9/21/07		Pretty as a Picture? or is Beauty only Skin Deep?
David Tuthill

A picture in The Dallas Morning News shows a very beautifully landscaped 4-lane toll road with trees and landscaping down the center lane with light traffic.  It reminded me of those pictures of the Trinity Park that were floated to the voters back in the 1998 bond proposal.

Several reality points spoil the picture, though.

The first - it is 4 lanes.  I have never seen a four-lane high-speed toll road before.  Most are 6 lanes at a minimum with traffic congestion begging them to be expanded to one more lane in each direction to 8.

When I traveled North Central the other day, I was amazed at the traffic congestion in mid-morning on both the new High Five, as well as traffic going into Richardson/Plano.   Indeed, the new branch of Central is being expanded to more lanes in Plano.  Will it be enough?  I doubt it.

It reminds me of the Say?s Law.  If you remember in your economics course, the law states that as income increases so does spending increase.  Spending will never level off when increasing monies on hand become available.  

A corollary could be drawn between the size of a highway and the traffic on it. That traffic will never level off even as size increases.  The bigger the road, the more the traffic.  Like more income leads to more spending.

Toll road proponates tout the beautification of the center median.  Coincidentally, all the foliage in Central Expressway?s center median is slated to be removed due to maintenance hassles.  I will not touch overly on the controversy of trees on the embankment vs the US Corp of Engineering standards.  Nor will I revisit the question of to what extent flooding would impact the use and structural well being of the toll road.

I imagine that under the proposed toll road  massive drainage pipes will have to be installed much like they did under Central Expressway. I wonder where the water would drain to, as they will be lower than the city?s main drain - the Trinity River.

I wonder what the impact on traffic volume will be when Woodall Rogers Expressway is augmented by one of the over budget designer suspension bridges which will funnel more traffic into the area? What about  improvements to other bridges, too?

Certainly, traffic is bad in Dallas, as in other major cities.  In their attempts to deal with traffic, New York and London are trying to limit access to their center cities by increasing access fees to those who must travel there in their cars.  Many heavily populated cities have reached saturation point in traffic and no amount of new roads or lanes will sate the traffic demand.

A more realistic idea might be to limit large trucks during peek travel hours, as well as prohibiting drivers talking on their cell phones while driving our highways.

I am skeptical about the Trinity Toll Road and the artist drawings.  They look familiar to those I saw back in 1998.

It reminds me of the old saying ?Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.?

David W. Tuthill