstate highway system does not work at 5 o’clock in the afternoon in any metropolitan area in the country,” he said. “I don’t think people in Washington understand that traffic and congestion are driving Americans nuts.”

Mr. Dukakis was greeted warmly by the audience. Speakers also included officials from Metrolink, the San Diego North County Transit District, Ventura, Caltrans and Amtrak.

Most of Santa Barbara’s political establishment is behind the idea of establishing commuter rail service. But there are many complications. The largest is figuring out a way to pay for it. The Association of Governments estimates that it could cost as much as $65 million just to start the service and another $3 million annually to run it.

One idea is to get voters to reapprove Measure D, a half-cent sales tax to help pay for roads and transit, which expires in 2010.

“Local funding is going to be required to make this happen,” said Jim Kemp, the executive director of the Association of Governments. “Unless we extend Measure D . . . commuter rail simply isn’t going to happen.”

Mr. Kemp’s group is behind a plan called 101 in Motion, which aims to solve the region’s traffic woes through a combination of solutions, including widening parts of 101 to eight lanes, commuter rail and carpool lanes. Mr. Kemp said that while commuter rail service is a popular idea, there are many serious challenges.

“It takes more than advocacy to fill trains,” Mr. Kemp said. “Many people will not ride the trains. We know that.”

Amtrak officials, however, pointed to the success of Amtrak lines throughout the state.

“People think that Amtrak is just Boston, New York, Philadelphia and D.C.,” said Liz O’Donoghue, director of Amtrak’s Corridor Strategy West. “The growth in California is incredible.”

She said that California is second only to New York in terms of statewide ridership.

But Ms. O’Donoghue said Santa Barbara needs to start planning now. She suggested the city conduct a potential ridership and market analysis; study the current infrastructure; work with other regional agencies; and consider ways to pay for the service.

Santa Barbara City Councilman Roger Horton said there’s no time to waste.

“We need to plan for commuter rail right now,” Mr. Horton said.

City Councilman Dan Secord agreed, adding that getting voters to approve the Measure D sales tax is essential.

“If we don’t have Measure D authorization,” Dr. Secord said, “we are well and truly screwed.”

Alternative transportation advocate Dennis Story praised Mr. Dukakis and hopes the commuter rail discussion doesn’t end with his speech.

“I would like to invite you back again and again to make this happen,” Mr.Story said.

Santa Barbara News-Press Voices, Sunday 12/19/04
Santa Barbara County Supervisor and SBCAG Chair Naomi Schwartz, Santa Barbara County Supervisor Susan Rose, Carpinteria Mayor Richard Weinberg, Lompoc Mayor Dick DeWees, Carpinteria City Council Member Donna Jordan, Goleta City Council Member Jack Hawxhurst, Santa Barbara City Council Member Dan Secord, Santa Maria City Council Member Marty Mariscal.
Santa Barbara County residents have long considered our region separate and distinct from the rest of southern California. The Santa Barbara-Ventura County line is viewed by many as the boundary dividing the Central Coast from Los Angeles.

These old perspectives are changing, however, as we find that Santa Barbara is increasingly connected to Ventura County. Decisions made by local governments to our south affect our own community’s quality of life.

We no longer can afford to ignore changes that are taking place in the rest of southern California. Port expansion plans in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the need for more freight line capacity from coastal ports to inland warehousing and distribution centers, the increasing demand upon regional airports, the jobs-housing imbalance between Santa Barbara County and Ventura County all affect our own community’s future.

Recognizing this changing reality, a wide range of local elected officials from Santa Maria, Lompoc, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta met recently with our elected counterparts from Ventura County and southern California to discuss issues of mutual concern.

This unprecedented summit meeting brought together for the first time elected leaders from the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, Ventura Council of Governments, Ventura County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Association of Governments to begin seeking common ground on issues of regional significance including housing, jobs and transportation.

Our discussions confirmed how important it is that we collaborate on numerous issues given the inter-relationship of the transportation and planning issues facing our regions.

Local governments enjoy tremendous public support because of the high visibility and accountability of local decision making. Unfortunately, local communities are no longer islands where local actions alone can buffer us from the effects of outside events.

