Advocates Crash 101 Celebration of Induced Site visitors and Air pollution – Streetsblog San Francisco

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induced demand? What is that?

Pretending that induced demand—a well-documented phenomenon—didn’t exist was the unintended theme of Saturday’s celebration of the opening of the “Managed Lanes” project at 101 in San Mateo County (aka freeway widening). More details on KQED’s $600 million project:

The San Mateo 101 Express Lanes Project officially opened with a dedication ceremony on Saturday. The 22-mile express lanes, stretching along Highway 101 from the San Mateo/Santa Clara county line to Interstate 380 in South San Francisco, are designed to reduce traffic congestion and encourage carpooling and the use of public transit along one of the busiest thoroughfares on the peninsula Promote San Francisco. “The opening of the freeways in San Mateo County has been in the pipeline for years [and] it finally came to fruition,” said San Mateo Rep. Kevin Mullin, representing District 15. “It’s good for the economy, it’s good for the environment, and it’s a win-win for everyone involved who’s taken the years to get this project off the ground.”

Of course, Mullin’s claim that it’s “good for the environment” is complete nonsense. If officials wanted to help the environment, they could have converted existing lanes into toll, HOV, and bus lanes instead of adding more lanes.

Most advocates would probably rather be somewhere else on a Saturday than standing in the middle of screeching lanes full of car pollution. But Mike Swire, a peninsula advocate and member of the San Mateo County Transit Authority’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee, Max Mautner, co-lead of Move San Mateo, and Darryl Yip, who is leading opposition to further 101 expansion between 380 and 101 San Francisco, went down to try and fight off the gaslights.

Mautner, Swire and Yip came to protest the ribbon cutting: image from Swire’s Photostream

And since KQED quoted Swire as saying the 101 project was “the worst local environmental decision in recent memory” and “the highway widening has never worked,” it had the desired effect.

Officials, meanwhile, “discussed the environmental and equity impacts of the project,” Swire wrote in an email to Streetsblog. “No mention of global warming, air pollution, traffic violence, or induced demand. Many prominent politicians are there and speak – e.g. B. Newly-elected Congressman Kevin Mullin, Progressive County Supervisor David Canepa, and Newly-elected Rep. Diane Papan (the main sponsor of the project).”

Sure, as long as people in these low-income communities hold their breath.

Photo by Caltrans of their latest expansion project

As Streetsblog previously reported, stakeholders in widening the 101 (and other roads) sometimes even tacitly admit that their projects aren’t working — and are actually making things worse. Despite this, they continue to do the work, knowing full well that it will harm the environment and lead to more accidents and other destructive effects. Advocates must keep challenging this evil until they stop.