In a piece in Streets­blog Los Ange­les, Wes Reuti­mann argues that plans to expand road­ways in Los Ange­les Coun­ty will only exac­er­bate the air qual­i­ty prob­lems the region already faces. “Yet Metro and Cal­trans are still mov­ing for­ward with plans to expand high­ways across LA, in a fruit­less effort to ‘relieve con­ges­tion’ once and for all.”

Reuti­mann points out that those plans will dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect com­mu­ni­ties along major free­ways that are already some of the nation’s most pol­lut­ed. “Accord­ing to the CA Air Resources Board­’s 2017 Scop­ing Plan, we will nei­ther reach our air qual­i­ty nor our cli­mate goals unless we reduce how much we dri­ve. Sev­en years lat­er we have yet to align our trans­porta­tion spend­ing with sci­ence.”

Reuti­mann sug­gests that Metro and Cal­trans could make bet­ter use of exist­ing high­way foot­prints to add tolled or HOV lanes and spend the sav­ings on main­te­nance and mul­ti­modal projects. “Giv­en every­thing we know now, more pol­lu­tion, dis­place­ment, and destruc­tion can­not still be an option. As L.A. pre­pares to host what’s tout­ed as the green­est Olympic Games yet, the Metro Board should turn the page on this his­to­ry of mis­guid­ed, myopic, and auto-cen­tric trans­porta­tion plan­ning.”