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Last night, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board voted to use funds from the 183-A toll road in Cedar Park to guarantee payments for the conversion of U.S. 290 East between 183 and Manor from an untolled four-lane highway to a tolled twelve-lane highway (three tolled lanes each direction, plus three free frontage roads each direction). The payment guarantee was required because traffic projections were too low to convince investors to pay for the road without it.
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where's the public outcry over the condition of waterloo park?
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To be fair, the investors demand that projections show that it not only make money, but make a LOT of money.
183A has made enough profit to be able to backstop other roads, despite the nonsense you heard from people like Roger Baker. That's even with the $4/gallon gas for a time.
I think this road, unlike the Phase II tollroads that asshat Costello fought for so long with so many lies, is completely unnecessary and should be opposed - not built at ALL. But if it has to be built, far better for it to be built as a tollway than as a 'free'way.
I will enjoy this tollway. 290 has gone from being a quick exit from Austin to one of excruciating lights every 20 feet or so. Hopefully they're planning on throwing some rail down the center.
Of course that might run into their profits...
No rail down the center. Instead, we're going to waste time on another shitty commuter rail line on track that already exists but that doesn't go anywhere worth going.
Mdahmus, this is my problem with the toll road scheme - we build marginal roads that probably would not get built absent toll road financing.
Tim, no rail on the toll road, but Cap Metro has proposed another commuter rail line (again using existing tracks) out that direction:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A671774
I am in favor of tollroads when they are based on supply and demand. Using a profitable tollroad in another part of the city as collateral for another tollroad in an undeveloped area is just another way to subsidize sprawl. These regional mobility authorities are fronts for developers that use quasi-governmental status to profit off the public.
All profits from individual tollroads should be restricted to the specific areas designated. Why not use the excess cash generated from 183-A to build rail to that area? Then we won't need to expand 183-A to 12 lanes in the future.
shilli, in THIS case, 290 wouldn't be expanded (at least not soon), but in the other cases where that pantload Sal Costello shat all over the public debate, the roads would, in fact, get built.
And even the "parkway" Fix290 proposes will function as a larger subsidy to suburban sprawl out that way than would the monster-toll-proposal of TXDOT's.
In either event, there is already so much commuter travel already out that way (southwest) that even the most enlightened state DOTs would be planning a freeway upgrade right about now (although to be fair, most other states don't do this stupid crap where they build freeways on top of surface roads quite as often to begin with). So the toll roads in Phase II are NOT marginal roads that wouldn't be getting built absent the toll financing.
Instead, we're going to waste time on another shitty commuter rail line on track that already exists but that doesn't go anywhere worth going.
Manor and Elgin aren't "worth going" to? That's news to the thousands of people who have already moved out there, and thousands more planning to.
This is one of Central Texas' fastest-growing corridors, and commuter rail will help with the planning process. It would prevent sprawl, not cause it (by directing development in preferred zones).
The fact that it's on "track that already exists" also makes it much more cost effective than a toll road.
I should've clarified: 290E (in this discussion): marginal, might not be built without toll financing. 290W (out to those jerks over the aquifer): probably would be built either way.
I've got to agree with Kenneth here - the Manor/Elgin corridor is probably our best bet in Central Texas for a sustainable commuter line connecting transit-oriented development. I'd much rather see the existing line get used than to put in new tracks down the middle of the freeway Chicago-style.
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/12/01/story2.html?b=1228107600^1739494
The big money waster Cap Metro has planned will be any kind of streetcar/circulator system that does nothing that buses don't do and goes nowhere.
kenneth and figment, the point is that on the other end, the train only goes to the Convention Center, where nobody works. Essentially all of the major office buildings downtown, and especially UT and Capitol, require a transfer to a shuttle bus.
If these commuters aren't willing to take excellent express buses straight to work today, they are likely not willing to take a train+bus combo. This is based on experience other cities have had with transfer-heavy rail lines (few are dumb enough to do it; South Florida is the model here for what we're about to open).
The successful rail lines around the country that generate actual TOD don't look anything like the Red Line. They actually go all the way to peoples' offices, and run more often than every 30 minutes during rush hours, and run on electricity, not diesel.
The existing track in this case is a bug, not a feature, because it doesn't go where people actually want to go.