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News Release

February 9, 2005

A Proposed Casino in San Pablo Would Crack the Urban Gaming Barrier and Crowd Highways with 34,000 Cars Each Day

The first traffic analysis of a proposed Indian Casino in San Pablo shows drastic impacts on I-80 and local commuter roads

An additional four lanes worth of traffic would be squeezed onto the already jammed I-80 if a proposed Indian casino is allowed to open in San Pablo, according to a new report released yesterday. The report, conducted by the transportation firm Katz, Okitsu & Associates, found that a 2,500 slot machine casino in San Pablo would create 34,000 additional vehicle trips each day.

“The congestion introduced by the casino will overwhelm the capacity of the existing roadways,” noted J. Arnold Torma, the principal author of the report. “As local residents no doubt realize, I-80 and the connecting roads are already heavily congested. Placing 2,500 slot machines in San Pablo will cause a complete failure on these roads not just during rush hour, but all day long.”

Proponents of the casino project are expected to announce yet another version of their building plans today. The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that the casino will still include 2,500 slot machines and be housed in a 342,000 square feet building with parking for 4,000 cars.

“All along, proponents have focused on finding a way to get 2,500 slot machines into the heart of the Bay Area,” commented Elliot Randall, co-founder of the Stop San Pablo Community Coalition (StopSanPablo.com). “The proponents of this project have conveniently ignored the fact that Californians never voted for urban casinos.”

In addition, community members and business owners throughout the East Bay expressed concern about the effect of the predicted traffic:

“The traffic will ruin my neighborhood. It’s already bad and if it gets much worse, this town will not only become unlivable; it will become unsafe,” said Anne Ruffino, a homeowner and twenty-eight year resident of the San Pablo area. “I am also concerned about ambulances and fire trucks getting the access they need to the casino’s immediate neighbor, Doctor’s Medical Center, the only public emergency room within 20 miles of my home.”

“My company has 30 trucks hauling goods from the Port of Oakland up I-80 every day”, said Rafael Quintera of Quintera Trucking. “I can’t afford to have trucks sitting in traffic all day long. This casino could mean the end of my business.”

There is little than can be done to mitigate the traffic damage the casino will bring. The next intersection to the north on I-80 is out-of-direction and the next one to the south is approximately a mile away. “Attempts at mitigation would be expensive and extremely time consuming,” said Torma. “Adding lanes onto a highway or putting in a new interchange are projects that take hundreds of millions of dollars and decades to complete.”

The traffic study used 2,500 slot machines as a basis for projections, though it also analyzed a 5,000 slot machine casino as has been previously proposed for the site. As expected, the impacts of a larger casino are even worse. 5,000 slot machines will generate 68,000 additional vehicle trips each day.

The traffic study did not factor in additional trips by customers who will visit the casino to play the table games or eat at the restaurants; it only analyzed slot machine visitors. “The revised plan put forth today does not alter my calculations at all. The casino proponents still want to have 2,500 slot machines, each one of which will create 13.6 trips per day, therefore they will still have created a traffic nightmare,” concluded Torma.