Local Businesses Urged to Look On Down the Road

Lisa Mills, chief executive of the Orange County Transportation Authority, has been on the rubber-chicken circuit recently to sound a wake-up call to the local business community. Her message: To keep the economy humming over the long term, solutions must be devised now to satisfy the county’s future transportation needs.

Transportation “is one of the lifelines to the economy,” she said. “You have to have trucks to deliver goods, customers have to get to stores, employees have to get to and from work.”

Ongoing and recently completed projects, including the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway, street improvements and increased bus service, will make do for the next five to 10 years, she said. Beyond that, the ability of the transportation system to handle the projected traffic volume will become increasingly strained.

Mills bases her view on economists’ projections that the county’s population will rise by 22% from 1995 to 2020, while employment will soar by 70%. With job growth expected to far outpace increases in the number of people living here, freeways could become far more congested with commuters from neighboring counties.

Possible solutions include encouraging telecommuting, adding second decks to freeways, and expanding bus service, Mills said. She is hoping that county business people will step up with innovative suggestions to keep the traffic flowing. “We need to start planning now for what’s going to happen in the next 20 years,” she said.

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Patrice Apodaca covers economic issues for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5979 and at patrice.apodaca@latimes.com.