California Greenin'

Today, Schwarzenegger announced, with I-405 traffic in the background, that the I-405's 10-mile long carpool lane (aka high occupancy lanes) construction project has been delayed. The $730 million project, ( yeah, the one that will absorb Los Angelenos' latent use the second it opens), is delayed.

We never learn. We cannot, we will not, ever!, build our way out of congested freeways, until the day we realize the only way to do so is to reduce driving. I propose we throw just a few hundred thousand to a couple of paint trucks and convert two of the existing lanes into HOV lanes. Project done. Perhaps then, with a total crush of traffic squeezed into a few less lanes, Southern Californians will get out of their fucking cars.

Nonetheless, California, the greenest state in the union, assumes [incorrectly] that several billion more towards roads and bridges will help push us out of our wretched economy. That's because that's all our economy is based on...perpetual motoring. California is hoping, indeed begging, that freshly printed federal dollars will be pumped into this golden, green state to spur more freeway building. Obama to the rescue.

Mr. O is in an interesting position. How to you re-employ a few million more Merikans without pushing them towards "road and bridge" building? Truth is, he won't. We're gonna have a few hundred thousand more miles of pavement by the time he's out of office, with a few million more motor vehicles plying them, supporting farther flung suburban sprawl (i.e., construction jobs) with the corresponding increase in VMT. We will increase our alternative fueled cars from the existing 0.02% to 0.09% and declare we've won the battle against foreign oil and global warming.

Yep. Our "green" state of California won't immediately get the 405 expansion, the Lincoln highway bypass, or the fourth bore of the Caldecott tunnel. That is, we won't be able to shove several hundred thousand more motor vehicle commuters daily from Long Beach to Irvine, from Wheatland to Roseville, or from Walnut Creek to Alameda.

Pity.