Anti-DCTA message gets more visible

A political action committee that opposes the proposed half-cent sales tax to fund the Denton County Transportation Authority has begun distributing yard signs in its campaign to derail the mass transit agency.

The Transit Truth Committee is against approval of the Denton County Transportation Authority and has printed about 250 yard signs, including the one above on East Hickory Street.

The Transit Truth Committee has printed about 250 yard signs that read: "DCTA — Vote No." "It’s just a grass-roots campaign asking people to vote no on this perpetual money-drain that they’re being asked to approve," said Shirley Spellerberg, former Corinth mayor and one of seven residents who organized the Transit Truth Committee. "This increased sales tax rate will never go away. The transit authority will never be self-supporting, it will not get people where they need to go, and it will not reduce the pollution problems."

Charles Emery, director of the DCTA board, said that he wasn’t surprised when the group formed a political action committee. "We are very aware of their existence and their presence, and we are not breaking stride," he said. "We feel like we have a very strong position for public transportation and the need for the sales tax."

Mr. Emery said he suspects the opposition is about the same as it was in the Nov. 5 election when about 27 percent voted against creating the transportation authority. "We haven’t seen any substantial change," he said.

"We’re not keeping count," she said. "But every day we’re picking up new supporters." The committee’s Aug. 12 finance report said the group had collected $765 and had not spent any money. State law also requires the committee to file another campaign finance report on Sept. 5. Ms. Spellerberg said the Transit Truth Committee would not divulge how much money it has raised or spent until it files the next report.

"There’s no reason in giving the opposition any more information than necessary," she said. Committee supporters are also distributing yellow fliers with the headline: "Are you being asked to buy a ‘pig in a poke?’"

The flier makes eight points against the DCTA and suggests four possible alternatives, including high occupancy vehicle lanes, multilevel toll roads to expedite the flow of traffic, working from home and avoiding peak traffic hours as much as possible.

The committee also is printing an undisclosed number of 4-foot-by-4-foot signs that should be distributed by the weekend, Ms. Spellerberg said.

Mr. Emery said that he is perturbed that opponents didn’t participate in the approximately 50 work sessions and 200 total meetings held on the formation of the transportation plan. "Does it concern me? It certainly does because we spent a lot of time on this and they didn’t come," he said. "I don’t understand how somebody can try to impact the outcome of the process without being a part of the process."

Ms. Spellerberg said some of the committee members attended some of the meetings and work sessions, "but it was an exercise in futility."

Mr. Emery said that the DCTA worked through some critical issues with the county residents to develop a beneficial plan. "I have taken every route and every avenue to seek out the best plan for this county," he said. "And I believe we’re there."

Naw, the Denton-Dallas commuter rail line is a good idea. It will provide an option for many to bypass congestion. Of course it won't relieve congestion, but Denton County and DFW are growing so fast that there are no amount of roads that would adequately decrease congestion. However that doesn't mean stop building roads, as some of the rail advocates would have it. I-35 does need expansion, and expansion is already in the pipeline. The interior tollway lanes are coming to I-35 and most other Texas freeway upgrades regardless of whether a commuterrail service is started. HOV is also coming.

Some of the other NIMBY arguments given in this article by rail opponents(working from home and avoiding peak traffic hours as much as possible) are the same impractical ones thrown out by liberal anti-growth groups. And do you know how expensive it is to make a freeway multi-level? Tolling alone wouldn't cover the enormous expense of such, and the same NIMBY's will turn out to fight it tooth and nail. This sounds like the typical 'throw out every possible argument and see what sticks' strategy.

Most of the rail ROW is already owned, so startup of commuter rail would not be that expensive. Plus it is only rail now, no buses running through area neighborhoods. As I mentioned to you before, just look at the Trinity Rail Express that runs between Dallas and Ft. Worth. It is commuter rail(unlike DART) and is what DCTA is proposing. Much cheaper than DART's light-rail, and considered one of the most successful transit new-starts in the country. TRE has exceeded ridership projections and is heavily used, more successful than many commuter rail lines in the east that have been around for more than a century. So the myth that commuter rail won't work in Texas has been shown to be just that, a myth. Of course you can't put rail, and especially the more expensive light-rail, everywhere. But this DCTA proposal makes sense, the I-35 commute is a mess, and only going to get much worse(DFW is second only to LA in net migration numbers, this area is adding 1.5 million people each decade. By 2025 we are going to be as large as Chicago is right now.

BTW, this article is hardly Front Page news, with little national implications.

"And do you know how expensive it is to make a freeway multi-level? Tolling alone wouldn't cover the enormous expense of such,..."

OK, I'll bow to your expert knowledge and ask you, then: How did they make it work in Los Angeles?

