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Op-ed: “High Desert Freeway” makes national list of highway boondoggles

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California is often at the front of the pack when it comes to reducing global warming emissions. But according to a new report by CALPIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group, if Los Angeles County moves forward with its “High Desert Freeway,” the state would take an $8 billion step in the wrong direction. The proposed project would be LA County’s first new highway in 25 years, and would lead to more driving, more pollution and more sprawling desert development.

To improve California’s transportation system and hit our climate and clean air goals, we must reduce our reliance on cars and highways,” said Emily Rusch, CALPIRG Education Fund executive director. “This project does the opposite, doubling down on a car-centric system that will encourage more people to hit the roads — leading to more traffic, sprawl and pollution.”

In order for California to hit its 2030 climate goals, the average Californian needs to reduce driving by 1.6 miles per day. But according to state estimates, the High Desert Freeway will increase driving. And contrary to claims from some California officials that the new freeway would help passengers access greener transportation options such as the XpressWest high speed rail, the report argues that it would instead be more likely to siphon passengers away from them.

“Sometimes it’s the infrastructure we don’t build that makes all the difference,” said Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group, report co-author. “Cities from Dallas to Tampa to Milwaukee have discovered that ditching boondoggle highway projects has opened up new opportunities to build stronger, cleaner and more fiscally sustainable communities.”

Highway Boondoggles 5 recommends that California cancel the High Desert Freeway and other proposed highway expansion projects, and instead invest in more effective transportation solutions, such as road repair and transit expansion.

“California, like the rest of America, still has a misplaced appetite for costly and disruptive highway expansion projects. But if we’re smarter about how we spend our transportation dollars, we can achieve a more sustainable, affordable and better-functioning transportation system,” said Matt Casale, U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s Transportation Campaign director. “That means avoiding spending billions of dollars on harmful, wasteful projects such as the High Desert Freeway.”

Author: Emily Rusch, Executive Director of CALPIRG and CALPIRG Education Fund, an independent, non-partisan group that works for consumers and the public interest. 

Filed Under: Opinion

49 comments for "Op-ed: “High Desert Freeway” makes national list of highway boondoggles"

  1. The biggest problem in Los Angeles is the mass transit. It totally sucks! I work out of LAX airport and I tried the metro. Three hours to get there. That would be a six hour commute. What a joke. Only in Los Angeles does it take longer to get somewhere using mass transit.

    Jj

  2. Before anymore idiots get to put their ideas on the block, let’s take a look at the whole picture here. Ok so Road maintenance contractors put bids in to do repairs on our highways and byways, they get the contract, do some shysty work that really only makes it look as though the roads are repaired because it’s all black again, never mind the pot holes they have just disguised. Huu huu that will fool them. Like Pearblossom hwy between four points and the 14 freeway on ramps. What a freaking joke. Let’s add this up. We pay state taxes which a portion supposedly goes to a fund for our roads. Then the DMV has raised our
    rates so portions of that can go to road tax fund. The our gas taxes go up , you guessed it, so it can go to fund our roads. I never see any maintenance on our roads unless it’s mandatory only because too many vehicles are being damaged due to the lazy, poor shody work done by these contractors. Our infrastructure is falling into such disrepair.
    And then comes another idiotic idea. The high speed rail. Already over budget of the overall price and it’s not even barely been started. And now some other idiot comes up with the new highway project.
    In my opinion, we have s whole lot of idiots thinking they know how to make a budget. Not to mention quality control. Use the money on the infrastructure all year round and make the contractors do a real man’s job and do them right. Hell I have enough daughters I could teach them how to drive some heavy equipment, and we could f**k up the roads and keep all the money just like the shysters who are currently getting the contracts. Who would be the wiser?
    All I’m trying to say is, get someone who isn’t piped out to get a grip on the budget for road funding. Fix the infrastructure and quit pocketing all the money. Quit giving the contracts to unqualified contractors. Just because their bid is low doesn’t mean anything. They don’t know anything. Hire my Granddaughter who is in high school she could figure it out. And behold, she’s not or ever will be a politician that has her head up her but. She’s not a flamboyant liar, she’s very smart and honest. But I guess that’s why she will never be California’s budget director.

  4. Timmy Boy. On the old “Laugh In” comedy show at times they would say “Sit on it.” I’ll shorten that to soi.
    In the future any thing I say to you will be soi Timmy soi.

    • LOL…out of all the things in the world you could comment on, you chose me. What kind of obsessive fool are you?

