Traffic in Lake Forest - "Don't Worry. Be Happy"

TRAFFIC SUCKS

On Monday we looked at the results of the traffic forums held a few months ago as the Council’s excuse not to appoint a Traffic Commission. According to the staff report, only 2 of 39 people expressed any favorable comments about the traffic in the City or the way that the City is handling it, and only 2 of 136 comments were positive. Indeed many of the comments were very negative about how badly the City was handling the traffic problems in the City.

In addition, in the past few years, among cities surveyed by True North, a higher percent of people in Lake Forest were unhappy with traffic when compared to the results of other cities in Southern California.

AND IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE

According to the City, here are the latest numbers for adding new homes to a City that already has serious traffic problems –

· Shea Baker – 1160 SFR, 599 condos, 619 apartments

· Portola – 635 SFR, 256 condos, 57 apartments

· IRWD (Serrano Summit) – 150 SFR, 458 condos

· Whisler Ridge – 75 SFR

· Serrano Highlands – 85 SFR

Although the report was produced in May 214, it ignores the Brookfield and Trumark projects (which makes you wonder).

Add it up and there are nearly 5,000 new homes, 12,000+ new people, and 42,000+ new vehicles trips per day that are going to be added to the current traffic problem.

Think about that. Traffic sucks and we are about to add 42,000+ extra vehicle trips per day into the City. In South County, no City has traffic as bad as we do, and no City is going to grow their vehicles at a rate higher than we are. Yet the City staff tell us everything is fine.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT?

The City plans to solve the problems with two major approaches: (a) traffic signal synchronization and (b) intersection tinkering. Tomorrow we’ll look closely at both solutions.

Meantime, don’t worry. The City’s consultants, the City’s staff, and the City Council assured everyone last night that there are no real traffic problems in Lake Forest. Scott Voigts says “things could be worse”. Dwight Robinson says people complain about traffic because they have nothing else to complain about (apparently he’s forgotten that the we’ve had more murders in Lake Forest than all 9 other cities in South Orange County combined). City Manager Dunek says we should realize that they’ve spent a lot of money trying to reduce congestion, and we should concentrate on what they’ve done, not what they’ve achieved.

So, ignore the traffic – “Don’t worry. Be happy.”