Toll lanes possible for 101 Freeway

By Michael Picarella Acorn Staff Writer

The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) has about six more months until a regional transportation plan must be presented to its regional council. The plan would address increasing population and traffic volume projections for the 101 Freeway in 2030, according to SCAG manager of public affairs Dan Rhodes. A suggestion discussed last week was toll lanes that would stretch from Thousand Oaks to Studio City.

The $900 million project would include a second deck to be built on the freeway. The proposal was an alternative to adding six lanes each way on the freeway. That suggestion met a huge outcry from the public because hundreds of homes and businesses from Woodland Hills to Sherman Oaks would have been destroyed. But some properties would also face an uncertain future to accommodate the toll lanes, officials said.

Transportation planners "are starting to look at ways to pay for highway and transportation improvements other than having to go to taxes all the time," Rhodes said. "The idea of user fees is starting to catch on, whether it’s for individual lanes that would be for trucks or traffic improvements—it’s a way of trying to start funding these things."

SCAG is comprised of various government agencies, including Ventura and Los Angeles counties. It covers basically all of Southern California except for San Diego, according to Rhodes.

Every three years, SCAG staff members must present a regional transportation plan that addresses federal requirements for air quality and transportation to justify federal funding. The money could be as much as $8 billion over the next decade, according to SCAG.

"We’ll take (the regional transportation plan) to our regional council (in April), which is made up of 75 elected officials from the SCAG region, and say, ‘Here’s the initial plan,’" Rhodes said.

The plan will be available to the public beginning Oct. 15, Rhodes said.

"That’s when we send it around for public comment and scrutiny," he said. Rhodes would like to see public reaction to the plan before it’s finalized and delivered to SCAG’s regional council, he said.

Once the plan is submitted, funding would have to be allocated before any projects would begin, he said.

About 17 million people live in the region served by SCAG. Planners expect an increase of 6 million by 2030.

Another method of reducing the number of vehicles by 2030 would be a monorail system similar to Disneyland’s, but a little more "high tech," Rhodes said. It would, he said, probably link communities to airports.

For more information about SCAG and its regional transportation plan and traffic ideas, log onto www.scag.ca.gov.