OCTA Thanks Congress for Transportation Bill; Some Language Friendly to Finishing Toll Road

When one author praises another on a book jacket, and the second author then does the same on the first author's tome, that's logrolling. It's a practice that's also common among academics and movie critics. In politics, logrolling happens when political favors are exchanged, even among members of different parties. The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) got into the logrolling game this week when it applauded the $260 billion federal transportation reauthorization bill and, especially, language included that could speed up road construction, including another agency's 241 Foothill-South toll road expansion.
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Wing Lam of Wahoo's Fish Taco Adds a Side of Road Opposition to His Latest Ford Commercial

Categories: 241 Toll Road, TV
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Photo by Meranda Carter/
OC Weekly
Give Wahoo's Fish Taco co-founder Wing Lam credit for working his Mexican food chain into widely seen television commercials for other companies. In 2000, he and his righteous whiskers appeared in a national spot for Merrill Lynch and its small business services. Lately, Lam and his Wahoo's van have turned up in Southern California Ford Dealers ads touting the vehicle made for small businesses.

But in the most-recent Ford commercial, Lam sneaks in a political message.
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241 Extension Builders Figure If You Can't Beat 'Em, Piecemeal 'Em

Categories: 241 Toll Road
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Developers of the despised Foothill (241) Toll Road expansion into San Clemente figure if you can't beat 'em, piecemeal 'em.

That's the takeaway from a Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency committee approving $206 million be spent for the first four miles of a planned 16-mile extension that would ultimately connect with the San Diego (5) Freeway in San Clemente.
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Foothill-South Toll Road Foes Call Bullshit on TCA's Jobs Creation and Economic Stimulus Ploy

Categories: 241 Toll Road
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Foes of the 241 Foothill-South toll road carving through San Clemente are calling bullshit on the Transportation Corridor Agency's latest ploy to win public support: propping up their unpopular project as a statewide job creator, economic stimulus and deficit buster.
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[UPDATED: TCA's Thoughts] Time for a Rematch? TCA Rekindles 241 Toll Road Talks, Citing Japan Devastation; Surfrider Foundation Responds

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Surfrider Foundation
The swindle'n continues.
UPDATE, MAY 9, 4:20 P.M.: The basis for the most recent PR campaign--pushing the need for additional evacuation routes in the case of a emergency at SONGS or Camp Pendleton--was a concern expressed in a public poll from November 2010 (months before the tragic events in Japan), according to Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman with the TCA.

The TCA sent out 14,000 mailers with response cards, asking residents to rank their reasons for why the 241 Toll Road extension should be built. In total, the TCA received 562 responses. From those responses, "Security" was listed as the fourth major reason, behind "Wasted Time and Traffic Relief," "Quality of Life," and "Safety."

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Transportation Corridor Agencies Drops Fear Bomb

Categories: 241 Toll Road
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As Michael Moore so elegantly demonstrated in Bowling for Columbine, policymakers have perfected the art of using fear to sway the American public into supporting war, overpopulated prisons and the further erosion of our freedoms.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) is now pulling the fear card to regain public support of the left-for-dead 241 toll road extension.

The latest scare tactic involves a report of a grenade on the 5 freeway.
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How Do You Fill the Empty Toll Roads? Raffles!

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Rush hour
The country's economic woes have reportedly extended to Orange County's toll roads, where ridership is down as once-paying drivers opt to ply the public lanes and apply the savings to offset rising gasoline prices.

The agencies that operate the toll roads have responded with raffles and drawings that award winners financial credits to be used for future rides. You've just got to pay and ride now for a chance to win.

That may not be working.
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Return of the 241 Toll-Road Extension: South County Officials Pen Scary Letter to Feinstein

Categories: 241 Toll Road
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Also known as "a concrete cage without walls."
The 241 extension saga in a nutshell: Transportation Corridor Agencies propose extending a toll road from Rancho Santa Margarita to the Interstate 5 in San Diego County, environmental groups flip out at the prospect of a freeway potentially encroaching upon San Onofre State Park, the state and federal governments side with environmentalists and spikes the plan, the TCA returns with a new plan, officials with the Marines at Camp Pendleton object to it in a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, some people assume that the planned extension is finally dead.

New chapter: It's not dead. A group of six south-county city council members have sent a letter to Feinstein that you might call dramatic.

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OC Environmentalists Celebrate Momentous Decisions

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Ancestor walks take on new meaning after efforts to carve a toll road through Pahne failed.
Holiday celebrating started early for local environmental groups.

On Friday, a diverse coalition of allies marked the one-year anniversary of a U.S. Department of Commerce decision that effectively stopped the Foothill/Eastern (241) toll road from being carved through a state park and sacred American Indian land. Some groups involved in that battle were already riding high from Wednesday's unanimous San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board vote to adopt a set of new regulations to control runoff into the receiving waters of the Pacific Ocean off South County.
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Drivers Ridicule Toll Road Photo Contest

Categories: 241 Toll Road
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Photo by Steve Ong
Aliso Viejo resident Steve Ong's winning shot.
An amateur photo contest aimed at promoting Orange County's quasi-private toll roads gave new meaning to drive-by shooting.

Folks who left comments on the Transportation Corridor Agencies--or The Toll Roads--Facebook page had other definitions: stupid, dangerous and "a boondoggle."

Drivers of the Lexus lanes made a stunning observation as soon as the contest was announced a couple months ago: operating a camera while operating a vehicle at high speeds can get you killed, and stopping to do anything other than pay a toll is verboten.

Those obstacles must've limited the entries. Steve Ong of Aliso Viejo and Irvine's Zoe Thompson, whose shot follows the jump, were the only announced winners. Both received $50 in tolls. Even more entertaining than their purty pictures were the contest comments.
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