A quick review of traffic planning in South County Santa Barbara is a history of failure.
The anti-car groups, coalescing around the Santa Barbara Channel oil rig failure, picked up their drums and stated that industrial technology – across the board – was killing the State of California and the World in general. The chant was (as far as I could tell) “Kill auto and truck use and go back to horse drawn trollies.”
Get Oil Out, with often outrageous claims, ignored the history of free-flowing oil both on land and in the channel.
Before the Spanish arrived, the various Chumash tribes made use of oil from natural seeps inland and significant SB Channel seeps. This was a time when substantial carbon emissions where in the air from Long Beach to Point Conception. The Chumash description of the Los Angeles Valley was the “Valley of Smoke.” The combination of hydrocarbons from nature and the camp fires created what we now call “smog.”
It was “Nature at its best.” Today, one only has to go to the bluffs along the beach next to Hope Ranch, and walk up to Toro Canyon to see how the increasing underground pressure is now returning “nature” to hydrocarbon emissions.
This has nothing to do with internal combustion engines.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” (thank you Mike Tyson)
These short-term thinkers created a liquidity problem that led to failure. These short-term thinkers crushed Old Town State Street when the majority shouted “NO!”
They took a risk using the balance sheet of liability vs. assets and they LOST. The road and street equity that made South Santa Barbara County a long-term jewel has been chewed up and spit out by these losers. They took the streets and traffic grid that required a century to prove that it worked and then destroyed it.
The saying is “buy low” and “sell high.”
South County roads and streets were created when the price was “low” and has been destroyed by short-term thinkers who are selling “low.” Pujo, in her failed transportation plan, opined that businesses that depend on autos will fail. Again, these short termers don’t get it, they “buy low” and “sell low” and that is not smart.
The financial statements and reality of what people want, demand working streets. Clog the traffic grid and the Social and Physical inventory stagnates. There is no question about that.
But, but, but, what about the Computer Age?
What about it?
Both the City of Santa Barbara and the County of Santa Barbara had presentations some 20 years ago about self-driving cars. The claims were, “Hey, we don’t need streets, because people will be using self-driving cars. There will be fewer cars on the streets.” Then some smarty pants from UCSB did a projection. In fact, there will be more, not fewer cars because those who cannot or do not want to drive will be on the streets with their AI autos. All while people will still want freedom of travel. How about them apples?
Traffic “Projections” Were Dramatically Wrong
Cars Are Basic, started its analysis of bike use and projections with the Santa Barbara 1974 Baseline Count of bike riders. We then used the City of SB 1980ish counts. They were all at a time when there were no bicycle paths on the streets of Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, or Goleta. There are now significantly fewer pedal bikes on the streets, adding E-Bikes there are still fewer on the streets then the 1980s (no bike paths). Hundreds of millions of tax dollars wasted. Efficient streets intentionally crippled. Businesses intentionally driven out of locations or forced out of business.
For what?
Bike numbers are significantly under the 1974 baseline, and all bike path projections of the past 10 years have failed. Goleta projections of bike numbers on their Hollister bike path to Ellwood, Cathedral Oaks path from Winchester to the Bishop Ranch, and Old Town Hollister, have failed. Santa Barbara’s touted Vision Zero with bike paths has the same Stench of Mediocrity and an amazing waste creating their multi-year deficits. (Yet SB touts it has almost 100 miles of bike paths.)
This is not a Real Estate 1031 Exchange where the exchanges are improving the community. There are no increased cash flows “proving” how great the failed concepts are.
More taxes because they failed.
More deficits to cover.
More blockaded streets forcing more miles to drive.
More dangerous driving conditions for drivers and bike riders.
More population density where land is constricted.
More concrete paving over open space in the name of the environment.
This is not government that can claim merit efficiency, or maintaining quality of life.
Want to see how bad it is? Go to your neighborhood sewage plant when it breaks down and take a deep breath. You’ll smell the Stench of Mediocrity. That is the failure of bike paths, Vision Zero, narrowing streets, bulbouts, destroyed parking, density infills, and more.
Community Calendar:
Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com
Having arrived in Santa Barbara in 1970, doing business in downtown SB was always an adventure. Investors looked at property on lower State Street as the “gold standard”. Now, empty retail spaces and the tax paying residents screaming to open up State Street get negated by a City Council that won’t listen! So, let’s get some new Council members with both Tradition and common sense to replace these Bozos!
I used to live in the downtown corridor and walked all over and enjoyed the small town feel of a real City Center. Now it feels gutted and destroyed. I moved my business from 318 State to 2007 State 14 years ago, and what a relief to be out of the constant presence of bums and nutcases and their feces. As I drive around town I am so sad to see yet another street constricted for unused bike lanes, bulb outs and no-auto barriers and parking spaces removed. We are not in as bad a state as many larger cities, but we started as a jewel so we just had farther to fall. "The state of a City Government is shown by the state of the streets."