No Finessing Transportation Flaws on the 91

Time to build the "Southern Connection" between the IE and OC!

Below is a very well written letter to the Orange County Register!

The Orange County Transportation Authority should realize by now that there is no finessing away problems on the 91 freeway ["New commuter buses may put zip in trip on 91," Local, Aug. 3]. It requires a brute-force solution, namely more lanes. The latest proposal for a special bus line looks good on the surface, but let's look deeper.

To keep these buses on schedule, FasTrak lanes will have to be kept moving. How will OCTA do this? The only way is to raise tolls, which will move cars onto the 91 freeway lanes, which will make it more congested.

As far as the OCTA is concerned, it's a win-win situation. It gets to charge more for the express lanes while the added congestion adds to the lane's appeal. The buses will probably get a couple of hundred riders to use their new bus line and declare it an overwhelming success.
OCTA will add to its budget and its over-inflated sense of importance, and all the while it adds to an ever-increasing bureaucratic empire.

The only losers in this are the 95 percent of us who pay into the Measure M fund who will get nothing in return. Seems like a nice little money-making circle, yes?

Robert R. Daoust Anaheim