EDITORIAL:

Sometimes waiting for the bureaucrats to fix a problem like the 55 Freeway can be as irritating as idling in a traffic jam. It doesn’t help that when it comes to paying for the cure it turns into a Marx Brothers routine over who will pick up the bill.

Turns out the last laugh is always on us because we’re paying for it anyway. The bureaucrats sometimes forget that in their turf wars over who is supposed to take responsibility for the problem.

For years now we’ve seen studies ordered to diagnose why the Costa Mesa Freeway is so dysfunctional. Isn’t that like trying to figure out why the state’s in a multibillion-dollar hole? Duh. Because those guys in Sacramento spend too much. And the freeway’s too crowded because too many of us use it to commute from Orange County to the Inland Empire. So get to work expanding it or building a tunnel or a flyover or whatever it takes, we say as we watch our lives slip away in yet another traffic jam.

Problem is, how are we going to pay for it? Well, that’s what the renewal of Measure M was for, but much of that money went to projects pegged for the Orange, 91 and 405 freeways. Why? Because the Orange County Transportation Authority didn’t have a plan ready to go when voters approved the money. Don’t ask why not, you’ll only get your blood pressure up again.

County transportation officials, though, are making the rounds asking folks which of seven alternatives they favor to get the traffic going again.

At a meeting last week in Costa Mesa the clear favorite appeared to be the so-called “Cut and Cover” plan. No, that’s not the latest Washington plan for Iraq. It involves tunneling the 55 south beneath Newport Boulevard to Industrial Way and guess what — it costs the most.

That’s the American way, isn’t it? We always want the Cadillac option even when we can’t afford it. And we’ll grumble and point fingers at our lawmakers and bureaucrats for not making it happen without a tax increase.

We won’t make the obvious point that the sanest way to handle this mess in the long term is to invest in more rapid transit. We know you love your cars too much.

So we’re afraid your only alternative is to keep pressuring your elected representatives to push the bureaucrats for a solution. Considering there were about 150 people at Monday’s 55 Freeway meeting in Costa Mesa, that effort is moving along a lot faster than the daily gridlock at Edinger Avenue.