BIKE: Re: Questions for candidates

[Michael Bluejay]

I'm rather behind in my email, but better late than never.

Roger Baker wrote:

> 1. Describe your priorities in terms of city of Austin transportation
> planning and funding. Please summarize your long and short range
> transportation planning and funding philosophy. What is your vision of
> what evolving roles cars, and alternatives like bikes, pedestrians, and
> public transportation should play in Austin's future five and ten years
> from now?
>
> 2. What percent of the city's transportation budget should each
> alternative transportation modes get in terms of bond money and other
> city funding?
>
> 3. Do you intend to support, by your council votes, the CAMPO plan
> based on current growth trends (Envision Central Texas alternative A),
> or one of the other ECT alternatives like alternatives C or D?
>
> 4. Do you support or oppose future sprawl development outside the city
> limits? If you oppose sprawl trends will you actively oppose such
> development in terms of your political activity?
>
> 5. Do you think world oil production is likely to peak within this
> decade (or how soon?). If so, what effect do you think this would have
> on toll road travel and financing, and how might this affect growth
> trends in the austin area?
>
> 6. Are you concerned by the fact that the long range CAMPO 2030
> mobility plan is projected to make area road congestion nearly three
> times more severe (from the current 10% of seriously congested roads up
> to 29% in 2030)?
>
> 7. Are you willing to publicly oppose the current representation on the
> federally sanctioned CAMPO body, with its overwhelming share of
> officials representing areas and districts lying outside Austin, even
> though Austin has most of the area's population?
>
> 8. The CAMPO 2030 plan proposes to hold a series of $400 million bond
> elections to pay for expanding road capacity in accord with the growth
> trends in the plan. Would you support or oppose such bonds?
>
> 9. The secondary traffic impact associated with the toll roads in the
> 2030 CAMPO plan is expected to require on the order of a billion
> dollars worth of new road widenings within Austin. How will you handle
> this problem without degrading the quality of life for Austin
> residents?
>
>
> (Below is what I had posted previously, anticipating that it would
> logically inspire questions like those above. -- Roger)


Rrrrrr.  First of all, thanks for finally posting some questions, a 
couple of which I used.  But obviously *obviously* OBVIOUSLY your 
original post DIDN'T inspire those kinds of questions because I 
*specifically asked you to turn your rhetoric into candidate 
questions*, repeatedly.  You're the policy wonk, not me.  If I could 
have come up with your questions I would have, and wouldn't have asked 
(repeatedly) for submissions of questions.  Like I said, if you're 
gonna tell me I'm asking the wrong questions, then it helps if you tell 
me what you think I *should* be asking.

That said, many of these questions are still unusable, since they're 
vague or invite vague answers.  Asking a candidate if the support 
sprawl is silly.  Who's going to answer that affirmatively?  And when 
all the candidates say they oppose sprawl, what can we do with that?  
Nothing.  Say what you will about my questions missing the big picture, 
but if a candidate won't go on record for something logical like 
getting cars out of bike lanes, then I don't think we can expect very 
much from that candidate on the big-picture items, either.  And if they 
commit to a small-picture item, if it's specific then at least we can 
do something with that (i.e., hold them accountable to their promise).  
But anyway, a couple of them did work and I included them.

Thanks,

-MBJ-

>
>
>
> The reality is that CAMPO, not the city, spends 15% of just one
> category of discretionary federal funds, the STP 4C funds, on bike and
> ped stuff. It might only represent 1 or 2% of total transpo spending in
> this area.
>
> So this 15% is not really even a city issue because the policy is
> entirely up to CAMPO, although Austin does have a few votes on CAMPO,
> (which is heavily dominated by suburban sprawl interests friendly to
> the road lobby). The 15% policy was adopted a few years ago when the
> funds were easier to get and before the road lobby got so rapacious.
>
> Arguably far more important than this is whether Austin city council
> candidates have the courage to support alternative D of Envision
> Central Texas, (which a large majority of Austin area people supported
> in a vote a year or so ago). This is a inexpensive, efficient,
> non-congestion encouraging compact city alternative that TxDOT and
> CAMPO and the road lobby hate.
>
> Meanwhile CAMPO, with Mayor Wynn's key support, favored the sprawl
> alternative that gave us  the toll roads last summer. Essentially TxDOT
> and CAMPO pressured Austin into supporting Envision Central Texas
> alternative A, which is growth as usual served by toll roads, built
> using deficit funding.
>
> As I have pointed out before on this list, the new CAMPO 2030 plan to
> go along with CAMPO's sprawl land use forecasts would cause Austin's
> current congestion level to nearly triple, even assuming we had the $22
> billion to implement it, which we don't.
>
> Don't expect the Statesman or even the Chronicle to explain these
> issues to you plainly before the expected CAMPO vote or the council
> elections. The only good local transpo reporter is Ben Wear and he's on
> the Statesman's leash. These issues are complex and I spend a lot of
> time studying this stuff to try to inform you.
>
> Whether city council candidates have the courage to stand up to the
> road lobby and promote alternative D of Envision Central Texas rather
> than CAMPO's congested sprawl vision is key, IMO.
>
> Begging for a bike lane here or there while ignoring the big issue of
> whether TxDOT will get away with planning Austin's future to benefit
> the special interests is to focus in the wrong direction, IMO.
>
> If you only beg for crumbs you will get crumbs. I encourage those who
> are politically active to focus on the big picture a lot more, using
> implementation of citizen-supported, bike-friendly Envision Central
> Texas alternative D as a key demand.
>
> -- Roger
>
>
>
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