Public pressure made a difference on road

Public pressure made a difference on road
Smoky Mountain News
April 16, 2008
Opinions

To the Editor:

It appears that common sense has prevailed at the North Carolina
Department of Transportation. We congratulate Joel Setzer and Conrad
Burrell for following the advice of the regional Transportation
Advisory Council and abandoning the Webster section of the Southern
Loop entirely and then going a step further — redefining the remaining
section from Hwy. 23/74 to Hwy. 107 as a "roadway" rather than an
expressway. This is an enormous step in the right direction. Smart
Roads has been involved with this issue since 2001.

We have introduced the community to national experts on transportation
alternatives who challenged the conventional approach of building
bigger and faster highways that consume large amounts of the landscape
without solving the original problem of traffic congestion.

Mr. Walter Kulash, an independent traffic consultant for Smart Roads,
gave a presentation at the Justice Center on Jan. 10, 2008, that
stressed the use and design of an upgraded "network" system of
inter-connecting roads in some ways more challenging to DOT planners
than the construction of "freeways." It appears this advice did not
fall on deaf ears.

Another lesson from the Southern Loop is the value of WCU's input. The
tide changed after Chancellor John Bardo recently clarified WCU's
position: that the University was interested only in an eastbound
connector road (towards Asheville) to accommodate its growing student
population. We still don't understand why it took so long for this
message to be heard by DOT officials.

We would also like to believe that Smart Roads played a critical role.
Officials respond to direct and sustained public pressure. Smart Roads
led that effort and asks for the public's continued support in
sustaining our dialog with DOT and its regional transportation groups.
In the months and years ahead as the "roadway" plan is formulated and
the "network" system to alleviate congestion on Hwy. 107 is developed,
the citizens of Jackson County will continue to need an advocate to
find out what is happening and to support those who are affected.

The Jackson County community deserves more than short-term solutions.
We also need a long-term vision for increased public transportation as
a way to moderate the negative impacts of sprawl development and our
dependence on fossil fuels. The growing cost of fuel and the problems
of environmental change matter in Western North Carolina as much as
anywhere.

Curtis Wood

Smart Roads

Cullowhee