As suggested by others I have summarized my previous ten e-mails into one. Thanks.
-------------- The proposed Verona Road upgrade price tag is too high, and it is shrugged off as a "normal" cost of transportation. The design is business-as-usual, giving priority to vehicle speed and traffic volume, at considerable cost and with negative consequences for the environment and the social fabric of our neighborhoods. After reading the Wisconsin DOT SDEIS I conclude nine points. Here is a summary: 1. There is a philosophical disconnect (between "life" and "engineering") in the plan. 2. Individual choices (to not travel to the destination at all, to consolidate trips, to live closer to the destination, etc.) require no highway construction. This behavior would save state tax payers over $520 million. 3. The plan needs more and increased cross connections over and under. Make them beautiful and livable and an asset to be enjoyed. Ideally the U.S. Highway 151 would disappear altogether, leaving a friendly, walkable residential street grid. 4. Details for the construction during stage 2 (overpass at County Highway PD) are missing and need further clarification. 5. Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is given inadequate emphasis and the comparison is faulty. TDM, if funded at a comparable level to construction, would solve more problems than it is credited to do. 6. Numerically the $502 million cost translates into $6.75/ trip (by one calculation) and $0.58/ trip (by another). These differing results are not in agreement, so the actual cost estimates must be equally faulty. By another measure, the project will cost $84 per trip-second of increased traffic volume. 7. The SDEIS discounts Madison Metro as unable to reduce traffic volume on this freeway. However, if Madison Metro was given $502 million I bet we'd have a pretty terrific non-SOV solution. 8. The SDEIS discounts light rail as unable to reduce traffic volume on this freeway. For $502 million a light rail from Verona to Shorewood Hills (connecting to an east-west light rail) would dramatically reduce SOV volumes. The plan ignores this apples-to-apples comparison, choosing instead to compare apples-to-oranges and assume only the east-west light rail. 9. Insufficient planning has gone into what will happen during construction (detours, closures, etc.). Past examples of poor planning for detours by WI DoT on US Hwy 12/18 at Rimrock Road created barriers and unsafe routes for pedestrians and bicyclists. These factors need to be identified in advance. This $502 million two mile expressway doesn't even solicit a yawn from the vocal minority interested in reducing the size of government and decreasing taxes. And there are billions more planned for road expansion. The silence from the "tea-bagger" faction is deafening. In comparison, light rail in the region or high speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison draws howls of protest from the right-wing of the political divide even though the cost of any proposed rail project is less than a single expressway interchange or interstate expansion. The city of Madison should oppose the current plan for US Hwy 151 / Verona Road and request revisions requiring a sustainable transportation solution. Sincerely, George Perkins Madison, WI _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
