Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Loop Roads or Bust

It's been open season on long term capital improvements for fixed guideway transit.  First there's Minnesota Republicans looking to hack into transit by stealing operating money.  Then you get the fun times in North Carolina where Republicans are trying to cut out funding for the North Corridor light rail line.  But I found the article a bit funny, especially when they were saying, we don't have enough money for transit but more than enough for a completely un-needed beltway.  
...it would kill Gaston County's proposed Garden Parkway toll road, using money from that project for urban loop roads, perhaps including Interstate 485.
You know, that loop road that developers really want for their sprawl. And then...
"We wanted to target more dollars to maintaining the system we have - as opposed to building new roads, new bridges, new parts of the system," said Senate Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican.
How the reporters didn't see this and do a double take on the building loops and not spending on new roads is beyond me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, the NC House Speaker (Thom Tillus) represents a community (Cornelius) that sits on the planned Red Line. Not surprisingly then, the NC House budget does not cut Charlotte transit projects, just the NC Senate version.