Despite objections from environmental groups such as The Campaign for Sensible Transportation, there is a new push to widen Highway One in Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), in cooperation with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), has prepared a draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment for the new highway widening proposals.

The project is divided into two components: a long-term analysis of widening Highway One between Santa Cruz and Aptos, and an analysis for highway widening between 41st Avenue and Soquel Drive. The public may submit comments about the draft EIR by Monday, January 18, 2016.

The Campaign for Sensible Transportation writes: "In 2004, we led the County-wide opposition that decisively defeated a sales tax increase to widen Highway One. Since then we have actively supported numerous transportation improvements around the County, including the long push to get local public ownership of the 32-mile rail corridor stretching across the County. And we have continued to resist wasteful investment in the outdated thinking behind widening highways. Now it’s back. A new 30 year transportation sales tax measure proposed for 2016 could fund useful and environmentally sound improvements. Unfortunately, the current proposal would waste more than $100 million dollars on widening Highway One. But widening Highway One STILL won’t work. Repeated scientific studies have shown that expanding busy freeways just encourages more traffic, so they soon become congested again."

Read More | The Campaign for Sensible Transportation | See Also: Draft EIR for Highway 1 Widening Proposals Released