Mobile
Drivin' n' Cryin'
If you think traffic congestion in the Charlotte area is bad now, wait till the next million people arrive
Page 4 of 4
"It's not transit service that is going to make a community shine economically, it's highway congestion and the ability to deal with it," said Hartgen. "That's what Atlanta and Texas cities are doing now. They are focusing in on how to deal with street congestion and they are doing that through intense plans to improve street capacity. The cities that figure that out first and deal with it, they're the ones that are going to move out sharply ahead of the pack competitively. I want Charlotte to be one of those."
Like Atlanta, other cities struggling with congestion are scrambling to follow the lead of Texas, which has also set actual congestion reduction goals. Texas has a 38-cents-per-gallon gas tax that brings in about $4.4 billion in road-building revenues a year for the entire state. But that doesn't come close to meeting the state's transportation needs. So the state got innovative, and now private companies are paying the full $6 billion cost of a toll road from Mexico to Oklahoma to relieve congestion on I-35 and an additional $1.2 billion "concession fee" to the state. That, along with a half-dozen other massive toll building projects, will pay for the North Texas regional rail system so that tax payers won't have to.
To put this in perspective, consider this: Last year's federal highway aid budget, which was split among all the states, was $34 billion. At present, Texas has $29 billion worth of toll highway projects in the works, all of them funded by the private sector. Indiana, Washington, DC, and Virginia are all plowing forward with massive toll projects while Delaware and New Jersey have entered the planning stages.
Ideas like these haven't exactly caught on around here. Cook, the secretary of the Mecklenburg Union Metropolitan Planning Organization, is less than enthusiastic about following Atlanta's lead.
"If we said we want to widen I-77 or to take I-85 from its current eight lanes through parts of Charlotte and double that to 16, I dare say that the reaction from the community would not be a positive one because of the impacts on the neighborhoods adjacent to those areas," Cook said.
Meanwhile, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley and other legislative leaders continue to hesitate on toll roads, despite $85 billion in transportation needs over the next 25 years. The state Board of Transportation predicts gas taxes will bring in only $55 billion over that period, a shortfall of $30 billion.
For more than three years, Virginia has been trying to partner with North Carolina on a joint I-95 toll road project that would fund $4 billion in desperately needed repairs -- and generate $65 million a year for each state. So far, NC state leaders who fear that a $5 toll would hurt tourism have managed to keep Easley and some legislators firmly in their pockets. That, and a resistance to giving local governments the authority to build toll roads and raise road money in other innovative ways, means expressway projects like those on Independence Boulevard, which have run decades behind schedule, may have to wait decades longer.
Charlottean Bill Carstarphen is co-chair of NC Go!, a coalition of people and businesses that has been fighting for five years to reduce congestion on the state's roads and pressure legislators to stop raiding the transportation budget to fund general budget needs. His goal is to change the road building status quo in the state and follow the path other states are blazing.
"North Carolina's population will grow by 4.2 million, or about 52 percent, in the next 30 years," said Carstarphen. "We are simply not keeping up with growth. Make no mistake -- the price of failing to make tough decisions now will be high. Our economy is at risk. But it's nothing compared to the cost of a quarter-century of decreased quality of life, wasted resources and countless lost economic opportunities."
« previous 1 2 3 4
Latest in Cover
Calendar
-
Queen Charlotte Fair @ Route 29 Pavilion
-
NEW WINDOW GALLERY-Pat Rhea-ACRYLIC PAINTINGS-April 05-30 2024 VALDESE, NC 28690 @ New Window Gallery/Play It Again Records
- Through April 30, 12 p.m.
-
TheDiscountCodes
- Mondays-Sundays. Continues through Dec. 31
-
-
"Blood Residue Analysis of Paleoamerican Stone Tools in the Carolinas" @ Native American Studies Center
- Fri., April 26, 12-1 p.m.
-
Brightfire Music and Arts Festival @ GreenLife Family Farms
- Fri., April 26, 4-11 p.m. and Sat., April 27, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.
-
-
A beginners guide to online sports betting in the US
-
5 Online Player Communities to Join in Michigan
-
Charlotte Pride and Trans and Queer People of Color Collective clash on Pride Week priorities 2
Disagreements over representation, policing in lead-up to Pride