To protect community character and quality of life we need to actively engage our local communities in understanding how the newly emerging interconnectedness of the world economy is driving change in southern California, and then we can develop strategies that are compatible with our region, but protect our own local interests.

Among the items raised at the meeting were: exploring various approaches to alleviate worsening traffic congestion on the 101, strategies to achieve a jobs/housing balance amid a growing population and trans-migration between counties in the region.

Other key issues included the possibility of extending the Metrolink commuter train system from Ventura into Santa Barbara County, increasing other transit services between Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, such as the Coastal Express bus, and integrating Santa Barbara County into Intelligent Transportation System technologies to improve the efficiency of traffic flow on the 101.

Participants agreed that by advocating for legislation and funding as a united region we will be much more effective in working with Congress and the state Legislature to ensure our region has the resources and policies to preserve our long-term prosperity and high quality of life.

As part of this cooperative approach, leaders acknowledged the need to educate their communities about the benefits of regional planning and advocacy.

Nearly 100 years ago Santa Barbara and Ventura County separated into two counties. The dividing line between the two counties won’t be erased but the challenges of the 21st century demand continued dialogue across county and regional lines.

The same connections exist with our northern neighbors in San Luis Obispo County and deserve similar attention. Dramatic change is occurring all around us. We can either deal with this change reactively or begin working together to meet the challenges ahead.

Santa Barbara News-Press, Friday 12/17/04

By JOSHUA MOLINA, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Big changes designed to unclog traffic are coming to Highway 101 between Milpas Street and Hot Springs Road, but road construction will make commuting worse before it gets better.

The city’s Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a Coastal Development Permit, paving the way for the California Department of Transportation to make dozens of tweaks to the highway, ramps and nearby streets.

Much of Thursday’s nearly five-hour meeting zeroed in on the subject that has Santa Barbara’s alternative transportation contingent wildly excited: commuter rail into Santa Barbara from Ventura.

At the meeting, Caltrans agreed to study what it would entail to provide commuter service during the 101 construction project and then report the findings to the city. In addition, Warren Weber, chief for Caltrans’ Division of Rail, agreed to convene a meeting early next year to talk about rail.

“We will put together all the players to see what can be done,” Mr. Weber said.

Because the 101 construction project will last four years, and highway shoulders in many parts will be reduced or eliminated, city officials are anticipating major traffic jams along a stretch of highway that is already bumper-to-bumper during morning and evening commuter hours.

Officials see commuter rail service as one way to reduce the traffic nightmares, with some estimating potential 10-mile backups coming into the city.

“If not now, then when?” said alternative transportation advocate Alex Pujo. “We would like to see it in our lifetime.”

While the study doesn’t sound earth-shattering, it is a significant departure from Caltrans’ attitude from the past.

“This is a big step forward,” said planning commissioner Grant House, an advocate for commuter rail and who received two ovations from the audience because it is his last commission meeting after eight years.

“We maybe can’t accomplish it with this project, but it’s the next step,” he added.

Community Development Director Paul Casey also was surprised with Caltrans’ willingness to seriously study the matter.

“It’s a big change for Caltrans to look at commuter rail,” Mr. Casey said.

All of the changes to Highway 101 are intended to speed up traffic flow on the badly congested roadway and improve pedestrian pathways in the surrounding area.

The project won’t begin until late 2006 or early 2007, and will cost $37 million. It still must undergo various phases of design review.

Some of the changes include adding a third southbound lane between Milpas and the Cabrillo Boulevard/Hot Springs Road exit; adding auxiliary lanes — exit lanes such as the one between Garden and Milpas; replacing Sycamore bridge above Cabrillo Boulevard; installing a roundabout at Cabrillo and Hot Springs Road; and improving pedestrian pathways, including a tunnel under the highway at Cabrillo Boulevard.

Plans also call for sound walls by the Santa Barbara Zoo and next to the municipal tennis courts.

The idea of a rail service tied into the Caltrans project prompted concern from Jim Kemp, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, a group that is working on a separate highway project called “101 in Motion.”

Mr. Kemp said successfully pulling off rail service is going to take time, effort and money — extensive details that will need to be worked out. Commuter rail is also one of the options being studied in his 101 in Motion plan.

