Brent
05-18-2005, 07:55 AM
I have to be frank here -- I was floored at last night's meeting by the number of people who believe that roads projects can be delayed (for the record, I'm not counting Mr. Curran in this, because he used a methodology of voting in principle to delay anything that staff identified as possible to delay, a methodology that has some merit). Anyway:
Especially for regulars on carypolitics.org, there has been much discussion about providing the basics (public safety, transportation, utilities, etc.) and how the roads budget was cut drastically last year and how traffic is getting worse.
The one item that really stood out for me was the Tryon Road widening. A large number of committee members thought that this could be delayed. Let me say, I don't live in that area and seldom travel the route, so this has nothing to do with my personal interest. However, I invite those who feel that this project can be delayed to travel from Cary to Raleigh on Tryon Road during evening rush hour.
Perhaps part of the reasoning was that it is possible to defer a big-ticket spending item ($8.5M) with one fell swoop. I submit that this is precisely the kind of thinking that led to a 70% cut in roads spending in the first place and that results in traffic woes we will experience for some time to come.
Perhaps part of the reasoning was that people feel that there are higher-priority roads items. Maybe there are, but a lot of work goes into the transportation plan to generate road improvement priorities. That process led to Tryon Road widening bubbling up to near the top of the list over a several-year period. You may or may not agree with that, but many factors go into setting road priorities in the transportation plan, and only the highest-priority items can be accomodated in any given year.
Even if you believe that other projects are more important than Tryon Road widening, I believe that by voting to delay that project, you have effectively voted to delay your favorite projects. If it's delayed, the Tryon Road project will be back next year, and most likely it still will be ahead of other projects. So if you complained about one or more of the worst intersections in Cary elsewhere on carypolitics.org, I think that cutting or delaying roads spending will just keep those intersections horrible for an even longer period of time. In other words, delaying one project almost certainly means cutting overall roads spending and hence delaying all projects.
This is just my opinion. But I really am surprised that, of all the things Cary spends money on, so many people feel that roads spending is something that can be delayed. Public safety is the only thing I would rank above infrastructure, and right now, I believe that roads are the most sorely lacking component of infrastructure in Cary.
Especially for regulars on carypolitics.org, there has been much discussion about providing the basics (public safety, transportation, utilities, etc.) and how the roads budget was cut drastically last year and how traffic is getting worse.
The one item that really stood out for me was the Tryon Road widening. A large number of committee members thought that this could be delayed. Let me say, I don't live in that area and seldom travel the route, so this has nothing to do with my personal interest. However, I invite those who feel that this project can be delayed to travel from Cary to Raleigh on Tryon Road during evening rush hour.
Perhaps part of the reasoning was that it is possible to defer a big-ticket spending item ($8.5M) with one fell swoop. I submit that this is precisely the kind of thinking that led to a 70% cut in roads spending in the first place and that results in traffic woes we will experience for some time to come.
Perhaps part of the reasoning was that people feel that there are higher-priority roads items. Maybe there are, but a lot of work goes into the transportation plan to generate road improvement priorities. That process led to Tryon Road widening bubbling up to near the top of the list over a several-year period. You may or may not agree with that, but many factors go into setting road priorities in the transportation plan, and only the highest-priority items can be accomodated in any given year.
Even if you believe that other projects are more important than Tryon Road widening, I believe that by voting to delay that project, you have effectively voted to delay your favorite projects. If it's delayed, the Tryon Road project will be back next year, and most likely it still will be ahead of other projects. So if you complained about one or more of the worst intersections in Cary elsewhere on carypolitics.org, I think that cutting or delaying roads spending will just keep those intersections horrible for an even longer period of time. In other words, delaying one project almost certainly means cutting overall roads spending and hence delaying all projects.
This is just my opinion. But I really am surprised that, of all the things Cary spends money on, so many people feel that roads spending is something that can be delayed. Public safety is the only thing I would rank above infrastructure, and right now, I believe that roads are the most sorely lacking component of infrastructure in Cary.