Traffic Haters Drive Measures Toward Success

California voters, bound by a hatred of traffic congestion, were divided in Tuesday’s election over whether to increase their taxes to pay for transportation projects.

Ballot measures to increase or extend local sales taxes to pay for transportation improvements were leading in eight counties, including San Bernardino, San Diego and Sacramento. But in three counties -- Ventura, Santa Cruz and Solano -- voters defeated similar measures.

Transportation advocates praised the victories and said the large number of transportation measures on the ballots indicated that frustrated commuters were willing to reach into their own pockets to alleviate congestion.

“Voters really understood the need,” said Pete Aguilar, a spokesman for San Bernardino County Taxpayers for Traffic Relief, which backed Measure I, a 30-year extension of a sales tax of a half-cent on the dollar.

In counties where transportation measures failed, opponents said they objected to the increased cost and feared more freeway construction would only lead to more development.

“We need better public transportation between communities,” said Fred Rosenmund, an Oxnard attorney who helped direct the opposition to Measure B in Ventura County. “Without alternative ways to get from city to city, our open space will disappear and we’ll end up looking like the San Fernando Valley.”

California’s crop of transportation measures was part of a national trend. Voters from Arkansas to Washington state went to the polls Tuesday to decide 28 local measures to pay for new transportation projects, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a nonpartisan policy research center in Washington, D.C. Twenty-two of those measures appeared likely to win, adding to the 18 transportation measures already approved earlier this year, the center said.

Worsening traffic may explain the growing support for such propositions.

A national transportation report released in September concluded that traffic had worsened nationwide and had begun to take a toll on small, rural communities as well as large metropolitan centers like Southern California. The study by the Texas Transportation Institute also concluded that city, state and federal officials had not invested enough money to solve the problem.

In Southern California, transportation officials say funding from sales tax measures is vital because state and federal transportation money has been cut as a result of budget woes.

Voters supporting transportation measures “is something we assume would take place -- otherwise we would have big trouble,” said Hasan Ihkrata, director of policy and planning for the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a regional transportation planning agency.

A half-cent sales tax that would generate $9.5 billion for transportation improvements appeared to have won by a thin margin in San Diego. Similar measures were winning in Marin, Sonoma, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties.

In San Bernardino County, Measure I, a proposition to raise $8 billion in transportation projects, received nearly 80% support at the polls, easily clearing the necessary two-thirds margin of victory. There was no organized campaign; supporters spent nearly $1 million.

Aguilar, of San Bernardino County Taxpayers for Traffic Relief, attributed the support to frustration with traffic congestion, which has increased by more than 500% in the county since 1982.

In Ventura County, traffic has increased at about the same pace. However, voters trounced Measure B, which would have imposed a half-cent sales tax aimed at unclogging congested highways.

Backers said they hadn’t pinpointed the reason for the defeat. “I don’t think we have enough information yet to be able to tell just what happened,” said Ginger Gherardi, director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission. “All we know is that the roads are in bad condition and [are] going to get considerably worse.”

The measure, rejected by a margin of about 20 percentage points, would have raised about $1.5 billion over 30 years. It was competing on the countywide ballot with a measure that would have levied a quarter-cent sales tax for the preservation of open space, which was also defeated.

“I think people were just not in the mood to be taxed,” said Keith Millhouse, an environmental attorney who directed the campaign for Measure B.

Millhouse, a transportation commission member and a Moorpark councilman, said a locally generated boost in transportation money would have made up for a funding breakdown at the state and federal levels. “Even in the best of times, we only get $13 million from the state. Under that schedule, you’re looking at 2048 for improving the 101 Freeway.”

Opponents saw that the highway tax was backed by developers. In anti-growth Ventura County, that support didn’t play well. “Certainly everyone feels there’s gridlock,” said Rosenmund, who helped lead the opposition to Measure B. “But when it came down to choosing between roads or what little rural environment we have left in Ventura County, the trade-off just wasn’t worth it.”

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Contributing to coverage of the California elections were Times staff writers Mark Arax, Patricia Ward Biederman, Amanda Covarrubias, Susana Enriquez, Richard Fausset, Jason Felch, Sue Fox, Megan Garvey, Jeff Gottlieb, Carla Hall, Evan Halper, Erika Hayasaki, Natasha Lee, Nita Lelyveld, Jack Leonard, Noam N. Levey, Caitlin Liu, Scott Martelle, Seema Mehta, Hugo Martin, Dan Morain, Sandra Murillo, Peter Nicholas, Jean O. Pasco, Tony Perry, Stuart Pfeifer, Rachana Rathi, Jordan Rau, Lisa Richardson, Lee Romney, Robert Salladay, Eric Slater, Doug Smith, Veronica Torrejon, Wendy Thermos, Nancy Vogel, Andrew Wang, Erica Williams and Janet Wilson.