Discovering Transit in Montana

Denver - This morning on KCFR, Colorado’s all news NPR station, Ryan Warner spoke with Colorado Governor Bill Ritter about the precarious state budget on his show, Colorado Matters.  While much of the program (which you can listen to by clicking the “Denver” link) dealt specifically with Colorado state budget issues, a key topic of discussion was the Federal Highway-User Trust Fund.

This trust fund will be in a deficit position in 2009, according to the Secretary of Transportation.  This fund is a key source of state transportation dollars, so a deficit in this fund is a major problem for large, mostly rural states like Colorado and Montana, which must maintain a massive transportation system with relatively small populations.  In other words, we can’t pay for tens of thousands of miles of highway without outside help. Governor Ritter’s Blue Ribbon Committee on transportation funding calls this a “quiet crisis,” a description that is well applied in my opinion.

Everyone complains about the state of our transportation system, whether it be potholes and congestion, to a lack of sidewalks and transit.  Even though people complain about such things almost as often as the weather, most people do not realize that rural states like Montana are in a constant struggle to gather enough funds to maintain the existing system.  So when roads reach their carrying capacity, like Russell and Reserve Streets in Missoula, dollars that would normally go to maintaining the entire system for 10-20 years must be diverted to meet the new demand.  With the trust fund reaching a deficit, future expansion/improvement projects will be difficult to fund.  Lets not even go into the increasing construction costs, we all know about that.

So what happens when you don’t have the dough to build an engineer’s dream roadway?  You probably already figured out where this is going, but the only way to add carrying capacity to a roadway without an expensive project is to add transit into the mix.   Transit is a far less expensive way to add capacity compared to cementing more lanes, plus it has all those great perks, like less pollution etc…  Montana towns and cities will have to rely a great deal more on mass transit to meet future road demand.  This time transit is essential not just because its a good thing to do, but also because it is the only thing the state, cities, towns, and taxpayers can afford financially.

- Benjamin

Darby - It is has become evident that our cousins in the south valley do not share the same opinion of the Bitterroot Valley’s future that the majority in the central and north valley do; a future in which growth is regulated based upon a shared vision of what our rivers, communities, farmlands, forests, and slopes should look like for generations to come. I do not blame the residents of the Darby School District for how they feel, for increased government regulation does represent something that much of Montana has been able to escape…large scale change.

While I respect and even understand the views of many in the Darby area, I must disagree. We have a natural and justified tendency in the Rocky Mountain states to inherently distrust regulation from government. But this is not a distant federal government ignorant of the particular needs of the local people, this is a government of fellow Bitterrooters. The policy of planning our growth through zoning is not a conspiracy for government domination over individual rights, but a solution to the crisis of rampant development that has the potential to destroy all that makes the Bitterroot Valley special.

There is clearly a difference in perception between the Darby School District and those of the north end of the valley. In the same decade that saw 13% growth in Ravalli County between 1990 and 2000, the Darby area changed the least, since most of that growth was concentrated in the Florence, Lone Rock, and Stevensville areas. The influence of Missoula’s growth and inflation in housing prices has caused much of this north valley development, and residents of these districts are desperate to hold on to the rural character of their once sparse landscape. Only Stevensville has been able to hold onto a shred of independence from Missoula by planning for the town’s future with a focus on emphasizing its core values. This is what the county wide zoning initiative hopes to accomplish. It does not seek to control every aspect of our lives, but to take control of our destiny and make our valley something to be proud of.

We have two distinct futures: One where the Bitterroot Valley is transformed into Missoula-South by out-of-state developers; a vision of an unending column of houses marching across the landscape from Hamilton to Miller Creek, and a future where we grab hold of our own destiny and focus the inevitable growth in a way that strengthens our existing communities, protects our agricultural heritage, and saves our natural wonders for my generation and our descendants. I for one do not want to see that first future, one that has already occurred in countless valleys across the world. It is irresponsible to think that Darby will be unaffected by the unplanned future simply by its distance from Missoula. We are in this together. We cannot achieve a desirable future if we are not united in its vision, just as the United States would not have achieved independence without unity against tyranny. The precedence of a single school district opting out of the county wide zoning will make it very difficult to make the vision of our preferred future a reality.

- Benjamin

You may have read Hummer Jake’s comment on Missoulapolis that ‘bicyclists don’t count.’ According to Jake, bicyclists don’t pay, and therefore don’t matter.

Now read Daniel Nairn’s great response. Daniel crunched the numbers. Turns out, it’s actually the bikers subsidizing the drivers. Nice try, Mr. Hummer…

The “realistic” approach to Missoula’s “transportation infrastructure” woes, as “envisioned” by one member of the less “progressive” sector of Missoula’s “business community:” (quotations are “fun” aren’t they?)

