Times Editorial : Western ho!
Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008
This month's first week witnessed an agreement in which the Northwest Arkansas Regional Transportation Policy Committee agreed to add a feasibility study of a western bypass through Benton and Washington counties to the area transportation improvement program. In the meantime, a number of Fayetteville officials have generally come out against the supposed wisdom of spending several hundred thousand dollars to further contemplate what would surely evolve into a highly controversial and costly roadbuilding project.
It's remarkable how the term "western beltway "has already become a feared, almost hated term in certain liberal circles. It's also amazing to us that anyone would be the least bit surprised by that, given the growing recognition that paving our way out of the region's transportation challenges sounds like yesterday's answer, not tomorrow's solution.
John McLarty, transportation planner for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission, stressed last week that just because bypass advocates want to spend more than $ 700, 000 on a feasibility study is no reason to believe other options (mass transit, bike and walking paths, light rail ) have been tossed under a bus by this region's powerful voices for change.
Like other regional planners, McLarty said people, including opinion writers (whoever said those were people ?), seem to be getting the wrong idea about the western beltway funding.
"If we did this feasibility study, that doesn't mean we don't care about I-540 anymore, we don't care about 265 and Highway 16 and 102 and the state highway projects that so desperately need to be done," McLarty said. The regional planning commission is "absolutely focused on"the transportation needs of Northwest Arkansas overall, McClarty said. The region can juggle a lot, he appears to say.
"I just feel like somewhat of a misunderstanding, kind of a false dichotomy has been set up - that we can't be interested in a western feasibility study and also interested in transit, bike, I-540 improvements," McLarty said.
Yes, but notice he says "interested in. "He didn't say "fund. "When the conversation turns to funding, a lot of the bureaucrats and politicians tend to shift into the "we're not made of money"mode.
Sure, we can be "interested in"a highway on 100-foot columns routing traffic over downtown Fayetteville, except we can't pay for it. So when one talks of spending $ 400 million on a western bypass, isn't it fair to suggest that funding such a project will necessarily reduce money available for other projects ?
The Arkansas Highway Commission predicted in 2006 that Arkansas' 10-year needs at $ 19. 1 billion, while funding for that same period is estimated at $ 4. 1 billion.
Yes, it would seem people should have concerns about studies and priorities with such limited means available, unless, of course, our regional planning commission has an inexhaustible supply of cash ready to be tapped.
Our transportation agencies are set up to evaluate single projects with some attempt to plug them into a big picture of other single projects. But spending $ 755, 000 to study the western bypass naturally encourages regular folks to ponder whether that's a comprehensive approach or just an attempt to satisfy the vision of movers and shakers to open up a new economic corridor far west of Interstate 540.
Opinion writers like ourselves may be completely "misunderstanding"the situation, but one has to believe that a wish to spend more than $ 750, 000 isn't being pursued just for kicks. Even though we've heard "it's just a study"more than once in our lives, we're also well aware that when it comes to government, studies drive action.
If one waits to speak up until all the studies are done, well, to use a transportation metaphor, it's hard to stop a train in motion.
So, yes, we're "interested in"a lot of big shiny projects. But the reality is that we're not going to be funding a lot of big shiny projects anytime soon. Common sense demands that only so many Herculean efforts will be funded by the new regional mobility authority. Which helps explain why there's concern about a western bypass.
In a world of fiscal restraints, there is only so much money to go around. And taxpayers can't help caring how their money gets spent.
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