The East West Connector is both Unnecessary and Counterproductive

Keeping Thru-Traffic Where it Belongs – On our Freeways

Between Oakland and Milpitas, 120 miles of new express lanes will be added to I-880, almost doubling the 150 miles of HOV lanes that already exist (link).  Express lanes are also being added to I-680.  While that money would have been better spent on diversifying into less saturated modes of transportation, such as rail, investing in express lanes on our freeways concentrates the increase in road capacity where through traffic belongs: on the freeway.  There is no need to also pave over the Old Alameda Creek, bring noise and pollution to our neighborhoods and destroy Niles Canyon.

Fremont and Union City are places to live not to speed through.  Keep through traffic on the freeways and protect the quality of life in our residential neighborhoods!

 

Making Existing Roads Work Better

The City of Fremont is finally investing in our aged traffic signal system to utilize current and future technology improvements for better signal coordination (link).  We are all too familiar with losing time at poorly coordinated traffic lights.  We should first exploit all options to improve our existing roads, before we even think about building more roads.

 

BART Extension to Warm Springs and San Jose

The East West Connector claims to provide a new link to I-880.  However, the BART extension to San Jose already accomplishes the same, by linking Dublin and Pleasanton to this North-South Corridor that soon will extend all the way from San Jose to Oakland and San Francisco.  The first new station in Warm Springs is coming online this fall.  The extension to Milpitas and Beryessa in San Jose is also well underway and service is currently expected to open in 2018.  At the San Jose Beryessa station, BART will connect to the VTA light rail system which already serves 62 stations and operates 99 trains, transporting 33,400 passengers per day.  In addition, 18 new BART trains were purchased for the extension.  Similarly, the Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), which connects cities such as Stockton, Tracy, Livermore and Pleasanton to Fremont Centerville and San Jose, plans to add 2 additional trains to its schedule by 2020 and an additional four trains by 2025.

In other words, good things are happening.  Unlike cars, which become increasingly ineffective when too many people use them, public transportation is experiencing a virtuous cycle.  As ridership increases, frequency of service improves and we are inching closer to “show up and go” service, like New York, Boston and most European cities already have.  We are providing commuters with options so they can choose between different modes of transportation.  Commuters from East of us can soon reach growing job centers in Southern Fremont, Milpitas and San Jose via public transit.  This will not only take cars off the road, but also help our economies by encouraging job growth here in the East Bay.  We are also reducing green house gas emissions and most importantly improving quality of life as commute distances are shortened.

Building the East West Connector undermines all of this.  By encouraging people to drive, we are undermining the substantial investments we already made in the BART extension.  The result is that we pay three times: once by permanently and irreversibly destroying our neighborhoods with yet another large highway, then again by undermining our investments in diversified transportation options and finally a third time, by spending several hundred million $ on an outdated highway project with negative return on investment.

We often think that expanding public transit is too expensive.  On the flip side, we generally do not even ask how much a new highway project costs the taxpayer.  To put this in perspective:  We spent $767 million to extend BART by 5.4 miles to Warm Springs.  Project completion was delayed, but miraculously came in on budget and will take 7,000 cars off the road every day.  On a per mile basis, the cost for the BART extension was $142 million per mile.  Compare this to the $230 million that are estimated for the East West Connector to add 1.3 miles of new road.   The actual cost will be updated in 2017 and, as usual, we can be sure it will be revised upward.  So on a per mile basis we know the East West Connector will cost us at least $177 million per new mile, which is 25% more than the BART extension to Warm Springs cost.

The East West Connector will bring pollution and noise to residential neighborhoods, destroy park land, damage walkability of our neighborhoods, increase greenhouse gas emissions, hurt our economy by encouraging our highly educated workforce to innovate across the bay and hurt our image as we appear backward.  Who in the 21st century still runs highways through residential neighborhoods, evicts an organic community farm and paves over riparian wildlife habitats?  If the East West Connector proceeds, we are sending a clear message that we are not part of Silicon Valley.  Contrast this to the BART extension.  At the Warm Springs Innovation District, it spurred the development of office space right here in the East Bay, which saves people from having to commute across the bay.  The commercial land use also provides valuable revenue to the city.

 

 

Equilibrating Forces that do not cost the Tax Payer

Imbalances often trigger corrective forces.  Many such forces are gaining momentum and would be undermined by the construction of more East-West roadways.  Some examples include:

  • Companies are moving to the East Bay where a highly talented workforce lives and rents are cheaper (link)  .  This is good for our economy and communities.  Commercial land use generates higher revenues for the city while generating less costs (most of the property taxes from housing go to the county, not the city, whereas commercial land use generates substantial revenue for the city). As we obtain a better balance between residential and commercial land use, we achieve better funded schools and public services.  If people work where they live, more of their money is spent in the community, helping local businesses.  As people spend less time commuting long distances, quality of life increases.
  •  One of the most noticeable developments has been the rise of Employer provided bus services by companies, such as Facebook, Google, Stanford, Genentech and many more.  In addition, smaller companies that cannot afford their own bus service, offer free ClipperCards to their employees.  An excellent article, describing just how many cars have already been taken off the road by employer financed programs and the potential for further expansion can be found here (link).  For example, between 2012 and 2014 alone, the number of private shuttle passenger boardings increased from 6.6 million to nearly 9.6 million a year.  Google is asking, “how can we double that”?  The cost to the taxpayer is zero.
  • As peninsula cities like Palo Alto become concerned about turning into empty commuter towns, pressures are mounting to provide more housing on the peninsula (link) and restrict commercial developments there (link).
  • Facebook is pioneering a 10-mile $10k benefit that pays a $10k bonus to employees who choose to live within 10 miles of work, reducing congestion by reducing vehicle miles traveled (link).
  • Bay Area companies are becoming increasingly flexible in terms of working hours, allowing employees to avoid driving during peak hours or working at home when possible.
  • Many companies encourage car pooling by reserving the best parking spots for car pools (e.g. Stanford).