Another Monumental Waste of Money
by Dale Tyler

I recently learned that the OCTA Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) approved a nearly $400 million Commuter Bikeways Strategic Plan that would build new bike trails and upgrade existing ones. This comes in spite of OCTA being in the midst of a severe tax shortfall that is causing it to cut its operating budget significantly. Ironically, this plan, if adopted by the OCTA board, will use money that could have been spent on more freeways and roads that actually would be useful in moving people where they want to go.

The facts are that more than 98 percent of all miles traveled by people in Orange County are in private cars and trucks. A little over 1 percent of travel is in buses and trains. The fraction of those using bikes to commute to work is so infinitesimal as to be nearly meaningless from a transportation “work” point of view. The last is very important, because the OCTA is a “Transportation” agency, not Parks and Recreation. It is funded largely by the Measure M sales tax, which I campaigned against partially because I was sure OCTA would waste the money). The voters approved this tax because they were told that OCTA would improve roads and reduce congestion in the county. Bike lanes do almost nothing to comply with the demands of voters.

It is estimated by the OCTA's own studies that fewer than 5,000 additional people will use the bike trail system in Orange County if the $400M is spent. This comes out to at least $80,000 per new commuter. Truly, this is one of the most ill-conceived and wasteful programs to come out of the OCTA in some time. It surpasses the ill-fated Centerline, not in cost, for that would have run into the billions, but in terms of cost per person who use the facility. The estimate of 5,000 additional riders is probably quite a bit higher than reality, given that the OCTA funded study put little effort in substantiating that number. A better guess might be as few as 2,000, making the cost $200,000 per rider. It would be cheaper for us to buy them all Lexus cars and provide a driver for 10 years.

Next, there is the ridiculous cost per mile of the proposed bikeways. The CAC report lists about 125 miles of new bikeway that would be constructed under the plan. A rough calculation yields $3.16 million per mile. However, only a portion of this money is for completely new bikeways, called “Class I”. The majority of the money will be spent on “Class II” bikeways, which are often just bike lanes on existing roads used by cars and trucks. Given the cost of simply painting a white line on an existing road, the real cost of the new bikeways is probably closer to $10 million a mile, roughly the same as the cost for a freeway lane for one mile, which would carry at least 500 times more people per day.

At this point you might be asking yourself, “What is wrong with the OCTA CAC?”. That is a very good question. Instead of the Citizens Advisory Committee representing the people who actually need to travel in Orange County to their jobs and other activities, the CAC has a majority of Utopian, self centered socialists who think they can dictate how people will travel. The percentage of those on the CAC who favor alternative transportation such as bikes, buses and trains is much higher than the percentage of the CAC who favor making improvements that will benefit the 98+ percent of us who drive everyday. This is shameful and I believe the CAC should be reconstituted with 98% of those appointed being interested in improving freeways and roads.

The CAC was created by the original Measure M to ensure that the OCTA spent our tax dollars on projects that were going to help improve our congested freeways and streets. It may have started that way, but it has clearly become a hotbed of those who want to force you out of your car by making sure that money is spent on things that will do nothing to improve our freeways and streets. I'm sure that the CAC will tell us that they are “looking out for the poor, the downtrodden...”. This is hogwash. The CAC members who supported this plan seek nothing less than to impose their hatred of cars on the rest of us. Need proof? Go to a CAC meeting and ask why they approved this $400M plan. Their condescending response will make it clear how little they think of the taxpayers and how much they think of themselves.

I am not against bikes, bikeways or those who choose to ride bikes for any purpose, including commuting. I am against spending a disproportionate amount of taxpayer money to improve transportation for a few people. If cities and their citizens want to build bike trails for recreational purposes, let each city take money from its Parks and Recreation budget and spend that money on bikeways. Don't spend taxes set aside for transportation as the OCTA proposes for bikeways.

The OCTA has a history of wasting money on non-essential projects. From Centerline, which was defeated by citizen pressure to Metrolink which is the taxpayer subsidy of relatively wealthy people who pay fares less than 5% of the actual cost to ride to this new bikeways plan, OCTA seems determined to waste our sales tax money on foolish projects. Even the new OCTA South County MIS contained over $2 billion to put the Metrolink tracks in a tunnel under the I-5. The OCTA is a tax wasting machine.

I urge you to call the County Supervisors and tell them to stop any further tax money being spent on the Commuter Bikeways Strategic Plan. We need to send the OCTA a message: “Stop wasting our taxes!” Also, since some of this money will be spent in Mission Viejo, call the city and let them know we don't want our tax dollars wasted on such foolishness.