Reject roadblocks

08:27 AM PDT on Thursday, August 5, 2004

The Press-Enterprise

 Build it and they will come, says the Sierra Club, arguing that building better streets and highways only accelerates urban sprawl, so San Bernardino County shouldn't do it. But the reality is this: Don't build it and they'll still come, but they'll have a hard time getting around once they're here.

 On Tuesday, the Sierra Club filed suit over an extension of Measure I, the county's half-cent per dollar sales tax for transportation, that's on the Nov. 2 ballot. The extension would raise an estimated $5.9 billion over 30 years for local transportation improvements.

 The lawsuit charges that the hundreds of street and highway projects the measure would pay for have not had adequate environmental review, and wants the measure tossed out.

 But that's a smokescreen. It's too early in the process to do environmental studies on the projects a Measure I extension would fund. Nor is it practical to complete an environmental review on 30 years' worth of projects at once. The Sierra Club's real aim is to halt road spending that it believes fuels more growth.

 But that misreads the Southern California dynamic. The Inland region has been one of the fastest growing areas in the nation for years, and that won't stop just because of clogged freeways, outmoded interchanges and congested rail crossings. San Bernardino County already lives with horrendous traffic patterns - and that hasn't prevented new housing developments from sprouting up all over.

 The Inland region needs a functional transportation net in order to continue thriving - and without a local source of transportation money, that will be hard to create. Over the last few years, state transportation funds have been raided to prop up the state budget, leaving local jurisdictions to fall back on their own resources.

 Stalling transportation improvements will only harm the region's quality of life and hinder its commerce. The growth is coming, no matter what, and passively letting it tangle the roads is hardly a sensible option.