And of course you must know that it's already been tried here, and failed due to financial collapse?

BTW, the national implications are that this same silly idea is being proposed wherever some two-bit politico wants to see his name in granite on a building.

OK, I'll bow to your expert knowledge and ask you, then: How did they make it work in Los Angeles?

Not sure as to what you are referring to, multilevel freeways or commuter rail? Commuter rail is quite successful in LA, with 7 lines. The major transit boondoggles in LA were light-rail(green line, which goes from nowhere to nowhere, stopping 3 miles short of LAX and a few miles short of connecting to the LA-Orange County and LA-Riverside rail lines) and the subway, where they insisted on wasting BILLIONS of dollars by tunnelling(the most expensive ROW you can build), and blew so much money that there was a revolt and the red line stops far short of its intended destinations.

And of course you must know that it's already been tried here, and failed due to financial collapse?

Again, not sure what you are talking about. Commuter rail? The only one tried here in Texas so far is the Trinity Rail Express, which I earlier noted has been quite successful. Even DART's much more expensive light-rail technology(which is NOT what DCTA is proposing) has been far more successful than anticipated, the trains are packed much of the day(even in some cases outside or rush hour) from downtown to Plano. None of those lines are failing. Perhaps you mean the McKinney Ave. trolley? It is not doing very well, but it is not really transit, but originally just a tourist trolley that until this year didn't even run in the morning rush hour(it wasn't designed as a commuter transit line). Are you referring to the interurbans that used to run from Dallas to the outlying areas like Denton? Those did fail in the 30's-50's, but that was a completely different time. DFW had far less than half the population it does now, there was not much of a long commuter market from Denton Co. to Dallas, Stemmons, Uptown, Addison, Las Colinas back then(since the later four didn't exist as employment centers at the time), but there is now, and the new roads were fairly open and operating close to designed speed back then, and there were not a solid line of suburbs(feeding commuters onto roads) from Carrollton to Denton as there is now. Apples and oranges.

Multi-level toll roads are in use in LA.

By 'multi-level' are you referring to a mix of freeway and tollway lanes, or physically multi-level, i.e. double-decked? The only toll roads in the LA area are in Orange County(San Joaquin Hills-73, Foothills-241, Eastern-261 & 133, and Riverside Freeway-91), but only the Riverside Freeway has both freeway lanes and managed toll lanes down the median. None are known for being multi-level, if that means double-deck. There is talk of double-decking the Riverside Freeway, but it is so expensive that there is serious consideration of building a multi-mile tunnel through the Santa Anna Mountains several miles to the south(though there are also geographical/travel pattern advantages to the tunnel route). Most of these tollways were designed with a median reserve for HOV/HOT/managed(congestion priced tolling) lanes or future transit use. IIRC, the Riversides managed lanes don't just vary price with the congestion, but also are restricted to high occupancy vehicles during rush hour. A good idea, and it is coming to Texas(Katy Freeway rebuild is one example), but it is not the only solution needed.

Denton-Dallas light rail ("commuter rail") has been tried, ran a very few years, at a huge cost per round-trip - about $42 in 2003 dollars. And it failed, massively in debt.

First off, light-rail and commuter rail are very different modes of transit. The former usually requires electrification, can run on streets but not existing freight railroads(because of FRA safety regulations), operates frequently(every 5-20 minutes all day) and runs about 20-60+ million per mile to construct. That is NOT what DCTA is proposing. Commuter rail can use existing freight railroad tracks, but not streets, operates less frequently(every 15-30 minutes in rush and less frequently or no service outside of rush hour) and thus is often much cheaper to build, generally $3-15 million per mile.

Please give me an approximate year when the commuter trains you claim ran between Denton and Dallas quit running. The service I know of, the electrified Denton Interurban, quit running in 1932! Hardly comparable, as things have changed since then. That's like saying the North Dallas Tollway shouldn't be extended north, because there were not suburbs in Frisco in the 1930's.

Just 30 years ago the much more expenisve Dallas-Plano lightrail line would have been a failure, but now it is a success as growth congestion, employment, development, and commuting patterns have changed greatly. Despite everyone who said it would not work.

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:Ye12B-EeEfMJ:www.cobbrides.com/olddebate.htm+%22double-decked+freeway%22+cost&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Here's an article that gives a rough estimate of $200 million per mile to double-deck a freeway in Atlanta. Atlanta is a metro that is roughly comparable to DFW in size and cost of living. The downtown corridor they are talking about has some unusual engineering challenges and restrictions, so the cost in Denton County would be lower, but for most places outside of dense urban areas(of which little is found on I-35 in Denton County)double-decking a freeway is much more expensive than simply buying out adjacent landowners/businesses and just widening the freeway.

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