By Michael Berg and Ginger Harris
As part of this year's stimulus package, the federal government is authorizing “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery” (TIGER) grants for certain projects. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has submitted anapplication for $200 million for Truck Only Lanes (TOLs) on a sparsely populated 30-mile segment of I-70 in western Missouri. MoDOT sees this as the beginning of a larger project of Truck-Only Lanes from Kansas City to St. Louis that could cost over $6 billion to build.
This proposal is based on projecting past trends of increasing truck traffic. It's not based on future probabilities. The past trends were based on cheap oil prices, low fuel taxes and fees for heavy trucks (especially in Missouri compared to surrounding states), and significant subsidies to motorized vehicles, including their “externalized economic costs.” Energy dependence and climate change are global factors that already call for shifting freight movement to the more energy-efficient modes, such as rail. Alternative proposals that could be funded with the 200 million dollars would promote rail travel and urban public transportation.
Tell United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood that we want to invest in the future and not the past.Tell him not to give MoDOT $200 million for Truck-Only Lanes.
Write to him at:
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590Call him at: 202-366-4000
Or send him an email through the DOT website http://ntl.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ntl.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
Below are more arguments against the proposal to tell Secretary LaHood. If you want to read more detailed information, see the Missouri Sierra Club's response to the TOL proposal by clicking here and here.
• Energy dependence and climate change are global factors that call for shifting more freight movement to the more energy- efficient modes. Since rail is at least three times more efficient than trucks, the focus should be to increase the capacity, speed, and reliability of rail instead of building dedicated truck capacity.
• Professional truck drivers have raised serious questions about the safety of MODOT's TOL design: as trucks transition to general purpose lanes before exiting the interstate, they will be crossing faster-moving cars approaching from the trucks' blind side.
• It's premature to do this 30-mile TOL experiment before the four-state (MO through OH) “Corridors of the Future” study concludes that the four-state TOL corridor makes economic and practical sense.
• The four-state study will be inadequate and flawed if it does not consider the option of increasing rail capacity instead of TOLs.
• TOLs are inconsistent with the concepts likely to be written into the next federal surface transportation bill - concepts like “mode neutrality,” “outcome-based planning,” and increased “inter-modalism.”
• MODOT's proposed project would double the capacity on the stretch of I-70 that least needs additional capacity
• Even if TOLs are a good idea, are they a good enough idea that the nation — while $10+ trillion in debt — can afford to build them?
• The nation's infrastructure needs are so great that we can ill afford this quarterbillion dollar experiment.