MBIA Members! I am forwarding a message from the Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce regarding two transportation planning meetings this week on Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon. Of some 300 people attending prior meetings there was very little presence of the business community/MBIA/Realtors or other “working” people. The “brainstorming” that occurred at the earlier meetings resulted in an extremely heavy bias for Light Rail, Bus, Paths and Bike Trails. This meeting will be to choose between the top three alternatives suggested at the last workshops. Many business people feel this is a very misguided and “Pie in the Sky” approach to transportation/land use planning. WE NEED TO TURN OUT AS MANY BUSINESS PEOPLE AS WE CAN or this plan, which will be used to guide future transportation planning for our community, will be very slanted toward bike/ped/bus/light rail interests and will be slanted away from growth issues relating to both commercial and residential development. Make no mistake. OPG is spending a lot of money for this study and it surely will be used for future planning!

Please try to attend and be prepared to be critical if you see this planning effort being misdirected.

Thank You!

Jim Leiter
Community Affairs Director
MBIA

Very interesting. I wonder what they would consider as non “pie-in-the-sky” transportation solutions. Since they call bike/ped/bus/rail “pie-in-the-sky,” the only alternative would be road/highway oriented solutions. I really wish I could attend these meetings (as I am in Denver currently), and I hope some of you “pie-in-the-sky” folks do. Lets not forget that the national trends are moving away from car only/highway investment, a fact it seems Jim Leiter, the author of the MBIA email, seems to have no knowledge about. Jim Leiter’s concept of “realistic” transportation infrastructure would repeat the mistakes of Los Angeles, Denver and other sprawl-o-lific cities of the late 20th century. I should remind Jim that Los Angeles and Denver are currently spending billions to re-engineer their failed highway transportation systems towards more transit/bike/ped. If Jim wants to do the same with Missoula’s infrastructure, he sure wont be doing it with my tax dollars.

Given the additional expense related to car focused infrastructure, in both engineering costs and socio-economic costs, I am surprised that a businessman would think it was the only realistic option. Business people, being focused on the bottom line, should naturally conclude that transit, not additional highway infrastructure, is the least expensive option for both government and the traveling public. Less private money spent on gasoline = more private money spent at local businesses. Less public money spent on expensive highway infrastructure = more public money spent upon improving business districts, and recreation opportunities; investments that make the community a more desirable place to live and visit (the simple economic concept of opportunity cost).

Speaking of the bottom line, Missoula simply does not have the public or private funds to build a highway focused transportation system, particularly in a $3/gallon + environment. The only “pie-in-the-sky” reality I see is one where Missoula bankrupts itself on massive concrete thoroughfares, bypasses to nowhere, and clogged Reserve Street IIs that only push Missoula’s air quality into further non-compliance. Perhaps a medical analogy would help, one that I am sure a non-pedestrian Jim Leiter will understand (walking/exercise = pie-in-the-sky, remember). When a human’s arteries get clogged the best solution is not to widen the circulatory system, but to reduce congestion through a change of lifestyle. Transit and bike/ped, like quaker oatmeal and exercise, is the best solution to reduce Missoula’s high transportation cholesterol.

- Benjamin

Every Saturday in the summer, downtown Missoula becomes a pedestrian paradise. Traffic is slowed, streets are blocked, and the Saturday Markets come alive. Pedestrians, vendors, bicyclists, and street musicians take over a small portion of the downtown and the auto is displaced.

The same thing happens a half-dozen times a year when a parade occurs - everything slows down and the community gets together for an event that reclaims the public street. Bike races, festivals, marathons, and concerts all represent healthy but temporary uses of streets.

While a few snow flakes are flirting with the idea of falling tonight, it seems an odd time of year to muse about parades and summer markets, but I think that sustaining the energy of a farmers’ market can become a year-round idea. With the bickering about Hillview Way carrying on, why not open the street to children with sleds for a few hours after each new snow fall?

From a people-moving standpoint, streets can have temporal uses as well. Highway lanes can become bus and carpool lanes, or even reverse direction during the busiest times of day. Streets such as 5th and 6th Streets in Missoula could become one lane each with a giant cycling lane. During special events when the volume is needed, the configuration could revert to a two-lane setup, with cyclists sharing the right-hand lane.

The benefit of time-based street uses is that they can be implemented incrementally. If programs are successful, they can be expanded. For example, Missoula could move to a car-free downtown one morning a week. If people enjoyed biking and walking in the streets, and if businesses approved the change, it could be expanded to include two mornings a week!

We got our first snow of the year (in late November!) last night. Big, wet, heavy flakes fell all night on Sunday. This morning I awoke to an alarm clock flashing 12:00 — the power had gone out, and I had already missed my first class.

I took the opportunity to walk downtown and run some of the errands that I’d been meaning to do. The power was out downtown, including the stop lights, and I couldn’t help but notice how slowly and peacefully everything was functioning. Drivers slowed to a stop at the signals that were off and waved to other drivers and pedestrians to pass. Everyone on the road had two concerns — being safe and being courteous — and being in a hurry sank to the bottom of everyone’s priorities.

Imagine the reduction in fatal crashes in a world where motorists were always as alert and aware and courteous as they are the first time bad roads hit each year.