Missouri Transportation Meetings Not Accessible Via Transit
Missouri wants your input into our future transportation needs:
Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley recently formed a Blue Ribbon Citizens Committe on Missouri’s Transportation needs which will be holding public meetings across the state in the next several weeks. The committee is being chaired by Rod Jetton and Bill McKenna, and they will be looking at total transportation needs in the state. (Source: CMT-STL)
The first such meeting is at 1pm today at 14301 South Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield, MO 63017. I’d like to attend but guess what, I can’t physically get there — at least not safely. I can get close after an hour or so ride on MetroBus but getting from the bus stop into the building safely looks impossible. The following is from a MoDOT Customer Relations Manager:
“One of the presenters at this meeting also uses a wheelchair and I know he will address the importance of access as the committee considers the transportation needs of Missourians. The area that you’re referencing is not a state road but I am familiar with it. I believe the bus stops at a paved shoulder then there’s a sidewalk and crosswalk across the street from the meeting site.”
Most likely the presenter will drive, or be driven, to the meeting. A shoulder? They expect me to get off the bus onto the shoulder of Woods Mill Rd? The few sidewalks that exist don’t have curb cuts and their scarcity means I’d be a sitting target on the roads or in parking lots. I don’t expect the Blue Ribbon Panel to understand since most represent businesses/industries that profit from keeping Missouri locked into the auto culture:
Committee members include:
- Mr. Ben Jones, Union Pacific Railroad
- Mr. Blake Hurst, Missouri Farm Bureau
- Mr. Estil Fretwell, Missouri Farm Bureau
- Mr. Brian Meisel, Lake of the Ozarks Economic Development Council
- Mr. Duane Michie, First State Bank and Trust
- Mr. Joe DeLong, DeLong’s Inc.
- Mr. Len Toenjes, AGC of St. Louis
- Mr. Neal St. ONge, Coldwell BAnker
- Mr. Rick Neubert, Delta Concrete Inc.
- MR. Tom Crawford, Missouri Trucking Association
- Mr. Tony Thompson, Kwame Construction
- Mr. Dan Mehan, Missouri Chamber of Commerce
- Mr. Ed DeSoignie, The Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City
- Mr. Jim Anderson, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce
- Mr. John Nations, Metro
- Mr. MArk Stidham, Dexter City Adminstrator
- Mr. Randy Verkamp, Phelps County Presiding Commissioner
- Mr. Scott Smith, HNTB Corporation
- Mr. Tom Dunne, Fred Weber, Inc.
The list is from CMT.
The other meetings are:
- May 21 – MoDOT Northwest District Office, St. Joseph, MO
- June 1 – Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Springfield, MO
- June 29 – Show-Me Center, Cape Girardeau, MO
- July 9 – ARC City Activity Center, Columbia, MO
- July 23 – MoDOT Northeast District Office, Hannibal, MO
- August 6 – Gamber Center, Lee’s Summit, MO
I doubt I could get to any of these safely.
– Steve Patterson
MoDot doesn’t really care what the citizens think. Look at the committee members, what a joke. I doubt any of them, including John Nations, care about transit alternatives to the automobile. It is a gathering of the good old boys, slapping each other on the back while they cook up the latest transportation boondooggle for Missouri citizens. The fact the hold the meeting in a inaccessible location for wheelchairs and generally unattractive for transit use says it all. The real question is how much longer are citizens going to put up with incompetent leadership? Does anyone really think these people are going to come up with the innovative transportation solutions that are needed for the 21st century?
You are correct, it is nothing but another committee to keep Missouri locked into the auto culture to protect the profits of a few insiders.
>>The real question is how much longer are citizens going to put up with incompetent leadership?<<
What specifically do you suggest that such citizens ought to do? People most actively concerned with alternatives to the automobile, accessibility, preservation, etc., are typically (though not always) concentrated in urban areas, which are marginalized and disregarded by the rest of the state, except when it comes to appropriating the revenue we generate. The Repubs outstate HATE talking about that last detail, believe me. It's much more satisfying to regard St. Louis and KC as chaotic Sodom and Gomorrah wastelands while they and their constituents are "the real Missourians" waiting for the Rapture and clearing cornfields for new vinyl-sided subdivisions in the meanwhile. These people are key decision makers in our state. They are often flatly irrational and immune to argument. They could not care less what people in urban/metropolitan areas want or think.
