Van Pool Issues

If I hadn't been riding in a Van Pool these past 1 1/2 years, I may not have noticed this situation.

As it is, last week, as we were riding in the car pool lane just after the Newhall Pass, I noticed that the lane ends and yet, there is room that they put in, for another lane. So that means we hit a back up, every evening. Right in that same spot. The lane is there, but they don't allow us to use it and as a matter of fact, there is no carpool lane from when we reach the interchange of the I-5 and the 14 Freeways.

We lose a few minutes, every day. So I said to the driver, why won't they open the lanes that we built with our tax money?

I see from this article, that I am not the only one questioning this very thing. Credit goes to Jim de Bree in his December 31, 2015 letter in The Signal and I would link to the article, but you need to subscribe to the newspaper to view the entire thing. So I copied it here, for you to read.

Again, the following words are not mine.

"In November 2008, the voters of Los Angeles County approved Measure R, which raised the sales tax in L.A. County by a half cent for a 30-year period commencing Jan. 1, 2009.

The purpose of the sales tax increase was to raise money for transportation infrastructure. Locally, a carpool lane was supposed to be added to Interstate 5 in each direction from the Highway 14 interchange to Castaic.

Like most government construction projects, once construction started, it was determined that the actual cost of construction was significantly greater than budgeted. There was only sufficient money to construct the carpool lanes through the Calgrove Boulevard exit.

So in 2013, the vounty entered into a public-private partnership wherein a private company would be able to operate toll lanes in the carpool lane in exchange for providing the funds to finish the remainder of the carpool lanes from Calgrove to Castaic.

Based on the prevailing rates in 2013, it was expected that tolls ranging from 25 cents to $1.40 per mile would be charged.

At the time, there was considerable local opposition to this plan, particularly since the principal bottleneck was slow traffic between the Calgrove exit and the Highway 14 interchange. The remainder of the carpool lanes will likely only be economically feasible when the Newhall Ranch project is built.

The principal counter-arguments to the opposition were two-fold: Metro believed the project would be considerably less expensive to build at the time, as construction costs remained low due to the Great Recession; and the project would help retain or create jobs in the area.

For a further discussion of these talking points, see the link at: http://thesource.metro.net/2013/02/15/to-accelerate-the-building-of-13-5-miles-of-hov-lanes-on-i-5-in-santa-clarita-area-metro-proposes-charging-tolls-for-vehicles-with-one-or-two-occupants-to-use-the-lanes/.

So seven years after the passage of Measure R, the freeway has been widened in both directions from Highway 14 through the Calgrove Boulevard exit.

However, the space reserved for the carpool lanes is not being used. There are no carpool lanes and there are exactly the same number of lanes in both directions as there were when Measure R passed in November 2008.

The Great Recession has ended without the construction being completed. So does that mean the toll roads will cost even more?

If you carefully read the materials on the website, you’ll find they state that the carpool lanes will be completed all the way to Castaic in 2019, but they don’t say what will be done with the completed section of the carpool lanes until then. Why can’t the lanes on this part of the freeway be re-striped to allow for current usage?

We are paying the sales tax that funded the construction but are receiving none of the benefits of such construction. If the remainder of the project is not feasible to complete because the Newhall Ranch project is in long-term limbo, shouldn’t the continuation of the project be scrapped and the toll lanes be eliminated?

In any event, it is time for this situation to be corrected.

Jim de Bree is a Valencia resident."