“We all know this is a complex project,” Mr. Kemp said. “It’s not something we’re going to shoehorn in overnight.”

Business owner John Dixon said he thinks the project is a good one, but expects it to hurt his sales. He said construction of the Milpas roundabout a few years ago badly reduced revenues at his lower Milpas Street grocery store.

“I certainly look forward to the end more than the beginning,” said Mr. Dixon, owner of Tri-County Produce. “It’s going to be great when it’s all done. I hope we’re all happy.”

Santa Barbara News-Press, Tuesday, 11/9/04

By MELINDA BURNS, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

A new Amtrak Surfliner train will begin running next week from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo , officials announced Monday.

The train is scheduled to leave Union Station in Los Angeles at 7:30 a.m. and arrive in Ventura at 9:35 a.m. It would reach Santa Barbara by 10:15 a.m. and San Luis Obispo around 1 p.m., said Patrick Merrill, the manager of capital projects for Caltrans’ rail division.

“We’re hoping some people will be able to flex their schedule enough to use it,” Mr. Merrill said.

The new Amtrak train will be the third to run between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo and the only one leaving Los Angeles before 9 a.m. Service will begin on Nov. 17. On its southbound trip, the train will leave San Luis Obispo at 1:20 p.m. and Santa Barbara at 4:00 p.m. It will arrive in Ventura at 4:45 p.m. and Los Angeles at 7:10 p.m.

The service is the culmination of a two-year effort to add a Surfliner train at hours that might provide some relief for commuters on Highway 101 between Ventura and the South Coast .

Caltrans had wanted to schedule an earlier train, but it was impossible because of the large number of morning trains traveling southbound to Los Angeles on the same tracks, Mr. Merrill said.

State Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, said a jurisdictional morass held up the additional service for two years, as negotiations bogged down between Amtrak and Union Pacific Railroad, the owner of the tracks.

“Sometimes that first step is the hardest,” Ms. Jackson said. “Name a problem: it happened.”

Because Amtrak gets a third of its funding from the federal government, it must service the general public and not just commuters. Where Amtrak does operate commuter trains — between Los Angeles and Ventura , for example — local cities and counties must foot the bill.

The Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo Surfliner will be paid for with a recent increase in ticket sales on other Amtrak trains in California , Mr. Merrill said.

The public is invited to ride the inaugural Surfliner train on Nov. 17 for part or all of the route. Reservations are not required but are recommended for the inaugural ride. A ticket is required. Festivities are scheduled at train stations in Los Angeles , Oxnard , Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Amtrak reservations may be made at (800) USA-RAIL or www.amtrak.com.

Santa Barbara Independent, Thursday, 11/16/04
by Nick Welsh

CAN’T GET THERE FROM HERE: The wonderful thing about children is they open your eyes to worlds you would otherwise never know. Like the guilty pleasures of offing innocent bystanders in video games like Grand Theft Auto. Or moments of mandatory meditation that come with spending quality time on the 101 parking lot as you attempt to shuttle your bambinos from school to lessons. Certainly, without kids, I would have remained lost in the snug, self-satisfied bubble inhabited by all bicycle commuters and never discovered the inner Zen of gridlock. I was contemplating all this the other day as I tried getting on the 101 from the Mission Street onramp and found one of those gargantuan earth-hauling trucks directly in front of me. I finally managed to escape his sooty backdraft somewhere around Fairview, though not before being forced to make a sizable contribution to the family’s profanity jar.

