Uneasy Rhetoric

This morning, as I drove the on ramp from Florin Road onto I-5 North, I saw an example of road planning that wasn’t very well planned. This provided contrast to the puff-piece on the “Complete Streets” concept in this morning’s Bee.

First, meters. If you’re familiar with the Florin Road/I-5 North on ramp, you know it’s a bit of a nail biter. First, to get to it, you need to cross traffic getting off the freeway and merge in front of it. Then, you need to drive along a tight curve to the right. Finally, before you merge onto the freeway, you have to cross in front of traffic getting off of the freeway. It was a poorly designed interchange to begin with.

And now they’re going to meter it.

I don’t mind meters. Supposedly, “Ramp meters are claimed to reduce congestion (increase speed and volume) on freeways by reducing demand and by breaking up platoons of cars” (Wikipedia).

But putting a meter at the Florin I-5 North on ramp leaves me scratching my head because you aren’t entering the freeway right away. First, you have to cross traffic getting off the freeway onto Florin heading west. This means that, even if your meter light is green, you’ll have to wait for traffic to pass in front of you. So, if you follow the law religiously, you’ll have to wait for the combination of a green light and enough room to get moving onto the freeway on ramp. This also means that you’ll be entering this already dangerous strip of road from a dead stop, increasing the distance required to slip in between exiting cars.

And now, Complete Streets. As you might expect, I’m a big fan of the complete streets concept. The idea is to acknowledge that the only way to get between two points is not necessarily with a car. Streets are designed to accommodate cars, transit vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, wheelchairs, and skater punks. Maybe not that last one. Maybe.

Planners in Sacramento, no doubt the same ones who put a meter where it won’t do much good, are now to be tasked with incorporating multi-modal transportation into their road designs. An upgrade to Hazel Avenue will even include space for horseback riders using the recreation area. The Measure A sales tax will be providing the money and gives teeth to the Complete Streets concept:

Next month, the first dollars from the county’s massive $10 billion Measure A transportation sales tax will start flowing. That measure, approved by voters in 2004, includes a simple but noteworthy statement: “Routine accommodation of bicycles and pedestrians shall be included in all transportation projects.”

Such projects won’t be without their challenges, but that’s why we pay our engineers, isn’t it?