  5. if they could save some money by having 1 more lane going east than coming west, since more people are leaving?

    • Is there some reason you parrot idiotic false statements that are popularized in the right wing echo chamber of lies?

      • Liberals are not the new fascists, they are the old fascists under a new name. By the way, between 2007 and 2016 more people moved out of California than moved in. Not a false statement (lie). Is there some reason you parrot idiotic false statements that are popularized in the left wing echo chamber of lies? By the way, you mentioned several times you were moving out of California; when? All you do is whine and rant about living in California. You and your gf were moving out of the country; when?

        • And yet the population continues to grow by leaps and bounds, so the whole right wing fantasy about California being “abandoned” is such obviously ridiculous wishful thinking.

          Meanwhile, I’m developing property out of the COUNTRY, not out of California. For as long as I remain in the US I will be living in California. I’m certainly not moving to some fly over red state full of moronic “conservatives” waiting for the old plant to fire up so they can have crappy manufacturing jobs like their grandfathers had.

          And while the rise of Sellout Steve did lead me to divest of everything in Palmdale I do still have some property out in the county, so even when I leave I won’t be gone enough to suit you Chris. Funny that. Gives me quite the satisfying laugh.

          • No, Tim, the population is not growing by leaps and bounds. If you actually researched the facts you would know this. We have more people leaving than coming. You can move wherever you want; I’m not interested, but you take your comments way off into some rant about red states, crappy manufacturing jobs, Sellout Steve, and California being “abandoned.” Nowhere did anyone but you use the word “abandoned.” You’re so melodramatic, “drama queen.”

          • Over 100,000 increase last year. Is that not “leap and bound” enough for you Chris? The population of California has not declined, year to year, in my long lifetime Chris, so no matter how wildly you fantasize and call me a liar you are just digging your hole deeper.

            RESEARCH, don’t just be a loudmouth and proven a fool. If you are too ignorant to find it for yourself make another stupid post and I’ll give you a link to California population year over year from a reliable source.

          • Tim, a lot of people would love to have what you call “a crappy manufacturing job.” Arrogant elitist.

          • A lot of people? I doubt it Mandy. They might think so. I’ve had those jobs. I know exactly what punching a clock, doing the same mindlessly repetitive simple task for eight hours, and then punching out, is like. Day after day, week in week out, stretching towards forever. I wouldn’t wish a job like that on anyone.

            I might be an arrogant elitist, but recognizing that manufacturing jobs are the WORST isn’t the qualifier. Why do you think there was such an effort to ship all those crappy jobs OUT of the country?

    • Just wondering: One more lane going east, north, northeast, etc.. Definitely an exodus in very high numbers. The rich will move in, and the rich will stay.

      • oh please! …Then move already! …I’m sure you’re one of those hypocrite Republicunts who draws a generous retirement check from CalPERS every month and then whines because your “taxes are too high” and squawks about moving to Idaho or Arizona.

        So predictable.

        • What will move me out the the A.V. isn’t the craziness of Sacramento or taxation. It will be the corruption and cronyism of the Lancaster power elite. It works great if you are ‘in’. If you are not ‘in’, or of you are targeted, it is difficult to grow your business. It is also sickening to see so many millions of dollars siphoned off for pet projects that line the pockets of a few.

  6. Isn’t it interesting that the same people who claim there must be a reduction of drivers in California, are the same people that have allowed 11 million ILLEGAL ALIENS into this sanctuary state, and then gave them drivers licenses, so they could drive in California. Take into account the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers leaving California annually for other cleaner, more prosperous states, where they also don’t have to pay the ridiculous level of taxes California demands. The High Desert Freeway project would be a great addition and resource for drivers there, and for the fools that say there is global warming, or climate change, I say get out of your mommies basement and understand the people running the show in California are the problem and need to all be fired and never hold another government job ever again.

    • I absolutely agree with you. Every damn one of them need to have their silk lining removed from their pockets. Make every single one of them have to go and get welfare, and have the things they have just so everyone else can watch them lose it all and they hit rock bottom. Give someone else their jobs. I’m pretty sure all new people put in their places could figure out the whole budget for California, and maybe even lowers the taxes. But as long as these cons are in charge, they will keep getting raises and our infrastructure will continue to break down. Then they can re submit their their pipe dreams. And oh what heros we have. So what if California becomes like Liberia

  7. So, who says this is a “boondoggle” ???

    The people who wrote it and compared us to Milwaukee and Tampa?