The fact is, I have seen the future and it looks a lot like the back of that truck. While leafing through the four-volume environmental impact report for Cottage Hospital’s mega-mondo expansion plans – the biggest proposal to hit the South Coast since the construction of the County Courthouse – I came across some startling statistics. The first two years of construction will require the transportation of 6,800 truckloads of dirt and demolition debris. These trucks are not small, sprightly things. Each one is big enough to register on Cal Tech’s Richter scale and generate its own weather patterns. On a good day they can rumble from 0 to 60 in about the time it takes to watch Titanic. During the first two years of construction, Cottage projects about 37,600 trips of other construction-related trucks – also big, just not gigantic – plus about 47,750 worker trips to get to the construction site. The workers, it should be noted, will be shuttled from the parking lot at Earl Warren Showgrounds. If those numbers make your eyes burn and your lungs ache in anticipation, the following four years promise to be even more intense. During that period, there will be 5,400 earth-moving trips, 55,150 construction truck trips, and 156,220 construction worker trips. In the interest of full disclosure, there are two more construction phases after that, but I stopped reading. While these numbers can be crunched to seem less alarming – only 134 average daily trips, for example – just imagine how scary Mission Street between the freeway and Bath Street already is. When construction starts, you’ll need an armored Humvee to brave that trek. And while you can drive Las Positas without taking your life in your hands, it already is a certifiable traffic nightmare.

It’s disturbing enough that the Cottage construction is scheduled to last close to a decade. But somewhere around 2007, Caltrans is supposed to begin construction on a series of necessary road improvements between Milpas Street and Hot Springs Road that will last at least three years. In 2008, similar work will begin in Carpinteria. Caltrans officials have assured me that, barring unforeseeable emergencies, they will keep two lanes open both ways during daylight hours, and only close lanes at night. That’s good, but it’s also true that we will lose our emergency shoulder during this time. Drivers will find themselves cinched in tight, confined by those concrete K-rail barriers you see in L.A., which typically are adorned with more tire marks than any sane person would care to contemplate. As recent accidents demonstrate, it doesn’t take much of a fender-bender to tie up traffic between downtown Santa Barbara and the Ventura border. Once construction is underway, it’s only going to get worse.

Call me perverse, but I’m actually hoping the Cottage-Caltrans collision creates the proverbial perfect storm. Maybe it will take something that bad for us to get our heads out of our tailpipes and start thinking seriously about other ways of getting from point A to point B. One of the more screamingly obvious ideas is commuter rail, though to date the idea remains very much an orphan seeking desperately to be adopted by the powers-that-be. How futuristic and whacky can it be if Ventura County is part of Metrolink, which provides commuter rail service to no less than five counties? Don’t we have 16,000 people who commute from Ventura to Santa Barbara every day? Yes, there are real challenges. But consider this: It took Metrolink two-and-a-half years to get up and running. The Highway 101 improvements Caltrans is now talking about starting in 2007 were first approved in 1995. All you freeway-widening freaks should keep that in mind. Why wait until the next century for relief when it’s right around the corner? Or it could be. Caltrans officials will be in town this Thursday to tell the city planning commissioners why they were wrong to ask for commuter rail service as mitigation to the proposed freeway improvements. It promises to be a wonk-fest showdown of the first order, with both sides politely blasting each other with a host of acronyms comprehensible to only a few. The bottom line, as always, is money. The commissioners will try to squeeze a few hundred thousand out of Caltrans to fund a study that shows – in sufficient technical detail – just how commuter rail service can be extended from Ventura to Goleta. There are other rail studies on the drawing boards, but nothing that accomplishes that goal. Maybe the good folks from Cottage Hospital will show up and lend a hand. After all, if a power elite exists in Santa Barbara, some of its members sit on the Cottage Hospital Board of Directors. Maybe if these guys start twisting arms, Caltrans will listen. If not, the board will still have the helipad – approved for the new and improved Cottage Hospital. As for the rest us, we’ll be at home playing Grand Theft Auto, killing bystanders innocent and otherwise – even those of us without children.

Santa Barbara News-Press Voices, Sunday, 11/14/04
Voice of Jim Kemp Executive Director, Santa Barbara County Association of Governments

On Wednesday, a new Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train will begin service between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo with stops at all Santa Barbara County train stations.

The new service provides a fifth daily Surfliner train from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara/Goleta and a much needed alternative for drivers using the South Coast ’s congested Highway 101.

Train travel in Southern California is on the rise. More than 7 million passengers rode on Coaster, Metrolink and Amtrak trains last year.

The Pacific Surfliner corridor between San Diego and San Luis Obispo is the second busiest Amtrak line in the country. Boardings at the five Santa Barbara County train stations in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara , Goleta , Lompoc and Santa Maria/Guadalupe increased an average of 25 percent last year.

