Expanding the capacity of San Diego County's freeway network would increase driving — and could make it impossible to achieve state and local climate goals.
San Diego County would add some 200 miles of new freeway lanes under an early version of a regional transportation plan from the San Diego Association of Governments ." for their next transportation plan — a rough framework of projects and policies that will later be plugged into modeling tools to determine how effective they'll be at reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The framework includes improvements to the region's bus and rail infrastructure, including a rail connection to the San Diego International Airport, greater capacity on the rail corridor to Los Angeles and the long-awaited"Purple Line" that would take riders from the San Ysidro border crossing to Kearny Mesa. Many of those transit improvements wouldn't come until after 2035, San Diego's self-imposed deadline for achieving carbon neutrality.But the proposed freeway expansions could prove to be the most consequential and controversial elements of SANDAG's new plan. That's because freeway expansions increase driving, which in turn increases greenhouse gas emissions. SANDAG is required to reduce emissions, meaning it must find ways to offset the climate impacts of its freeway expansions.developed by researchers at UC Davis. A state-adopted roadmap to carbon neutrality found over the next six years, the average Californian will have to, then revised in 2022 to remove a policy that would have charged motorists 2 cents for every mile they drive. That policy sparked fierce backlash from conservatives on the SANDAG board, which voted last September toThe policy was one of SANDAG's most effective tools at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It both discouraged driving and generated significant revenue for more sustainable transportation infrastructure. Without that policy on the table, the agency faces an increasingly narrow pathway to meeting state climate targets. SANDAG staff told board members last month that recent changes to state and federal regulations will make achieving those climate goals more difficult than in years past. For example, the state will no longer allow SANDAG to assume that local investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Antoinette Meier, SANDAG senior director of regional planning, told the board that the agency is actually planning fewer freeway expansions than in prior years because state regulators are scrutinizing those projects more than ever before. All the new freeway lanes would be managed lanes open to carpoolers or solo drivers willing to pay a toll — but even those types of freeway expansions have been found to increase emissions. "We still have a managed lane network, but it's the smallest managed lane network that we've had in a regional plan," Meier said."It used to be a lot easier in previous plan cycles to come up with a compliant plan. … We don't have as many options as we had in previous plans.", which is made up of 21 local mayors, city councilmembers and county supervisors, will discuss the next regional plan again on Feb. 9. It must officially adopt a new plan by the end of 2025.Freeways are not free. We pay for them in all kinds of ways — with our tax dollars, our time, our environment and our health. While freeways have enabled huge amounts of economic growth, they've also caused displacement and division. Learn the forgotten history of our urban freeway network, and how decades after that network was finished, some communities are still working to heal the wounds that freeways left behind. As climate change threatens to wreak havoc on our cities, freeways are not just a part of the problem. They can also be part of the solution.I cover local government — a broad beat that includes housing, homelessness and infrastructure. I'm especially interested in the intersections of land use, transportation and climate change.Public Safety