The 91: Divided We Stall

It’s 6 a.m. Do you know where your car is?

Anyone who commutes from Riverside County to Orange County can answer that: crawling along the Riverside Freeway.

Riverside County is committed to solving this problem for the benefit of all people who travel between our two counties. As part of that effort, we are looking at a variety of options as part of our countywide plan to address expected population growth.

As with any major undertaking, distorted information can make its way to the public. Recent reports, for example, claimed that Riverside County is set to build a road through the Cleveland National Forest along one of four routes.

Those reports have justly alarmed Orange County residents and officials alike. The problem is that those reports represent the planning process as being much further along than it is.

When it comes to improving traffic flow between the two counties, Riverside County has barely entered the brainstorming phase. Our Board of Supervisors would never set any plans in stone before consulting with Orange County leaders and residents, and conducting extensive research.

Let me set the record straight.

We have not even surveyed, let alone selected, any potential routes. Any statements to the contrary are completely inaccurate.

But make no mistake, solving the traffic crisis between our counties is essential. In the next 20 years, the number of cars traveling the 91 each day will double, reaching more than 400,000. Without additional transportation capacity, the average daily commute time will balloon to six hours. That means commuters will spend nearly an entire workday just getting to and from work.

This holds devastating consequences for the economy, traffic safety and the quality of life in both Orange and Riverside counties. Hard-working people will waste endless hours on an increasingly dangerous freeway when they should be home with their families. That is unacceptable.

And as the new century unfolds, the transportation connection between our two counties holds the key to the success of our region’s economy. The projections tell the story: Riverside County will experience explosive population growth while Orange County leads the way in job growth.

Today, commuters trade their time on the road to take advantage of the higher-paying Orange County jobs and the lower housing costs in Riverside County.

But that trade-off will no longer make sense when the commute soars to six hours a day. Orange County business owners will see their Riverside County employees increasingly stressed and demoralized at work. In the short term, this will lead to decreased productivity and lost profits.

But in the long run, people simply will stop making the trip and Orange County employers will find themselves having jobs but no workers.

Clearly, this traffic crisis affects more than commuters and business owners. As truck traffic grows (40,000 a day by 2020), every shipment going to or from Orange County will be subject to delay. Nothing will get anywhere “absolutely, positively” overnight in Southern California.

In addition, the prospect of sitting in traffic most of the day will discourage meetings between Orange County and Riverside County business interests, resulting in more lost economic opportunities.

Without a viable transportation system, Southern California’s economy will grind to a halt. We cannot allow that to happen.

But in our effort to keep the regional economy moving we must not ignore the environment. The impacts of any transportation improvements must be considered carefully to ensure protection of our natural resources. Both counties have habitat conservation measures in place, so it is even possible that a new road could involve preserving more land than would be impacted. As part of our planning efforts to improve traffic flow in Riverside County, more than 100,000 acres are to be set aside for habitat conservation.

In our effort to address traffic needs in Riverside County, we brought to the table developers, commuters, homeowners, businesspeople and environmentalists before any line was drawn on a map.

Our message is simple: Orange County and Riverside County must work together in the same honest, open and cooperative fashion to develop a vital link between us that will ensure our future economic well-being and high quality of life. I applaud recent efforts by the Orange County Transportation Authority to address future traffic needs between our two counties. Mutual acknowledgment of this problem is an important step, but there is much work to be done.

I believe the time is now to address our joint future transportation needs together. In that spirit, I look forward to working with Orange County leaders to meet this critical challenge.