No one actively wants "incompetent leadership", but as long as the urban/rural divide holds such sway in state politics, we will continue to bear the consequences of decisions that affect us, but too often are not within our control as citizens.
Politicians outside of KC and STL don’t like either city. It has nothing to do with Dem/Rep. Its not in any of their individual best interest to cater to STL or KC.
If they are politicians representing an entire community of people, their “individual best interest” should not be a priority at the expense of what is best for Missouri at large. They should LEAD, not simply indulge their own hard-shell bigotry and ignorance while inflaming that of others.
And it’s not a question of wanting anyone to “cater to STL or KC” like we’re some sort of mooches. We are the biggest economic generators in the state, so I think we’re doing the “catering”, if anyone is. Certain outstate Repubs should remember that and stop mindlessly seeking to thwart *anything* perceived as benefiting urban areas.
Have you actually seen any typical Missouri Repub campaign literature when it references KC or St. Louis? I’ve seen some that reads like it was written by a spiteful five-year-old growing up in an apocalyptic comic book.
You’re assuming that funding urban public transit is viewed to be, or has actually been proven to be, “what is best for Missouri at large.”
I firmly believe that public transit provides many benefits and opportunities in urban areas. However, urban areas make up less than 20% of Missouri’s land area, while 100% of the state is served by state highways. Add in the reality that our state gas tax is paid directly by motorists, and not by people riding public transit, and it’s pretty easy to see why funding transit has not been, is not now, and likely will never be a priority at the state level.
I also understand the attraction of having someone else pay for something you use. It makes it less expensive for you, since non-users are picking up, in the case of public transit, in excess of 80% of the total cost of every trip. But, as the last transit tax issue here (that passed) shows, it’s easier to make a public funding argument on a regional level than on a statewide level.
>>I also understand the attraction of having someone else pay for something you use.<<
Like urban taxpayers subsidizing urban sprawl miles from the city and paying for construction of sprawlsville roads and highways they don't use?
Anyway, I did not specifically mean public transit in "what is best for Missouri at large"; what benefits St. Louis/St. Louis City should be seen as benefiting Missouri in general. The mindset I refer to above does not see it that way. That seems perverse, given than St. Louis is located in Missouri, last I checked.
I contend that urban sprawl is neither good for Missouri nor a fair and proper use of our tax dollars. Given its practicality and the oil economy we live in, I do think that public transit is a fair and proper use that benefits the entire state, whether one personally uses it or not.
I agree. Now, how do we get the rural folks to agree with us?
Why are MoDOT decisions made by a board of people who’s professions, in most cases, appear to indicate that they really wouldn’t have a clue about such things (and clearly have a conflict of interest in some cases)? Wouldn’t it be better to have a group of civil servant’s, that went to school to learn about such things, do this kind of decision making? You know, people with qualifications and experience. People who’s job it would be to live and breathe traffic and transportation issues every day. What the hell??!!
As for the ridiculousness of an unaccessible meeting location….not surprised. How much of any part of the suburbs are accessible by transit, let alone if you’re in a chair. It seems that NOTHING is designed with the pedestrian in mind anymore. Even when you arrive by car, as soon as you park it and get out, there are no provisions for you any longer. Just try getting into a Target without getting hit by a car.
What we have here is a clash of cultures. MoDOT “evolved” from the state Highway Department. Most of their focus was and remains highways. Other forms of transportation will remain stepchildren / afterthoughts / second-class citizens simply because highways are their number one priority.
Public transit remains primarily an urban concern. Public transit does not work well, if at all, in rural areas. People, rightfully so, resent paying taxes for services they will rarely, if ever, use. And even in urban areas, we need highways.
I think the real problem is expecting MoDOT to embrace and nurture urban mass transit. It’s simply a foreign concept to the institution. I think the better answer is what happens in Colorado, where CDOT focuses on highways and Denver’s Regional Transportation District is a separate, quasi-governmental agency, charged with delivering public transit to the entire metro Denver region. It has an elected (not appointed) board and has the ability to impose taxes dedicated solely to public transit. There are both dedicated resources and accountability, something that seems to be lacking in St. Louis.