Although Amtrak won’t work for everyone because the schedules don’t match traditional commute times, the Pacific Surfliner might allow some of the thousands of South Coast area workers commuting from Ventura County every day the option of leaving their cars at home and bypassing the 101 traffic jams in the comfort of a train.

The Santa Barbara County Association of Governments worked with all its partner agencies including Amtrak, Caltrans Division of Rail, Ventura County Transportation Commission and San Luis Obispo Council of Governments to bring the new Pacific Surfliner service to Santa Barbara County.

Locally, the Car Free Santa Barbara consortium, comprised of representatives from a wide range of local tourism promotion organizations and lead by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, has been promoting Santa Barbara to visitors as a travel destination that works very well without the need for a car. The new Surfliner service will make our community an even better car-free destination.

Many people also are discovering that the Coastal Express bus service is a great way to reduce commuting costs and get relief from the aggravation of traffic congestion.

The Coastal Express, which is run jointly by SBCAG and VCTC, operates seven days a week and provides 26 trips — 12 northbound and 14 southbound — on weekdays between Ventura County and Santa Barbara. For a $2 fare — $75 unlimited-ride monthly pass — riders can read, do office work or catch up on sleep while traveling on modern quiet coaches with comfortable individually ventilated and lighted reclining seats.

SBCAG is leading efforts to find long-term solutions to the South Coast ’s growing congestion and traffic delays through the 101 in Motion project. Through 101 in Motion, a wide range of congestion-relief ideas are being evaluated, and a plan for improving mobility in the South Coast is being developed.

Among the congestion relief options being evaluated:

• Commuter rail like Metrolink that would operate during peak hours between Oxnard/Ventura and the South Coast
• A dedicated busway adjacent to the existing rail line to carry high frequency express buses.
• High Occupancy Vehicle lanes added to Highway 101 that are limited to carpools, vanpools and buses.
• High Occupancy Toll lanes on 101 that can be used by carpools and buses at no cost and by solo drivers who pay an electronically collected toll.
• Advanced technology systems that provide real time information for travelers on traffic and road conditions, and squeeze more operating efficiency from the existing highway.

Clearly, 101 will have to be improved. The freeway’s 1950-era design features — narrow shoulders and bridges, short on- and off- ramps, and the infamous bottlenecks at Milpas Street and the county line — can’t handle current traffic volumes and speeds. But the scale of the traffic problems both now and in the future will require more than just improving the freeway and local interchanges.

Not everyone wants or needs to drive 101 during peak periods. Some commuters will choose alternatives like trains, buses and vanpools if they are convenient and save money.

Some might commute during off-peak traffic periods if their employers permitted them to use alterative work schedules.

In fact, some employees might do their work from home computers avoiding commute trips and traffic congestion altogether.

Providing a sustainable solution to the growing congestion on Highway 101 and its impacts on our economy, safety and quality of life demands that we improve 101 and provide transportation alternatives, which build on the success of the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and the Coastal Express.

The community must agree on which alternatives will work best, and then make them succeed by using them. If you would like To learn more about the effort to reduce congestion, visit www.101inmotion.com or call (866) MOVE-101.

Ventura County Star Thursday, 9/11/2004

Santa Barbara, Ventura county leaders plan study

Mike Granaroli sees little reason to add more buses or trains when it comes to easing traffic on Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County. The 49-year-old Ventura ironworker said lugging the tools of his trade on a bus is not an option.

With half his work taking place in Santa Barbara County, Granaroli instead wants the congested freeway widened.

“I can’t wait for the road to get bigger,” Granaroli said, balancing a cup in his hand at a Ventura coffeeshop this week before heading to work. “I don’t see why they haven’t done it yet. It can’t make it any worse. We don’t even go to visit our relatives (in Santa Barbara) anymore because of the traffic on Sundays.”

Two weeks ago, Santa Barbara and Ventura county leaders agreed to intensify studies on expanding commuter rail service as traffic between the two regions continues to worsen. Others, however, believe any solution should include widening Highway 101 in south Santa Barbara County, despite the furor that arose when the idea was proposed more than a decade ago.

