over-cooked-kucklehead wants toll road

7/31/07

Save Trestlers -

I'm forwarding you a comment that came to me
via my website, from an SC-res wanting the toll road.
I deleted his name. It doesn't matter.
And I've answered him.
99% of comment-submissions are 100% positive regarding our efforts.
But there's always the knucklehead.
You can count on it.
This guy's having a bad traffic day.
That, we can all sympathize with.

(thought - after we Save Trestles,
I'm starting a restaurant here called,
'We Saved It' - on the menu:
Pickled-knucklehead
Fried-knucklehead
Stewed-kucklehead
Diced-knucklehead
Over-done-knucklehead
Well-done-knucklehead
and Knucklehead in a Jar - for Take-Out.

Enjoy the read.
Feel free to share.
name: M___ MC___________k

location: San Clemente

comments/questions: I am sick and tired of the traffic and all these Save Tresltes stickers. If you have to go anywhere north of San Clemente on a Saturday during the summer it takes forever to get back home because of all the traffic. It backs up every weekend to Avery, Oso, or even the 405. It really made me mad when I was stuck in the backup and there was a Hummer in front of me with a Save Trestles sticker on it. I don't understand all these people in south county fighting the Toll Road. How can they stand all the traffic. The traffic is out of control, and Trestles is already a dump as it is. These Save Trestles people crack me up. Its the dirtiest of all the SC beaches. Every sign covered in SURFING stickers, obscene things written in SURF wax on the pavement, graffiti everywhere, and trash all over the place.It seems to me that the SURFERS destroyed trestles a long time ago, not the motorist heading south. I say SAVE SAN CLEMENTE, BUILD THE TOLL ROAD!!!!

Dear Sick and Tired,

Everyone agrees - traffic sucks pretty much everywhere.
In OC, in LA, in SD - even in Maryland.
(even in San Francisco)

Cal is America's most populated state, with the majority living
south of Bakersfield - with our fastest-growth happening on
OC's eastern border in Riverside and the Inland Empire.

No wonder our roads overflow.

Too many people for the available road space.

As Caltrans confesses,

"We can't pave our way out of congestion."

Reason being - populations grow fast - while road and rail
infrastructure improvements grow at a snail's pace.

So - by the time new roads are in - they're already obsolete.

Since 1985, 51-miles of new super highways have been
built here in OC.
You'd think that would lighten our freeway load.
51-miles of new super highways here?
Where?
And why haven't those 51-miles of new OC super highways
lightened our freeway load?

Because, to drive those 51-miles of new OC super highway
requires paying a hefty, hair-rising Toll.

In fact - the more traffic there is everywhere in OUR county,
the more expensive OC toll roads become.

Welcome to Congestion Pricing.

This keeps commuters OFF the 51-miles of OC toll roads,
jamming everyone (you and me) back onto Freeways we can't fix (huh?)

because of Non-Compete-Clauses enforced by TCA (OC's toll road folks).

Fact is - those 51-miles of unaffordable (for most folks) toll-ways
are supposed to be Freeways.

Really. That was the promise.

Instead, they keep raising toll prices, to keep most folks off.

So where does everyone end up? In front of you - stopped
on the freeway. And guess what - if you pay taxes, you pay
for both - the empty Toll Roads and the jammed-Freeways.

Point being - if the Toll Road Promise of Smoother Traffic Flow
throughout OC is why we have 51-miles of toll roads - why
is traffic continually getting worse?

Think about it.

And, if 51-miles of toll roads haven't helped ease OC freeway
traffic - why would an additional 16-miles of toll road from
Trestles north, help I-5 at $12 to $20 a one-way toll?
The predicted toll fare if a Trestles toll road was up and running today.

$12 to $20 bucks one-way? Ouch.

Would you pay a $12 to $20 toll to drive it to Rancho Santa Margarita?
Very few would. Most won't and never will.

That's the point.
Toll Roads here, are Price-Managed, to keep most folks off
(maybe you too) and back onto our over-stuffed freeways - BUT
we can't fix our freeways...?

Yep, because of TCA Non-Compete-Agreements.

Them's the hard-to-stomach facts.

A major OC-Highway study was done this last year by OCTA -
to determine how effective a Trestles toll road would be in
helping to alleviate OC freeway traffic.

What they determined is:

a toll road to Trestles, in 25 years would be the least traveled
stretch of OC highway in the entire county. Surfers didn't
do that Study. OC's Transportation Experts did it.

The problem here is, not that we don't have enough pavement
to drive on - we do. It's just that 51-miles of OC super highway
pavement is purposely kept from us by ever-higher toll fares.

So we all sit, stalled on the freeway, pissed-off - when not a mile
away, a toll road (your taxes pay for) - sits pretty much dead-empty
20 hours a day - and then, is only lightly traveled the other 4 -
during rush hour. That's TCA's plan.

As for Trestles being already ruined? Not.

In fact - according to the San Diego Regional Water Board
(the folks who monitor coastal waters from the Mex-border
to 600-miles north) - San Onofre State Beach Park, which
includes Trestles is SoCal's LAST consistently Healthy surf.

As for surf-stickers on metal signs down at Trestles,
that doesn't effect the ocean quality - nor does the graffiti
chalked and painted on the paved trail down to Trestles.

It might be no fun to look at - but by winter it will be
worn off - to be graffitied again next summer.

It don't affect the beach - or the water, or the break.
Just the funky old trail asphalt.

If you don't like the way Trestles Beach looks, or Cottons,
or Church, or Sano, or Trails - well...to each his own.

As one of 12 globally renowned surfing beaches on the planet,
the World sure likes it.

As for Hummer's flying Save Trestles stickers, hey, it's
a free country - at least that Hummer driver knows a good
healthy surf spot when he sees it. And wants to save it.

Works for me.

What I've learned in speaking-out to Save Trestles
from TCA's needless toll road thru our State's 5th
most popular State Park is -

a private toll-road there would destroy 60% of the Park -
and not help I-5 traffic a lick (would in fact make it worse),
while polluting San Mateo Creek, which feeds Trestles
it's healthy water, its sand and its rock-bottom necessary
to keep reforming Trestles perfect break -

that when folks want the toll road - regardless of consequence,
I find they fall into several categories:

1. Naive - don't know the facts
2. TCA employees - defending their jobs
3. OC Realtors - thinking not having that road
will effect home sales (their job). Wrong.
The San Mateo Watershed, what the toll route would dissect -
is 34,000 acres of set-aside open-space.
Never to be developed. Ever.
4. Engineer types - who like building big-stuff anywhere,
or have a vested interest in OC highway construction
5, Homeowner's from other cities, thinking a Trestles toll road
will either get them to Sano, and or SD 5-minutes faster.
What most don't know is - the exorbitant toll fare that-road
would extract. Once they know that, they don't want it either.
6. The majority of OC politicians who's political careers depend
on them supporting any counter-productive traffic idea TCA
dreams up.

But now I know - Thanks to You - even OC-Hummer-owners
don't want that superfluous, needless toll road to Trestles.

That's encouraging.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Have a good day. I hope you find a beach you like.
When and if you do - work to keep it healthy.

Like how we're Saving Trestles - for the next generation
and the next, and so on.

It's worth it.

As for toll roads here - they're why OC freeway traffic sucks.

Good luck and drive carefully.
OC Toll Roads often cause road-rage in Freeway drivers

Now you know why.
Not everyone does.

Thanks for your comments.