CalTrans, I Curse Thee

Friday, October 8, 2004

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

CalTrans, I Curse Thee

By J’AMY PACHECO

Today I’d like to editorialize on a rather controversial topic: why I hate CalTrans.

CalTrans, you probably know, is the spiffy, futuristic name given to the California Department of Transportation—the state agency that is responsible for “improving mobility” in the Golden State. In theory, anyway.

The reality is that CalTrans seems to be dedicated to making travel on California freeways the most miserable experience a motorist can have, and raising frustration levels to road-rage provoking levels.

Now, I’m a pretty easygoing girl. I don’t usually focus my scorn on behemoth governmental agencies. Heck, I can’t even say I hate the IRS. Can’t say that I love them, either, but if I can say I don’t hate the most reviled agency in the federal government, it should prove that I’m easy to get along with.

But I despise CalTrans—so much so that I’ve even come to hate the color orange.

Let me tell you what prompted this columnistic outburst.

Last weekend, I took my little girl to Disneyland. We turned down an offer to go to a drive-in theater Saturday night in favor of a trip to the Magic Kingdom because we wanted to use our annual passes one more time before CalTrans cut our region off from the rest of the world.

I live in a desert community separated from the Los Angeles/Orange County area by mountain pass. Near the end of that pass is a freeway interchange that is used by people traveling to and from Las Vegas, and by a bazillion commuters every day.

A section of one of those freeways was in need of resurfacing, and CalTrans officials announced the agency would commence a multi-week project to fix the problem.

Unfortunately, the project involved closing all but ONE lane of the heavily traveled freeway. CalTrans officials proposed shrinking the freeway to a single lane 24 hours a day during the week, leaving it open for Vegas-bound travelers on the weekend.

THAT made a lot of sense—to make thousands of California taxpaying weekday commuters suffer so Vegas travelers could quickly and easily go spend a ton of money in another state.

That’s what I call a no-brainer. Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way and spoke up, and CalTrans decided to make everyone suffer by running the project 24/7.

This project was supposed to begin Sunday night. Every newspaper article I read, every radio spot I heard warned motorists that the massive project would begin Sunday night.

So you can imagine my surprise when, heading home from Disneyland Saturday night, I saw an enormous lighted sign on the 15 freeway warning that the right lanes were closed and advising motorists to merge left.

Immediately after I passed the sign, traffic came to a screeching halt and chaos ensued. As I inched along in what is usually described as the “fast lane,” I passed a man laying in a freeway lane surrounded by people making frantic calls on cell phones. It appeared he’d been thrown from a motorcycle, and I assumed it had something to do with the fact that orange cones were squeezing the fast-moving, late night traffic into a single lane.

About half an hour later, I arrived at the source of our misery: CalTrans workers who appeared to be resurfacing the freeway—24 hours early.

I don’t dispute the fact that our roadways need repair. I can’t even blame CalTrans for the worst part of my misery—the fact that I had consumed a large Diet Coke on the drive home.

But I do blame the agency for lying to California motorists—widely announcing a start date and then jumping the gun by 24 hours.

If I were that motorcyclist, I’d find a good lawyer and sue. You’d have to have been in the midst of the sign-fueled chaos to understand why I feel that way. Sure, they told us to merge left – but why would anybody believe what a CalTrans sign said? They weren’t even supposed to be there.

Eventually, I made it home without an accident of either kind. But I’m harboring a big, fat personal grudge.

We need roads, and roads need maintenance. But we also need people with the power to halt freeways to use common sense and accuracy in doing so.

When it comes to CalTrans, both seem to be in short supply. At least that’s the way it seemed Saturday night.

I suspect that motorcyclist would agree.