BIKE: CAMPO's Central Texas Planning disaster

[Roger Baker]

The crooked politicians who plan Central Texas' publicly funded  
transportation investments (like those associated with CAMPO, TxDOT,  
the CTRMA, etc.) again remained deaf to fuel price warnings from the  
public.

On June 6 CAMPO, on a 17 to 5 vote, authorized a $22 billion plan  
that explicitly assumes a plentiful and cheap future fuel supply for  
decades into the future.

But CAMPO didn't want to appear be deaf to a huge amount of public  
input -- urging then to reject at least the toll roads in the plan.  
So Austin City Councilman Brewster McMcracken got together with real  
estate lobbyist Terry Bray and developed the following amendment  
offering the promise of planning reform. A good political analogy  
might be for McCracken to go to the fox to get advice on how to  
protect chickens.

The promise is to fix the CAMPO planning process, by looking at other  
alternatives than the current toll road/sprawl development option  
which are for now the basis for our federally-sanctioned spending.  
Travis Judge Biscoe offered some points which were combined into the  
same resolution, unanimously approved as an amendment to the $22  
billion CAMPO plan.

Note the last clause in the amendment, apparently intended to convey  
the fact that the road lobby and not the Austin tree huggers, hold  
the real power; "The CAMPO Board reserves the right to determine the  
merit of each and every recommendation."

Here is the exact wording of the McCracken-Biscoe resolution from the  
campotexas.org website:

                      ***************************************

McCracken and Biscoe Amendment to
Daugherty Motion to Adopt the CAMPO Mobility 2030 Plan with  
modifications
June 6, 2005

• CAMPO orders a 12 month re-review of the Phase 2 plan through the  
study
initiated by the City of Austin

• CAMPO shall participate in this re-review and

• CAMPO shall post on the CAMPO agenda in 12 months the study results  
for
potential amendment of the Phase 2 Plan.

• The Board will solicit and consider any recommendations from any of  
the
following initiatives:
o City of Austin Consultant’s Report
o Envision Central Texas and
o Liveable City and

• The Board will consider specific recommendations when presented  
(including a
comparison between the current plan and the changed plan in terms of  
vehicle
miles traveled, congestion, delay, capital requirements, operating and
maintenance requirements, and resulting costs and savings to central  
Texas
residents and businesses).

• Further, if the Board believes certain recommendations should be  
incorporated into the 2030 Plan, the Board will place the recommended  
change on the agenda and amend the Plan.

• The CAMPO Board reserves the right to determine the merit of each  
and every recommendation.