Posted on by Californiacontrarian

An HOA Allegory

Let’s suppose that in addition to the HOA fees that I pay to live where I do, there is a mandatory add-on fee for the golf course that everyone must pay. This year the annual fee was increased by $25 to $175. However, in addition, in order to use the golf course, one must use a golf cart, as no one is allowed to walk the course. Neither the HOA nor the golf course provides for a cart, so everyone must buy and maintain a private golf cart. Over the years this golf course has become increasingly crowded. It had been that the course was only busy during peak times, but now it is busy most all the time.

Yes, all of this is bad, but the most recent report from the Traffic Research Group, TRIP, details a bunch of stuff that the ordinary golfer does not ordinarily think about.

Last year it was estimated that the average golfer wasted about 40 hours annually, basically stuck in traffic because of the congestion. Last year it costs the average golfer (driver) almost $2000 for hidden costs associated with poor golf path conditions and traffic congestion on the course. Lost time and fuel wasted while in traffic accounted for an average of $920 in annual costs. The maintenance of the cart paths (roads) and the bridges has slipped dramatically. This is  probably because the money that was supposed to be allocated for this has been diverted into “pet projects!” Driving on deteriorating and unsafe cart paths (roads)now costs the average driver $1,021 in everything from maintenance and repairs to emergency medical costs following a crash.
Membership in my HOA allows me to use the golf courses in the adjacent neighborhoods but the maintenance and the upkeep of the cart paths in these other communities is no better. In fact my community of San Diego ranks 6th as far as poor golf cart path (highway/road) upkeep with less well maintained cart paths (roads) in Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Jose, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. In general 68% of the major roads/ highways in the state (California) are ranked as being mediocre or poor, and it is the drivers that suffer. Californians in general spend approximately $61 billion per year on extra costs associated with crumbling roads and bridges!
While this metaphorical golf course allegory might be amusing, the report from the Traffic Research Group is not fiction and should be food for thought each time we sit in traffic or bring our car in to have the tires rebalanced and rotated because the alignment is off!

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