Want to bet the weak O.C. real estate market has something to do with this?

To the north, on the 91 Express Lanes, traffic’s off 6 percent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year through April vs. the previous year. Assuming the trends hold, this will mark the first drop in use since the Orange County Transportation Authority took control in 2003
Head south, and on the Foothill/Eastern tollway, and you find traffic down 3 percent in the same time frame. Previously, the road enjoyed traffic growth ever since it opened in 1993.
And near the sea, traffic on the San Joaquin tollway is down 2%, heading toward its second yearly drop in usage since the debut in 1996. The last drop came in 2001 as drivers shunned the road during the dot-com technology bust and ensuing economic turmoil.
Today, with gasoline pushing four bucks a gallon, local folks are clearly looking for ways to cut their transportation budgets. Why else would Metrolink train ridership be up 5 percent in the first quarter vs. a year ago in supposedly mass-transit-averse Orange County?

To read the rest of Jon’s column on the tollways’ slump, CLICK HERE

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Jon's work, Overall economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.