Opinion: LA should reject ‘misleading’ car-focused policies

In an article for Streetsblog Los Angeles, Wes Reutimann argues that plans to expand roads in Los Angeles County will only exacerbate the air quality problems the region already faces. “Yet Metro and Caltrans are still pushing ahead with plans to expand freeways throughout LA in a futile attempt to ‘relieve the congestion’ once and for all.”

Reutimann points out that these plans will disproportionately impact communities along major highways that are already among the most polluted in the country. “According to the CA Air Resources Board’s 2017 Scoping Plan, we will not meet our air quality and climate goals unless we drive less. Seven years later, we still need to align our transportation spending with the science.”

Reutimann suggests that Metro and Caltrans could make better use of existing freeway footprints to add toll or HOV lanes and spend the savings on maintenance and multimodal projects. “Given everything we know now, more pollution, displacement and destruction can no longer be an option. As L.A. prepares to host what is being touted as the greenest Olympics yet, the Metro Board should turn the page on this history of misguided, short-sighted and auto-centric transportation planning.”