Less Time on the Road

The days when the drive into Orange County in the morning and out again in the evening was a “reverse commute” with relatively light traffic are long gone. But the prediction that the daily rush hour will stretch from four hours to seven in the next two decades is startling. Should it occur, it could jeopardize jobs and family life.

A new regional transportation study submitted to the Orange County Transportation Authority and the Southern California Assn. of Governments warns of the traffic buildup.

The study says that commuters bound for Orange County from Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties will be attracted by jobs here but will be unable to find affordable housing.

The analysts have suggested several dozen improvements, with a price tag of over $1 billion. Expanded light-rail service is suggested, as are new roads, toll lanes and express bus routes. Yet even then, traffic in some cases, especially along the Riverside Freeway, will continue to be horrendous.

Some possible solutions will have to be ruled out because of geography or the damage they would do to natural resources and wildlife.

Steep hills make it difficult to build a new freeway or toll road in the area where the borders of Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino meet. That so-called Four Corners area, around the rugged Chino Hills, is the main corridor between the Inland Empire and developed areas of Orange and Los Angeles counties.

The possibility of extending toll lanes along the Riverside Freeway from Orange County to Riverside County has been rejected by officials in Riverside. The report says that without improvements, traffic on sections of the westbound Riverside Freeway during morning rush hour will slow from the current 25 mph to less than 10 mph by 2020.

Suggestions that deserve serious consideration are extending light-rail service from Fullerton to the city of Industry and expanding freeway tow truck patrols. Getting disabled cars off freeway lanes as quickly as possible can reduce congestion.

Expanding express bus routes and encouraging ridership on them also is a good idea.

Another possible solution is adding affordable housing in Orange County, where the need has been great for a long time. Santa Ana, Fullerton and Anaheim are among the first communities targeted for housing in the central city areas. A joint venture, known as American CityVista, will aim for building lower-density single-family homes and small townhouse complexes.

What is needed now is for cities to help in the hunt for suitable sites and to cut the red tape so the builders don’t run afoul of zoning and other regulations.

Cities also have to ensure that this new housing does not simply replace older, more affordable dwellings for those at the bottom of the economic pile.

Large numbers of Orange County workers commute from the Inland Empire each day to jobs that may pay $50,000 a year, but not enough to afford the average house in Orange County.

In July the median price of homes sold in the county was $264,000, an 11% increase over the same month last year. That was the highest for any July and represented the 38th consecutive month of year-over-year gains. The strong economy has made demand for homes strong, but the increasing prices make it difficult for many who work in the county to live here.

Orange County officials will have to join with their colleagues in other counties to find solutions to the problems that are clear on freeways in the county every morning.

The need for more traffic lanes and more homes is obvious. It will not be easy to decide where to put the lanes or get all the needed houses built. But government can help private business find answers and not make the commute worse in the decades ahead.