    I would say that, if anything, their writing of this article was much more of a “boondoggle” than the project itself.

  8. The consensus here seems to be that this was a terrible editorial that doesn’t take into account the specific needs of our region. I agree 100%

  9. This diatribe is based upon faulty logic in that the traffic and population that it claims will be attracted by the project is already here and already growing rapidly. Specifically, the greater AV and, indeed, the entire high desert area are quickly increasing in population, as well as through-traffic to all parts of the region and country. Not proceeding with this infrastructure will only hinder our local welfare in more ways than I can even begin to relate in this limited forum, but, at the very least, you can expect our currently used roads to deteriorate much faster than they already are as more and more traffic is burdened upon roads not engineered for such heavy and/or frequent use. This project is to better manage and streamline an already existing, and already expanding, issue that is getting more and more pressing. Ignoring the building of this type of infrastructure to handle it now will not prevent or delay it from continuing to enlarge each and every day we wait.

  10. Bring back LA Metropolitan Bypass Freeway concept from the 1960’s. It was designed to reroute and relieve big rig and travel traffic congestion in LA Basin. Common sense in 60’s common sense in 2019. The High Desert Freeway failed to incorporate it into the project. It now will add 30 minutes to route because drivers have to go all the way north to Victorville before going East towards Gorman 5 Freeway. Added time does not benifit drivers or environment to future Freeway. For that reason it is a boondoggle.

    • Jason is a real estate agent that stands to make money off of land sales with a alignment that passes through property he controls which makes him a boondoggle. The process designed the location that best serves the High Desert. Lets get going!

  11. Sometimes it’s the infrastructure we don’t build that makes all the difference,” said Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group, report co-author. “Cities from Dallas to Tampa to Milwaukee have discovered that ditching boondoggle highway projects has opened up new opportunities to build stronger, cleaner and more fiscally sustainable communities.”

    I know, how about a $38 Billion high speed rail project? We can spend the money by lining the pockets of our CA Contractor Doners and kickbacks to Sacramento’s politicians and we wont have to build a thing!

    Maybe we can build an “Air Wall” around the State so our “Clean” air thats apparently so bad doesnt get contaminated by the rest of the world ?

    How about fixing the damn roads you keep taxing us over and over to fix?

    • Amen. Wake up and get rid of this new thing they call our governor, and hire a young newby that isn’t involved in any politics. Of course that will never happen, why? Because this governor just like the last one just wants his name to be lit up so he can think he’s somebody. I imagine it costs a lot to line those pockets. Pay someone off get the seat steal the money and again and again. Wake up California, let’s get someone who isn’t a shyster and a liar to represent California. No more Mama’s boys, no matter how much money you have, it can’t fix stupid.

  12. A six-lane freeway from Gorman to Victorville should have been built 10 years ago, as far as I’m concerned.

    It’s time to quit messing with the idea and just get it done.

    When that happens, we’ll get more manufacturing jobs here (Amazon, aerospace, etc.)

    More jobs, better quality of people, better tax base, better amenities. Everyone wins.

  13. It is thinking like this that is the problem with melding our current system with a more sustainable/more environmentally friendly system. Sure, the ideal would be for everyone to work within walking distance of where they live. That is why so many communities are being built up around businesses that make bicycling and walking feasible. But the High Desert Corridor would divert traffic from the more dangerous Pearblossom Highway/Palmdale Road routes to Victorville, Hesperia and the 15 freeway, thus reducing accidents, as well as aiding in the future cargo/freight transportation and allow the Palmdale Airport to finally realize some of the potential it has had and advertised since the 1960’s. We can meet our goals with improving technology while also maintaining a business friendly environment.

  14. Cars sitting on the freeway an extra hour each day because of traffic is what’s polluting the air. Build more freeways and travel times will be less. 1.6 less miles per day won’t clean crap. The state just wants the funds to go somewhere else and not a road to Vegas where California money will be spent.

    • Outstanding point Tom. The High Desert Corridor will help increase traffic flows and commerce in the High Desert and serve as an alternate for north-south traffic to avoid LA.

    • There’s already a “road to Vegas” (Highway 58). Problem is, it only works for people in Bakersfield and Fresno right now.

      A six-lane freeway from Gorman to Victorville, linking I-5 and I-15 would help with distribution of goods and services from the Bay Area to Las Vegas, which would greatly benefit the Antelope Valley.

  15. This has to be one of the most asinine “editorials” I have read in years. L.A., and specifically the AV itself, has very unique geographical and employment needs that are vastly different than places like Dallas or Milwaukee.

