I-80: No such thing as a Free $86m Lunch

On Tuesday, let’s hope council is more curious than YoloTD on DEIR

By Alan Hirsch

At the YoloTD board meeting on December 11 the YoloTD staff the presented the I-80 project. After 6 public comment, and 16 ½ minute discussion they unanimous decided to accept the DEIR, it VMT mitigation plan, and the staff recommend alternate 4. HOT3+

These are the slide staff presented.

https://yolotd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023-12-11_YoloTD-BoardSlides.pdf

No one at the meeting unpacked the ongoing financial obligation of mitigation that YoloTD took on as part of the DEIR

….. in turn for getting the $86 million in free starter money for the project

The VMT/GHG  mitigation plan is on slides 15-19—which lists all the 7 mitigation measures.

Its bit confusing so let me unpack – before the Tuesday council meeting.

The plan shows a bottom-line cost of $55M, but not exactly.  it’s a $50m/year on going obligation for YoloTD fund mitigation of 57mil VMT- the plan by getting our neighbors =about 15 to 20,0000 of them to shift their behavior. To drive less.   57 Million VMT is about 5x increase in Yolobus ridership- this is the near the current ridership of the extensive Light Rail system serving the 1.5 Million people in Sacramento.

  You can get the $50 mil/yr. by multiply the VMT/yr.  by cost per VMT for each Mitigation Measure line , then adding up the 7 Measures.

The   $55M includes $5 Million in one contribution to Nishi…note Nishi offers no VMT benefit. Davis/Withecomb gets it “just because”.  *note Caltrans isn’t really giving us $5 mil…we have to find it as part of grant work to fund the missing $200-$300M to finish the widening.

The $50 mil/year mitigation cost is at most 40% funded by toll revenue. (slide 20) but some reason YoloTD Board chose alt 4 that gives 3 passenger car  a free ride  toll lane. Alternative 4 funds only 20%^t of the mitigation.

I watched the meeting video 2 times and listened for the silence: you can too. In the 16 minute discussion on I-80 (timestamp1:16 ) there was no discuss  why Alternative  4 vs 5. They  just took Staff recommendation and left $14 mil/year on the table…seems to me?

I’m all for the goal of more transit ridership, but is it realistic? – and do you really think if we just have to put more buses and microtransit on the road and give out free bus passes, and 10% of the Adults in Yolo County will stop driving?

Seems incoherent: we widen a freeway so we can drive more easily…but then spend $50m/’year to encourage people to take transit?   

 

Left undefined on December 11 is who responsible to find the $40m/yr. short for in money for mitigation:

 Caltrans said clearly it wasn’t them. When asked about short fall in funding they suggest Yolo county folk could find grants to fill the gap. .i.e. instead using grants to expand our transit to work toward zero carbon, we should use of grant money as carbon offset for the freeway.-That was the end of the discussion. Watch the video.1:16).

   Remember this is to offset 30% of 180Million in VMT so Solano, Sacto and Bay Area folks can drive on the extra lane .

Here's another question:

How did Caltrans come up with VMT reduction cost for Microtransit? .
Why would cost per VMT reduction to operate small group / lone rider on Microtransit bus t ($1.20 passenger /mile VMT) be less than Unitrans bus that carries large loads ($3 passenger/mile VMT). IN FACT: If you look at into Federal FTA transit operator data base, typical cost per passenger mile (VMT) to operate a Microtransit system is range of $10/mile-not $1.20.. 

NET:  If you sign up for the “free $86 million” in starter money,  you also sign up  a  $50 million forever  VMT  mitigation obligation. 

And Caltrans made it clear at the meeting:   they say don’t do Local Mitigation, aka TDM/transit, etc.,   Up to us.

And don’t forget we also need to find $200- 300 million one-time money to finish the construction of the widening.

Caltrans did generously offer us a one-time starter payment of $55 Million to help with the mitigation—

– but not really– like the $5mil for Nishi, the $55m is part of the $200 to 300 mil grant we locals need to raise to finish the project.

To Me, it feels like I-80 widening come at a pretty high opportunity cost to Davis & Yolo.

Act now and get $86 Million in free money?

Sin at haste, repent as leisure.