By Jackie Lavalleye : californiapolicycenter – excerpt
Inadequate roads are leaving Californians stuck in traffic. According to a 2016 study by Inrix, a data company that specializes in traffic-related analytics, Los Angeles, California has the worst traffic in the United States. San Francisco takes the number three spot, and San Diego comes in number 14. In all, 17 California cities rank among the 100 most congested cities in America.
Traffic congestion has many negative effects on cities and people, including reduced economic growth as well as adverse health effects for the people sitting in traffic. So who is responsible for our terrible traffic? A group of little-known public agencies have a federal mandate to plan and implement transportation-related projects – but they aren’t getting the job done for Golden State commuters.
In 1962, the federal government created Metropolitan Planning Organizations, usually called “Associations of Governments”, as part of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962. The purpose of these agencies is to bring together elected officials from various cities and counties within a metropolitan region for the purposes of planning regional transportation efforts. Further, the intention of this Act was to increase collaboration and cooperation among local governments within a region.
The boards of these organizations are not directly elected. Instead, local elected officials from member cities are appointed to serve on their boards. Day to day decisions are made by unelected bureaucrats.
Legally, many of the Associations of Governments in California are enforced by a Joint Powers Agreement. Per Nolo’s plain-english law dictionary, a Joint Powers Agreement is a “contract between a city and a county and a special district in which the city or county agrees to perform services, cooperate with, or lend its powers to, the special district.”… (more)
More data on the process that was used by the people who took over control of our lives may be found in the fourty year plan that was written and published by some familiar names and organizations that have taken control of our lives. Read the plan and see who has been involved from the start and how they planned and executed the disaster we are living in now, and what may be done about it. http://livablecity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/tlc_path.pdf
Meter Madness 
When this article mentions “consolidating” they refer to transportation agencies taking over. Kind of like how the MTC took over ABAG. Reason being is some counties fought against it (Marin) because of some politicians so they want to pull it out.
The article doesn’t point out that the whole plan is necessarily stupid or the fact that they purposely hide the plan from citizens. It seems like it tries to blame traffic on the fact that these agencies don’t communicate. 100% bullshit.
ICLEI lays it on the state, state lays it on the MTC and then its layed on these agencies.
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We have a lot of traffic because SFMTA has caused it, by eliminating lanes, eliminating parking, widening bike lanes . Folsom and Howard are up next for traffic jams to grow much more.
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