California’s roadways must be operated for the long-term public interest. Across California, cash-strapped governments and state agencies are struggling to plug gaping holes in their budgets while also struggling to meet ever-growing demands for improved transportation infrastructure and repair. Enter global private infrastructure companies and the investment banks that back them. Touting the benefits of public-private partnerships, these companies seek deals for privatized roads on which they’d charge and collect escalating tolls on motorists for decades to come. Road privatization offers a hard-to-resist “quick fix” for state budget and transportation challenges but are full of hidden problems that place the public interest in jeopardy.
California’s most prominent examples of road privatization remain the failed experiments with leasing toll lanes on State Road 91 between Orange and Riverside counties and the South Bay Expressway near San Diego. With transportation funding tight, proposals for more private toll projects are on the rise in the Golden State. Recent examples include: the proposed I-710 Tunnel project in Pasadena, a new High Desert Corridor from SR 14 in San Bernardino County to I-15 in Los Angeles County, and added truck lane capacity along I-170 from the Los Angeles Port. Recent state legislation aids road privatization development, and many such projects may arise as quick fixes to the budget crisis. We know private toll road operators seek to maximize their profits. But what is good for business isn’t always good for transportation policy in general, potentially leaving the public vulnerable.
Should California move forward with any future road building projects that use private investment, we must insist on specific protections for the public to ensure the needs of people come before any other special interest or investment entity. CALPIRG is pressing public officials to uphold six basic principles to protect the public interest:
1. Retain public control over transportation planning and management.
2. Ensure that the public receives fair long-term value for assets. Just because a state or locality faces dire fiscal straits, they shouldn’t sell public assets at a discount.
3. No deals longer than 30 years because lawmakers can not reasonably anticipate our transportation needs or assess the value of toll roads beyond a few decades.
4. Require state-of-the-art safety and maintenance standards that will increase over time.
5. Complete transparency and accountability must be maintained so the public knows the complete terms of specific proposed deals and lawmakers must vote on them.
6. No budget gimmicks. If governments do sign these deals, the money must be used to address other long-term transportation needs.
CALPIRG will continue to build public opposition, apply public pressure, mobilize coalitions of stake holders, and educate public officials to keep California’s roadways safe from bad road privatization deals.
