Road Rage…This Monday was so similar to all Mondays that Squid almost forgot it was a special occasion—acclaimed, in fact, thanks to the 1993 movie Groundhog Day—for its utter sameness.
So it should come as no surprise that as Squid was rolling along Imjin Road from Marina to Salinas, admiring the fancy new bike lane to nowhere, that Squid felt an overwhelming sense of deja vu. It’s because Squid has patiently tolerated the construction of this new bike lane, this gradual widening of the crowded one-lane stretch of road, and Squid’s already getting ready to watch it happen all over again.
On Jan. 23, the California Transportation Commission announced $174.8 million in funding for 85 transportation projects. Among those awards: $1.65 million to the city of Marina for environmental review, the earliest phase of a project to widen the two-lane section of Imjin to four lanes.
“This project will add capacity, and result in reduced congestion, improved air quality, and increased safety,” according to CTC’s project list.
All good things, in Squid’s view, just like bike lanes. But Squid cocked Squid’s translucent head in wonder: Had crews not just barely finished the widening of Imjin—just enough to accommodate an unusually wide bike lane, big enough for Squid’s tricycle to fit alongside a more serious cyclist? (Squid prefers to move a pedestrian ambling pace, and notes the continued absence of continuous sidewalk on this stretch of road.)
Squid rubbed Squid’s eyes and no, it wasn’t just Groundhog Day bewilderment. It was government budgeting at its more frustrating.
“If we could coordinate these things better, we would,” says Debbie Hale, executive director of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. “We have been working with the city for a while to figure out how we could get funding for this project.”
They did, just a little too late. The pavement should be wide enough to accommodate the new car lane and the new bike lane, Hale says, but they’ll have to paint over all those fancy bike lanes and scooch them out toward the shoulder.
Squid expects the four-laning process to take a few years. So Squid will just sit back for a few re-runs of Groundhog Day in the mean time, and won’t get to used to bikeriding in that luxuriously wide bike lane.
(6) comments
AMEN for this expansion. Not that I don't support bicyclists, but I'm all for adding more car lanes. I commute from Salinas to Seaside every day, which should be a 25-35 minute process, but takes an hour and 15 minutes because there's SO much traffic. Now, I am sure bicycle enthusiasts will be frustrated with me; "Why don't you ride a bike?" they will say. Well for one thing, I'm not interested in waking up at 4am. for another thing, the weather's not always as swell in California as one might imagine. I'll leave the earth saving to you guys and await the additional lanes on Imjin while warm and dry in my car.
In the meantime Salinas residents will continue to cut through CSUMB byway of Intergarrison creating huge backups and unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists coming and going from campus. Intergarrison and the back roads around CSUMB will continue to fall apart (foot deep potholes already) and the campus traffic control officer will develop massive biceps and triceps from his crisp continuous waves at the onslaught of traffic in the mornings.
If this was Chicago....or any part of Illinois for that matter, instead of squandering millions on consultants and environmental reviews....far fewer $'s would be sent by simply PAYING OFF the people that are getting the diluted kick backs now.
It's a simple democrat vs. republican issue....the dems just fork over the payolla and repubs convolute the whole approach to insure that ALL their cronies get a piece of the action....
c'mon .....you KNOW this is true
Dear Squid,
As a denizen of the deep you are familiar with circulation...ocean currents, vehicular traffic, and taxation are all about circulation. In the case of taxes the money circulates from the private sector to the public sector. The pump involved is the government. The private sector places a value on each dollar and so it budgets and frets about its use. But tax money does not cost the government anything, so it could care less. The public sector is government's Frankenstein Monster that needs feeding. It is supposed to wander about aimlessly leaving a path of destruction in its wake and, indeed, confusion, just like in the movie.
What Squid fails to mention, is that in the several year interim between the $1.65M in available funding and $175 in needed project funding, bicyclists will have a safe lane of travel between Salinas and the Peninsula. That's not good enough? I wonder how Squid would raise the remaining $173,000,000?
Don't worry, we will have a sidewalk as well as bike lanes once the widening takes place. However, we aren't fully funded for the widening, so we don't know how soon that will get built. So, we wanted to provide this key bicycle route to Cal State Monterey Bay as soon as possible.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.