Hard choices on traffic

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Like it or not, more traffic is coming. And the city

is at a fork in the road on what to do about it.

Activist Allan Beek has been pushing the city and residents to make

some hard choices now about how Newport Beach should absorb traffic

increases 10 and 20 years down the road.

“As regional traffic gets worse and worse, we have to decide whether

we want to be congested or put in infrastructure like overpasses,” said

Beek, a slow-growth activist who is serving on the city’s General Plan

Update Committee. “There are two paths the city can choose, but it’s a

tough choice.”

There are two downsides to adding infrastructure, he pointed out.

Precisely because they can accommodate more traffic, things like

overpasses and widened highways tend to invite more traffic, beckoning

visitors as well as development. Also, wider concrete roads and imposing

overpasses can overrun the small-town feel of cities like Newport Beach.

But, on the other hand, ignoring the problem won’t make it go away,

either, he noted.

Even with less asphalt, more traffic will come. How much, though, is

another question. City staff are now working out the details of a deal

with traffic consultants Urban Crossroads to conduct analyses of future

traffic increases. But this information, once available, won’t make the

tough choices much easier.

“You have to remember that this type of information is always just an

estimate,” Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood said. “It doesn’t hold the

answers.”

Nonetheless, it’s exactly the type of information Beek believes

residents and officials need when considering ways to update the general

plan.

Starting with a “Vision Festival” at Hoag Hospital on Jan. 12, the

city will begin seeking public input for updating the far-reaching

document that blueprints many elements of the city’s future, including

traffic. Then, it will be up to residents and their representatives to

decide the best way to live with what’s coming down the road: more

asphalt or more cars on less asphalt.

“I think it’s a question that’s going to have to put squarely to the

people,” Beek said.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

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