Many Santa Barbara County politicians seem cautiously interested, saying it could reduce congestion but only if combined with carpooling, buses, expanded rail or more affordable housing.

“I don’t think widening alone will solve the problem, nor do I think rail or any other means (will do it),” Carpinteria Mayor Dick Weinberg said. “It’s got to be a combination of things.”

Meanwhile, traffic on 101 increases as droves of middle-income Santa Barbara residents — priced out of the real estate market there — move to Ventura County for cheaper housing and commute north to work.

About 102,000 motorists a day used Highway 101 between the Milpas Street and Cabrillo Road-Hot Springs Boulevard exits in 2002, nearly double the number in 1980, according to the latest Caltrans figures available. In 2002, some 15,500 commuters drove from Ventura County to jobs north, more than five times the 2,800 commuters doing it in 1980.

Weekends often aren’t much better than workdays, as Southern Californians flock to Santa Barbara shops and beaches or just pass through on trips to and from the Central Coast and Northern California.

All this stop-and-go traffic hasn’t affected air quality, thanks to cleaner-burning vehicles, said Terry Dressler, an air pollution control officer for the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District.

“But we’re going to see the end of that benefit, because cars can only get so much cleaner,” Dressler said. At some point, air quality will worsen “unless alternative means of transportation are embraced,” Dressler said.

Avoiding a ‘concrete swath’

The state Department of Transportation finished converting Highway 101 to a freeway in and around the city of Santa Barbara in 1992, Caltrans spokeswoman Marta Bortner said. That’s when crews elevated the road, took out the last remaining traffic signals and steered it around the downtown, which it once ran through, Bortner said.

“It was built to meet the capacity needs of the time, and over time that changes,” Bortner said of the four-lane highway — two lanes in each direction — between the southern edge of Santa Barbara and the Ventura County line.

In 1993, Caltrans proposed adding a lane in each direction along an 11.7-mile stretch between the Milpas Street exit near the Santa Barbara city limit and the San Ysidro Street exit just east of Montecito.

The proposal sparked a community uproar.

“The process had failed,” said Santa Barbara County Supervisor Naomi Schwartz, who got nearly 3,000 letters and phone calls, mostly in opposition. “It clearly needed to involve the community much more than it had.”

Many critics assailed Caltrans for what they called an offensive design. To add more lanes, the proposal called for cutting down thousands of trees — groves planted to honor fallen war heroes — and razing or relocating scores of homes and businesses, said Lee Moldaver, a board member with the Metropolitan Transit District.

Moldaver called the proposal “horrifically ugly.” Schwartz described it as a “concrete swath.” Even business leaders, who supported the widening idea and still favor it today, couldn’t get behind the specific proposal.

“The design and presentation was, ‘Here’s the San Fernando Valley or Orange County, and we’re going to put it in Santa Barbara,’ ” said Steve Cushman, executive director of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce.

“Even if you believed that widening would solve the problem,” Moldaver said, “Caltrans could not … say that adding an extra lane could solve a traffic congestion problem.”

County leaders commissioned a study to consider options other than widening. A citizens task force reviewed the study, after which the Santa Barbara Association of Governments, in 1996, approved three smaller-scale freeway improvements, which remain unbuilt.

One will add a third southbound lane and two northbound auxiliary lanes between the Milpas and Cabrillo Road-Hot Springs Boulevard exits. Auxiliary lanes allow motorists to merge on and off freeways between exits. Construction on the 1.3-mile, $30 million project is slated to start in late 2006, Bortner said.

Other improvements include a $3.1 million northbound auxiliary lane between Evans Avenue and Sheffield Drive west of Summerland, and $21.6 million in interchange work at the Linden Avenue and Casitas Pass exits near Carpinteria. Work on the northbound auxiliary lane won’t start until 2005. The interchange improvements are set to begin in 2008, Bortner said.

These projects, however, are not designed to reduce rush-hour traffic, Bortner said.

Solution takes political will

Santa Barbara County leaders have not abandoned the idea of widening 101. It is one of dozens of traffic solutions under consideration by the Association of Government’s “101 in Motion” project, an ongoing study of the traffic problems.

An extra lane could be used for ordinary traffic or restricted to carpools or express buses, association spokesman Gregg Hart said, adding that toll lanes are another option.

