Palmer Events Center
Easy Fix
RECEIVED Tue., Aug. 16, 2016
Dear Editor,
Susan Pantell faults the Mobility Bond package, noting that bus pullouts would slow buses as they merge back into traffic [“The Road to Improvement,” Feedback, Aug. 12]. That problem is easily addressed by having special traffic lights which allow buses to move into a traffic lane before the conventional traffic light turns green. Such a light is now operational for the southbound bus pullout at Airport and Lamar.
The fatal flaw of the Mobility Bond package is its overwhelming reliance on the automobile. Experience has shown it’s impossible to build your way out of auto congestion by widening roads. (Houston’s 26-lane Katy Freeway comes to mind.)
The Mobility Bond issue, if it passes, will delay any serious mass transit effort and doom Austinites to be stuck in traffic not only for the rest of this decade but into the 2020s.
Susan Pantell faults the Mobility Bond package, noting that bus pullouts would slow buses as they merge back into traffic [“The Road to Improvement,” Feedback, Aug. 12]. That problem is easily addressed by having special traffic lights which allow buses to move into a traffic lane before the conventional traffic light turns green. Such a light is now operational for the southbound bus pullout at Airport and Lamar.
The fatal flaw of the Mobility Bond package is its overwhelming reliance on the automobile. Experience has shown it’s impossible to build your way out of auto congestion by widening roads. (Houston’s 26-lane Katy Freeway comes to mind.)
The Mobility Bond issue, if it passes, will delay any serious mass transit effort and doom Austinites to be stuck in traffic not only for the rest of this decade but into the 2020s.
Philip Russell