I “get” why urban dwellers “want” to MoDOT to dedicate more funds to public transit. It would be both “free” money and “the right thing to do”. Unfortunately, it boils down to dollars. We live in a state and a time when “No New Taxes!” is the mantra that every politician seems to live and die by. Choices need to be made, and, reality check, the majority wants highways. In rural areas, the only buses they care about are the yellow kind. Instead of fighting for a bigger piece of the MoDOT pie, why not fight for more independence, accountability and resources for Metro / Bi-State Development Corporation?!
By your comments you don’t seem to realize that it is the rest of the state that is getting the “free ride”. If you were to do an analysis I think you would find that the gas taxes raised outside the KC and SL metro areas don’t come near to covering the cost of building and maintaining the highways used by the rest of Missouri. The obvious solution would be to pass a law stating that gasoline tax moneys could only be spent in the counties where they are collected. Then you would find that the metro areas would have more than enough funds to pay for their roads AND their transit systems, but road construction outside the metro areas would grind to a halt.
Sounds great to me. Now, how do we get the receiver counties to “give up” their free rides? In most other states, our “letter” roads (K, N, DD, etc.) ARE county roads, and not the responsibility of the state. I have no problem funding numbered roads statewide, but when it comes to maintaining glorified driveways, we need to rethink our priorities.
JZ you are woefully misinformed. I have experience/knowledge of transit systems throughout the world that serve rural populations as fully as urban areas. If anything the rural population in Missouri is getting the shaft worse than the urban areas.
The reality is that people do not demand roads, instead they are not offered real alternatives. The reality is the citizens are being milked by insiders as these financial bandits head for the door.
The reality is that as a people we are facing major upheavals in energy if we do not change our ways. That is what leaders are supposed to do, advance policies that look to present and future realities. This isn’t happening in any shape or form.
The reality is that it will take years, if not decades to develop new transport systems that are energy efficient and reliable.
The reality is that we are leaving our relatives, our families, our children and grandchildren to face the serious problems we are pushing aside.
Look at the committee members, it is the same list of insiders, with different names, that have been calling the shots for decades. America is in decline, in your rose colored glasses you refuse to recognize the failures. We are going to pay a terrible price at some point if we do not change our actions. The people on the MoDot committee have no intention of doing anything more than to continue to enrich the corporate insiders who control government. No matter how many public hearings they hold, they don’t listen, they are paid not to listen to anyone but the anointed insiders.
That is how transportation policy is formulated.
GMichaud,
I agree. Transit is for rural as well as urban residents and MODOT should be exploring how to meet the transit needs of rural residents. Metro should not be able to just unilaterally decide that anyone who wants to travel between two points in Missouri MUST purchase a vehicle – that MODOT will spend the billions to support those private vehicles and will spend practically nothing to support anything else. Just two generations ago, many people never drove and never owned a car, and yet they were able to travel through rural areas using trains and buses.
There is an opportunity cost to providing transit, anywhere. You need to run vehicles, whether anyone chooses to ride/use them, or not, to provide a minimal level of service. Even once a day can be too frequent in many rural areas, while once every half hour can be too infrequent in some urban areas. That said, I agree, buses are one way to provide transit opportunities in both suburban and rural areas. Greyhound and Continental Trailways both used to be successful companies, serving many rural communities (“just two generations ago”). Megabus and other ethnically-oriented bus lines (http://www.autobusesamericanos.us/EN% http://www.oatstransit.org/ http://www.trailways.com/travel/individual-bus-tickets/other) continue to continue to provide service in some areas. The real question is how far should the state go in subsidizing services that fewer and fewer residents CHOOSE to use every year? How much demand is there for service between, say Hermann and Sikeston? Troy and Hannibal? Cuba and Springfield? Even Kirkwood and Cottleville? And, yes, it truly is a “chicken or egg” conundrum. Or, are we better served by encouraging private operators to identify niches and to fill them (http://www.winewagonshuttle.com/, http://www.supershuttle.com/)?
There are two words that are dead giveaways for the treatment you recieved Steve: Tilley and Chesterfield. If they really wanted the actual people that used transit, they would have more than one meeting in an urban area and one of those would be in the heart of the area.
Nailed it Moe, I believe Tilley terms out so don’t think this commission really matters at the end of day.
The only interesting part is to see how the supposed panel wants to deal with the issue of a big rural highway network no matter how much transit you can add, a crumbling interstate system, an under funded rail development program (yes, MoDOT has a state rail plan for freight and passenger) and no funding in sight from a state who thinks that cheap gas and cigs sufficiently qualifies as ecomic development.
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