BIKE: The "road lobby"

[Librik or Babich]

Mike Dahmus shrieked:

> FREE HIGHWAYS... ___ARE___ THE ROAD LOBBY!...WANT THESE ROADS, AND WANT THEM
> TO BE FREE...POLITICAL REALITY MATTERS.WANT THESE HIGHWAYS TO BE BUILT. AND
> THEY DON'T...WANT THEM BUILT AS TOLL ROADS BECAUSE THEY'LL HAVE TO PAY (MORE)
> OF THE...BILL IF THEY DO...YES, EVEN IF GAS TRIPLES IN PRICE, SUBURBANITES
> WILL STILL DRIVE. THE
> OIL PEAK IN THIS SENSE DOESN'T

then winds up with this impressive blast,

> ****MATTER****

Wow. Is everyone alright? My modem got a little warm toting all that
vituperation.

After all that, one can hardly be surprised if everybody just ignored those
lower case letters (these were not the points worth screaming, anyway), but I
think the nub of it lays here in this chain of causality:

> Here's what's going to happen if Roger's ilk convinces the environmental
> bloc to continue their unholy alliance with the suburban road warriors
> like McCracken and Daugherty:
>
> 1. We tell TXDOT we don't want toll roads.
> 2. TXDOT says we need to kick in a bunch more money to get them built free.
> 3. We float another huge local bond package to do it (just like we did
> for local 'contributions' for SH 45, SH 130, and US 183A).
> 4. The roads get built, as free highways.
> 5. Those bonds are paid back by property and sales taxes, which
> disproportionately hit central Austinites, and especially penalize
> people who don't or only infrequently drive.

Points 1 and 2 sound like a reasonable chain of events. It is even believable
that 3 can follow from 2. But before we consider 4 a fait accompli, should we
not wonder why TXDoT is even willing to go through all this divisive toll road
stuff if it were actually so easy for them to do it the old fashioned way, even
if all those suburbanites will back them in it?

Maybe they do not really think they could get away with selling such bonds
because the bankers and brokers who would be putting up the money might know
the risks of this kind of venture, considering our energy prospects.

Some of you know about this better than I, but, again, if it would be so easy
for TXDoT to fund these roads without the tolls, why are they bothering to try
selling them as toll roads? Maybe beating the toll roads plan really can
scuttle the project, or at least force the energy predictions onto the table,
where they seem conspicuously absent.

Maybe we can actually beat these roads, toll or otherwise, if that is what we
want.

But, then again, appeasement and capitulation are viable options, and we can
remember how such cool heads prevailed in Europe back in the 1930's. Sometimes
one need the realistic approach of saying that one's interests just do not
matter, and we should take some sound advice and cozy up to our friend the
lesser evil, who will take care of us in the long run.

--
Mike Librik, LCI #929
Easy Street Recumbents
512-453-0438
45th and Red River St., thereabouts
Central Austin
info
www.easystreetrecumbents.com
www.urbancycling.com

"Is it about a bicycle?"