    For one thing, we have steep mountain ranges, passes, and valleys that one has to traverse to get from one region of the LA Metropolitan Area to another. This is part of our natural geography. At present, there are almost 500,000 people living in the Antelope Valley when you add Palmdale + Lancaster, and then add in all of the smaller surrounding towns (Pearblossom, Littlerock, Leona Valley, Acton, Rosamond, etc)

    The High Desert corridor project would have made travel from I-5 to I-15 much easier and allowed for less congestion all over the whole region. An Inland “port” could be developed in Palmdale that would allow goods to be brought up here, by rail, from Long Beach and distributed throughout the rest of the country, thereby eliminating semi-truck traffic down in the basin and easing commute times for people down there. Getting semi-trucks off the freeways in the LA Basin would also cut down on pollution and smog as well.

    Tell Emily Rusch and the rest of these morons to go take a hike!

      • See foot notes for High Speed Rail Projects in California.
        Seriously would love to see some high speed rail with small cargo, and people combined. When talking small cargo, think a baggage pod like they use on airplanes to speed load it in and out for a destination city.
        But… the average Californian is not your average East Coaster and dislikes trains it seems.
        (Born and raised West Coast cause we are the Best Coast!)

        • It’s because the trains here are too time-wasting, but if the trains have easy accessibility (underground parking, buses, etc.), and *most importantly* are fast and frequent maybe people on the Best Coast will start taking trains.

  16. I say some sort of rail system running in the center or above center of the 14fwy from the AV to Santa Clarita would help.Metrolink is just too slow and does not work for everyone.Then accelerate the metro projects connecting the valley to the LA area.Some would think this is dumb wishful thinking though.Thoughts?

    • That’s EXACTLY what we need, but it might be cheaper to use bus rapid transit.

  18. As long as I can get to Las Vegas in less time, that is all that matters to me.

  19. What a joke. I guess they don’t factor in the amount of time going slow in traffic as adding to the problem. If they opened up the gridlock, people would be getting to and from much quicker thus less pollution. But hey, if they think sitting in a running car an extra 30 minutes every day X all those cars is better, well, money well spent on the study.

    How about a high speed train. Oh wait……never mind.

    • More people would start driving between the two cities, and that would cause more congestion

    • Connects Hwy 14 at Palmdale to I-15 at Victorville.

      These idiotic “analysts” would be hilarious if they weren’t so dangerous. “LA doesn’t need something like this, just look at Dallas, Tampa, and Milwaukee!” Yeah, let’s look. Oh, hey, all of them put together don’t amount to anything. Milwaukee is the biggest population center in Wisconsin and it is smaller than the Antelope Valley. “Gosh, why does Los Angeles need different solutions than Podunk?” Take a guess you f’ing morons.

      • Who says cars will be gasoline powered in 20 years anyway? Electric and hydrogen engines will probably make up the majority of cars by then. The corridor makes sense especially with the rail component.

        • We’re having severe problems with other sources of energy production so it’s important for us to use as little energy as possible

          • Energy conservation is key, but there really is no problem with sources of energy. The problem is with nuts like Rex who think natural gas is evil. He builds solar farms that ruin the landscape and require materials that have to be excavated from the earth at an environmental cost. He preaches green, yet flies a private plane and maintains two very large homes.

          • 3 major types of solar-steam generation plants, solar panels, three types of wind generators in use for different conditions, water (gravity) generation that we are not using enough of via our aqueducts natural flow through this valley, geo-thermal, new generation atomic, so much natural gas we burn it off, not to mention traditional trash incineration, coal, oil (the last two of which are becoming more expensive). Energy production around the clock is not the problem.

            As Gas Man stated the mixed generation plant that was solar-steam by day with gas backup is one of the cleanest all weather sources and very small footprint with the mirror types that were being designed.

          • @Gas Man @Laughing
            I don’t know much about the mixed generation plant, but I do know that a lot of these mayors are hypocritical when it comes to climate change, like Bill deBlasio. Also, if I may ask, how do the solar arrays destroy the landscape

          • @SafeStreets Antelope Valley, take a drive to Antelope Acres and tell me how untouched the landscape is from those solar panels. Wildlife and fauna disrupted, heat reflecting from the panels, loss of poppy fields. There are plenty of roofs in the AV for panels. At least the panels could be situated where there aren’t poppy fields or much growth. A dry lake bed perhaps?