SierraScape February - March 2011
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by Ginger Harris
Transportation and Smart Growth Committee Chair
Does it seem like an uphill battle to design or retrofit our communities so we can safely walk or ride bikes for short errands? …or to get more investment in local transit and inter-city passenger rail so we can help reduce global climate change and contribute to walkable communities? Why is it so hard to improve freight rail capacity that would reduce the number of big trucks we have to dodge on our roads and highways?
It seems that as much as citizens decry taxes while the government at every level runs out of money, there are always plans to pave more land so we can drive more cars faster and enable bigger and bigger trucks. The private highway lobby called "Missouri Transportation Alliance" (MoTA) still hopes to put an initiative petition on Missouri's ballot to levy an additional sales tax to continue its highway-expansion program of building truck-only lanes across Missouri while also re-paving highways and re-building bridges that were neglected during MoDOT's previous highway-expansion era. MoTA was successful in 2004 at getting voter approval for moving existing revenues from the state's general fund to a new highway-only fund, which thereby reduced general-revenue funds that previously helped local transit agencies. MoTA accomplished its 2004 victory by selling voters a free lunch, saying its ballot initiative "would fix our roads without a tax increase."
It'll be harder for MoTA to raise the state's already-high sales tax in 2011 or 2012 than it was to move existing taxes into a highway-only pot in 2004. So they're using a new tactic: asking transit and biking advocates to join their sales-tax campaign in exchange for allocating a given amount or percent of the new sales tax to these other modes. It'll be interesting to see how much money MoTA promises them and how iron-clad those promises will be.
MoTA is also testing campaign ideas with focus groups. One argument they've floated for their proposed $4-$8 billion truck-only lanes is that if taxpayers subsidize truckers, this will reduce the cost of goods, which will help consumers. As a consumer, however, I'd rather that market prices truly and accurately reflect the cost of transportation and all other "external costs." This would help me gauge whether buying a locally made item makes more sense even if local labor costs are higher than the foreign labor costs of trucked-in items.
While studying MoTA's plans for increasing highway spending and subsidizing trucking, our Transportation & Smart Growth Committee is studying the feasibility of alternative public policy such as encouraging more private investment in freight rail. Any Sierrans with knowledge of the freight rail industry are welcome to help us study this issue.
Meanwhile, St. Louis County's Highway Dept has proposed to change River de Peres Blvd into a highway connecting I-44 and I-55 and the County's newest casino in Lemay. If you haven't expressed your views on this to the County Highway Dept, please go to www.southcountyconnector.com/.
The department is also studying a "Northwest Parkway" that would become part of the Route 141 ring road, eventually extending northeast to Route 367 and south via Earth City Expressway, Maryland Heights Expressway, and Page-Olive Connector to 141 and eventually southeast to I-55.
St. Louis City and County have many delightful "walkable" (and bike-able) neighborhoods. Most of these are in the City of St. Louis and in older, close-in suburbs. However, the County's zoning ordinance makes it difficult to achieve walkable, bike-able and transit-friendly urban design in unincorporated County. That may change as the County embarks on a new study of zoning and subdivision ordinances. Our committee recently met with the County Planner in charge of this project. We welcome your input as we follow this issue.