Ferries, rail and improved mass transit also are under consideration. Leaders from both counties recently agreed to intensify studies on expanding commuter rail. A decision on which options to pursue is due next year.

Adding more lanes to freeways, however, generally does not solve rush-hour traffic, said Tim Lomax, a research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute. Initially, the duration of stop-and-go traffic may shrink an hour or so, Lomax said. But motorists who avoided rush hour by leaving earlier or later eventually return, “and they come back in enough cars to fill up the freeway,” Lomax said.

Still, Tom Pollett, a Ventura resident who works in Santa Barbara as a software programmer, called widening the freeway a great idea.

“I’m a born-and-bred Southern Californian,” Pollett, 58, said this week at the Ventura coffee shop. “I don’t think I could give up my car.”

Shannon Knupp, a 33-year-old Ventura resident and human resources worker, would rather see Metrolink expand its rail operations to Santa Barbara. The Los Angeles-based commuter service now stops at Ventura’s Montalvo station.

Knupp moved to Ventura three years ago but continued to work in Santa Barbara. After four months of the nightmarish commute, she gave up and found a job in Oxnard.

If affordable housing became available in Santa Barbara, however, she’d move back “in a heartbeat,” she said. “If I could afford to live up there, I would.” The median home price in south Santa Barbara County is now more than $1 million.

Affordable housing could relieve traffic congestion if coupled with other transit solutions, said John Jostes, a Santa Barbara-based planner, city planning commissioner and author of “Taking Action Regionally,” a recent study commissioned by Santa Barbara and Ventura county government agencies.

Jostes doubts there’s enough political will, however, for affordable housing in Santa Barbara. “The way politics works is people go for votes, not for allocating environmental and social costs fairly across the region,” Jostes said.

Carpinteria’s Weinberg disagreed. The problem isn’t a lack of political will, but rather backlash from not-in-my-back-yard residents who fear high-density housing, Weinberg said.

Ventura Mayor Brian Brennan said he would only support widening Highway 101 so it could have a light-rail line in the median. Just adding more car lanes doesn’t make sense, he said.

“I think it’s the classic case of curing obesity by loosening your belt,” Brennan said. “We’ll fill those roads right up again.”

Coastal View News Viewpoint, 8/26/04

by Christine Grimm

Imagine gliding quickly along the coast as cars inch their way on the 101, and only paying $2.10 for the ride from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara. It’s possible with Amtrak’s 45-day 10 trip ticket for the San Luis Obispo to San Diego Surfliner route.

This ticket is good for 10 individual rides or groups traveling together and is available at the Santa Barbara station.

For travelers between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, this means a savings of $29 over the individual $5 one-way tickets (which can be purchased from the conductor). This ticket is also available to other towns along the route, with individual trips costing $3.30 to Ventura and $12 to Los Angeles from Carpinteria. Or you can buy an unlimited monthly pass that costs $51 from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara, for example.

What a great incentive to leave your car at home, for which the environment and your wallet will thank you.

Schedules for are available at www.Amtrak.com. Always call 1-800-USARAIL to check status beforehand.

Amtrak is considering adding a weekday morning train from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara that would return in the early evening. To help this become a reality, please write a letter to David Gunn, president and CEO of Amtrak to let him know that the new service is important to you and encourage him to overcome whatever delays exist. (Mr. David Gunn, president and CEO, National Rail Passenger Corporation, 60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002)

Another possibility is commuter rail, which works in countless cities around the globe with a connecting bus system. For more information on the campaign to develop this urgently needed service here, please see www.coastalrailnow.org (a project of COAST, the non-profit Coalition for Sustainable Transportation).

If you don’t like the train schedule, you can take MTD bus 21x to Santa Barbara. It runs on a half-hour schedule during the week and you can take your bike along, just like on the train. See www.sbmtd.gov for more information. A combination of taking the train one way and the bus the other is also a possibility.

It may seem like a minor contribution, but every car that stays parked reduces congestion, pollution and the frightening impacts of global warming (let’s keep Carpinteria above sea level).

