BIKE: Austin's currently approved transportation policy

[Roger Baker]

Austin's portion of the statewide Texas Metropolitan Mobility Plan was 
approved as policy by TxDOT in Aug 2004 after a contentious July 2004 
CAMPO vote.  It has now given toll road builders the green light. At 
that time the major publicity concerned toll roads. The toll roads were 
designed to handle sprawl land development patterns being assumed. The 
important details are available from a PDF file available on the TxDOT 
website archive for the August Transportation Commission meeting.

This overall plan is now current policy meant to accompany projected 
sprawl development trends until 2030, including development trends over 
the environmentally sensitive Edwards Aquifer.

The $18.2 billion total cost of the whole plan is revealed on the top 
of page 21 of the file.

"In addition to the $3.45 billion needed to fill the gap, the CAMPO 
TMMP has identified the need of $8.5 billion to address the 
rehabilitation of the transportation  system. This important aspect 
will require additional study.";  page 23.

But there is stated to be a construction funding gap of $3.45 billion. 
Part of this would gap would be funded by the tolls if all goes well, 
but there is the related but totally unfunded deficit of "$1.65 in 
arterial street enhancements" for the secondary roads to make the toll 
roads function without gridlock throughout Austin. (Of course if these 
arterials throughout Austin were able to be funded and widened as 
planned, they would still be crowded at rush hour, and off-peak would 
functionally resemble commuter racetracks crisscrossing central 
Austin).

But recall there is the other $8.5 billion funding gap associated with 
upkeep of the roads -- which is was ignored by the planners pending 
"further study". The $1.65 billion part for secondary roads (largely 
falling on Austin as an unfunded mandate) plus the $8.5 billion for 
unfunded upkeep cited for further study together equal about $10 
billion, which is MORE THAN 50% of the $18.2 cost of the entire long 
range plan approved as Austin policy!!!  Thus our current policy is a 
plan, which is mainly red ink, centered around the toll roads as its 
most publicly prominent feature.

The authors of Austin's formally adopted policy seem mighty proud that 
at least the toll roads pay for themselves on paper, but what about the 
overwhelming majority of the CAMPO plan that constitutes an unfunded 
mandate? -- Roger Baker