California 78 Turns Rush Hour Into Frustrating Wait

Out of the blue they appeared, bumper stickers boldly blaring the message on every North County motorist’s mind: “I Hate 78.”

Within weeks after the North County Transportation Coalition, a citizens’ group, printed up the stickers and began distributing them to cars backed up along several notorious California 78 on-ramps, they were seemingly ubiquitous--symbols of the region’s growing frustration with an overburdened route.

For years a scenic, lightly traveled roadway through the rural heart of North County, California 78 in recent years has become what some describe as a 16-mile-long parking lot at peak commute hours. The green and gold hills that once provided a visually enticing border for the route are now covered with subdivisions, colleges and a thicket of industrial and commercial development.

Traffic is at capacity in some stretches and has increased about 30% since 1981. Today the freeway carries about 70,000 cars on a given day; by 1995, that number will top 81,000. Moreover, the highway has an inordinately high injury accident rate, causing law enforcement officers to dub it “Slaughter Alley.”

With development proceeding apace, and a new branch campus of San Diego State University planned for San Marcos in the next five years, the traffic forecast for North County’s only major east-west artery is gloomy.

“If we don’t widen the route and look at other solutions beyond widening, California 78 will be close to failure by the end of the century,” said Mike McLaughlin, a senior planner for the San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag). In terms of congestion, “this could be another Interstate 8-Mission Valley-type problem,” he said.

Until recently, North County leaders have lacked a cooperative, regional approach to the highway’s woes. Each city has its own traffic--and funding--problems, so the prospect of devoting attention and money to the state route has been an unpopular one.

But congestion on the route is now at the uncomfortable level, and constituents have begun to scream. So earlier this year, civic leaders formed a task force to suggest some tentative ideas and united approaches to easing congestion on the roadway. The task force, part of Sandag’s California 78 Corridor Study, has presented its suggestions to a San Francisco consultant who will recommend a plan for preventing the route from becoming a lost cause.

Among other things, the consultant is examining how to improve access to the freeway; what sort of land-use standards could be established to prevent a continuation of dense, Mission Valley-style development along the corridor, and which parallel routes could be improved to siphon some cross-town traffic off the highway.

Meanwhile, local officials are anxiously watching a bill by Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) that would provide up to $12 million in federal funds for widening the freeway from four to six lanes. The legislation, which has passed the House, characterizes the widening as a “demonstration project” and is contingent upon another $17.5-million in contributions from the cities, the county and the state. Without the federal assistance, the widening could be more than a decade away.

While California 78 is the highway making headlines these days, there are numerous other gaps or inadequacies in North County’s road network that create traffic hot spots certain to tangle motorists during peak hours. Among the worst are:

- California 76 between Interstate 5 and El Camino Real in Oceanside. For years Oceanside officials have fought for state assistance for improvements to this four-lane stretch of highway, which has a fatal accident rate 12 times the state average. Also known as Mission Avenue, the densely commercialized route carries commuters in the San Luis Rey Valley west to the freeway and is also heavily traveled by workers leaving Camp Pendleton’s back gate.

Now a $19.9-million, eight-mile bypass that would spin off of Interstate 5 at Harbor Drive is in the Caltrans five-year plan. But complications involving an endangered bird--the least Bell’s vireo--that nests near the alignment threatens to delay construction of the roadway.

- El Camino Real at California 78. Due north of the Plaza Camino Real mall in Carlsbad and surrounded by commercial development, this interchange is one of the most notorious in North County. At peak hours, it can take 10 minutes to get from one side of the freeway bridge to the other.

No improvements are under way and a new shopping center is sprouting just west of the interchange in the shadow of the mall.

- San Marcos Boulevard at California 78. Heavy commercial development and the presence of nearby Palomar Community College make this intersection a mess. In addition, many commuters heading for the coast chug through the interchange, taking a shortcut to Interstate 5 via San Marcos Boulevard, Encinitas Road and Palomar Airport Road.

- Encinitas Boulevard and El Camino Real. Bordered by car dealerships and several shopping centers, this intersection is the prime traffic headache in San Dieguito. Impacts come from residents in southern Carlsbad, Olivenhain and Encinitas.

- Interstate 15 between Poway Road and Mercy Road. As residential development has sprouted in the Rancho Penasquitos area and elsewhere alongside the freeway, commuter traffic has thickened considerably. It’s slow going on this stretch at peak hours in the morning and afternoon.

- Poway Road through Poway. Lined with dozens of businesses, Poway Road is the city’s major commercial strip as well as the prime east-west connection between Interstate 15 and California 67 to the desert. Some relief will come with California 125, which is on the books but facing funding problems.

- La Costa Avenue. A two-lane stretch that runs along the southern shore of Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad, this route links Interstate 5 with the elegant homes in the hills of La Costa. During commute hours, it’s a slow grind; in the evening, traffic backs up far onto the freeway at the Interstate 5 off-ramp. Ultimately, the city plans to widen the route.

- Interstates 5 and 805. Eight lanes are whittled down to four at the point on the northbound commute where these two freeways merge in Sorrento Valley; the afternoon traffic invariably grinds to a halt. Ultimately, Caltrans hopes to widen the intersection to as many as 12 lanes. But funding is not available. By 2005, traffic from the merging point north through North City West will be as bad as the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles.