Is a toll road the way to go?

Re “Flaws found in O.C. tollway foes’ study,” Oct. 15

To hear toll road cheerleader Peter Herzog, a Transportation Corridor Agencies board member (“Their study is not worth the paper it’s printed on”), and TCA engineer Paul A. Bopp (“Their work looks like someone just drew highway designs on a Google Earth map”), one might get the impression that the proposal to destroy San Onofre State Beach for a private Orange County toll road is rather a good idea.

In fact, the transportation study criticized by the TCA shows that widening Interstate 5 can be accomplished at less cost, with 95% less impact to private property, and avoid destroying one of California’s most valued state parks. Not to mention that the TCA’s own studies show that the toll road would not alleviate traffic on I-5 -- the supposed purpose of its roadway. No wonder the TCA is desperate to malign the study -- it reveals the agencies’ incompetence.

Mark A. Massara

Director, Sierra Club

Coastal Programs

San Francisco

--

The Foothill South tollway is not the only solution to traffic in south Orange County; it is part of a plan with a variety of improvements, including widening projects, road extensions and adding new roads. Simply widening Interstate 5 is not going to solve the area’s shortage of alternate routes. As we saw tragically last week, Interstate 5 has many choke-points, where serious accidents or other road closures completely cut off north-south transportation, affecting mobility for the entire region.

Foothill South is important to mobility not just in south Orange County and north San Diego County but for California, providing a crucial alternative to the current choke-point on Interstate 5. Right now, Interstate 5 is the only route from Orange County to San Diego County. No amount of widening it will provide the alternative.

Meg Waters

Laguna Hills

--

The article missed the main point. Once the initial errors found with the study were corrected, it still showed that the number of condemnations would be far fewer than a 10th of what the TCA claimed. A toll road through San Onofre State Beach is no way to deal with traffic congestion in southern Orange County. It should be obvious to anyone who is not being paid by the TCA that putting freeways and development on every inch of open space won’t solve our traffic problems.

David Bendall

Aliso Viejo