BIKE: Texas Transportation Commission, etc.

[Andrew Wimsatt]

First of all, as I've said before, I'm all for promoting alternative 
transportation modes.

Roger Baker indicated in an email to this list on September 6th:

"But now, if you go to agenda item 4 --

http://www.campotexas.org/pdfs/item4sept.pdf

you now see from their brand new Metro Mobility policy document, that
TxDOT is recommending that its money now go to the urban areas with much
more authority to reprogram it on a local level on the basis of unique 
local
needs, and allocated with a population based formula, and with no
retribution from TxDOT if the urban plans now reprogram their share of 
TxDOT
money allocated to these areas for alternative purposes like transit, 
bikes,
etc."

Mr. David Casteel made a presentation on changes to the Texas 
metropolitan mobility plan during the August, 2003, TTC meeting (a 
meeting that Roger Baker attended and gave comments on the plan). Mr. 
Casteel indicated that the changes "will increase local control and 
decision-making authority".  The transcript can be found at:

  http://www.dot.state.tx.us/transcom/transcripts/0803.htm

Judge Eckels, Collin County Judge, stated during that TTC meeting that: 
"the bondholders would be at risk if the toll road started to fail "

The transcript of that meeting  contained the following:

"MR. WILLIAMSON [TTC Commissioner]: Just a couple of things we need to 
talk about, Robert. Mr. Baker, I think it was, very steadily and 
consistently laid out in the record that we should be concerned about 
continuing to spend money to build infrastructure for the internal 
combustion machine -- I guess that was his point -- and I think it's a 
valid concern, but his attempt to link our decision to build toll 
projects with deficit spending causes me to have this dialogue with you 
because since he's laying things in the record, we need to lay things 
in the record as well.

Is it the case that if the price of oil went through the roof and the 
price of gasoline went up and the number of miles traveled then go 
down, is it not the case, as a former legislator, that you and I would 
probably conclude the inevitable result of that is that we would raise 
the tax on gasoline or we would institute tolls in order to generate 
the money necessary to maintain the system?

JUDGE ECKELS: Yes, we would.

MR. WILLIAMSON: I mean, there's not any way around that.

JUDGE ECKELS: The system will have to be maintained and there's only 
two places to get the money: either through taxes or through user fees 
such as the vehicle registration, motor fuels taxes, types of user fees 
or the direct user fees such as tolls, and we would maintain the system 
at some cost and it would be a part of the cost of transportation.

MR. JOHNSON: One way or the other. So for the record, there's no way we 
can get around that.

JUDGE ECKELS: There would be no deficit, it would have to be funded, 
the bondholders would be at risk if the toll road started to fail -- 
there is a very limited general fund liability but that would be paid 
for by taxes as well on the toll road system and the risk on that is to 
the bondholders generally as opposed to a deficit for the state or the 
county."

Another part of the transcript contained the following:

"MR. WILLIAMSON [TTC Commissioner]: So it can reasonably be said that 
if Mr. Baker's concerns -- and there are many in the state that share 
his concerns -- are accurate, the truth is what we've chosen to do 
actually moves us further down the bike path, railroad track or road 
towards a robust public transit system in concert with a personal 
vehicle system.

MR. CASTEEL [Corpus Christi District Engineer]: Yes, sir. In fact, the 
plan gives specific examples of where those might be applicable in the 
future.

MR. WILLIAMSON: It might not be possible to have good dependable rail 
in Houston if we don't begin to offer these kinds of tools to the 
Houston area.

MR. CASTEEL: Yes, sir.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman."

Also, Mr.Casteel stated during the meeting:

"As such, the plan encourages local decision-makers to develop user 
paid funds to fill the gap between transportation needs and available 
funding. These user paid gap funds would be developed for local use and 
local control to address congestion. Certainly toll initiatives will be 
one way to develop such funds but it is anticipated that other methods 
may be developed by the local areas."

As for the Trans-Texas Corridor -  as indicated at

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/ttc/ttc_home.htm,

the corridors include high speed passenger rail, commuter rail, freight 
rail, and pipeline elements, not just roadway elements.

Andrew


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