It’s up to each of us to overcome the cultural addiction to gasoline and its far-reaching effects. I’ve made the commitment to replace at least one car trip per week with a train ride. How about you?

LA Times Thursday, 8/26/2004

A train linking Ventura and Santa Barbara counties is cited as an alternative to growing congestion on a 35-mile stretch of the 101.

By Amanda Covarrubias, Times Staff Writer

Transportation officials from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties agreed Wednesday to explore the possibility of establishing a commuter rail line between the two counties to ease traffic congestion on the 101 Freeway.

Acknowledging that starting a commuter line would be costly and time-consuming, officials said every means of alternative transportation should be pursued to find a solution to the growing traffic congestion on the 35-mile stretch of highway.

“We’re not going to wait for some future date to start this,” said Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara). “We’ve already started.”

Capps cosponsored a transportation conference in Santa Barbara to discuss solutions to the commuter problem, made worse by a severe shortage of housing for middle-class families in Santa Barbara.

Instead, people have been buying homes in less-expensive Ventura County and commuting to their jobs in Santa Barbara and Goleta, clogging the freeway that narrows to two lanes through Carpinteria and Montecito.

“We need to find out what’s possible and what’s simply not possible,” said Santa Barbara County Supervisor Naomi Schwartz. “Rail is a popular option in this community. We look at an empty railroad corridor most of the day.”

But a rail line would be expensive and require the cooperation of the privately owned Union Pacific Railroad, whose first priority is moving freight from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach across the country, railroad officials said.

“We don’t want to give the appearance of being uncooperative but we will do what we can to help our franchise,” said Jerry Wilmoth, general manager of network infrastructure for Union Pacific. “We have a limited right of way, and we don’t want to lose our ability to expand. In some places, there just isn’t enough room. It’s like putting a Ferrari and Volkswagen together on the freeway. They just don’t work very well.”

Yet Wilmoth and Scott Moore, general manager of the railroad’s public-private partnership, said they would be willing to talk with representatives from the two counties.

“It’s not hopeless, it’s challenging. But maybe that’s the same thing,” Wilmoth said. “It’s something we don’t take lightly. But it takes a lot of work. We certainly want to be involved to find creative solutions that in the end can work.”

Ginger Gherardi, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, suggested the first step in that process should be a rail study to determine the operational costs of a commuter line, the cost of a bus service to shuttle people from train stations to their workplaces, the number of people who would ride the buses, where train stations would be located and the type of train that would be used.

“The two counties need to come together to come up with planning dollars to conduct the study,” Gherardi said. “The outcomes will determine if we have the resources to establish a line. We need to get started on that right away.”

She said Amtrak would soon be starting a morning route from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo that would stop in Ventura and Santa Barbara. The number of commuters who use the train would provide a good indication of how popular a commuter-only line might be, she said.

“That Amtrak service has zero cost locally,” she added.

But Warren Weber, manager of rail operations for the California Department of Transportation, said for the train to be useful to Ventura commuters, it would have to depart Los Angeles at 6 a.m., which would cut into the leisure travel market. He said that was not something he wanted to risk.

Gherardi later said she believed the schedule was negotiable.

David Solow, Metrolink executive director, said he would be willing to talk about expanding the service into Santa Barbara County.

“I’m here to help, but it’s going to cost you a lot,” Solow said. “There’s substantial operating costs involved in order for us to grow. You need to understand it’s something you’re stuck with for a very long time.”

The Metrolink rail system now operates in Ventura County, taking commuters as far north as Montalvo. The service costs Ventura County $5.5 million a year plus $550,000 paid annually to Union Pacific to use its rails, Gherardi said.

The conference was cosponsored by Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long and Schwartz. About 100 people attended the meeting, including Dennis Story, chairman of coastalrailnow.org, an organization pushing for a rail line between the counties.

“I’m optimistic,” said Story, who lives in Santa Barbara. “The rail makes so much sense. It’s kind of the way we’re going.”

But Ventura Mayor Brian Brennan, who attended the conference, said he was not sure. He said he favored establishing a light-rail system in the median of the 101 Freeway instead.

“That model’s dead,” Brennan said of the Union Pacific rail-line idea. “It’s time to go with a new model.”