$216 BILLION NEEDED FOR AREA TRANSIT.

Byline: Conor Friedersdorf Staff Writer

Southern California needs to spend as much as $216 billion on freeways, mass transit and other transportation projects over the next 25 years, according to the regional planning agency's report released Wednesday.

The Southern California Association of Governments' plan proposes solutions to handle the 6 million more people and 3 million new jobs that will come to the region by 2030.

``We need to be aggressive to meet the challenge,'' said SCAG board member Bev Kelly. ``And if a project is not in this plan, it won't be funded.''

The plan calls for numerous major projects including an additional $21 billion for highway improvements, including more car-pool lanes; a rail system to connect airports and doubling Metrolink's capacity.

The plan also lays out a strategy for funding the $216 billion in transportation improvements, which would require raising more than $90 billion.

The proposal includes rasing gasoline taxes by 10 cents per gallon by 2015, dedicating all gas tax revenue to transportation improvements, charging user fees for lanes dedicated to truck traffic, taxing alternative fuel and imposing a fee on developers to mitigate the transportation effects of new homes.

To read the plan visit the agency's Web site at www.scag.ca.gov.

Conor Friedersdorf, [phone]

conor.friedersdorf(at)dailybulletin.com