Drive Time

We desperately need our Minnesota political leaders to address the biggest problem facing our state for the next two decades, and no it's not a mine on the Iron Range, or transgender bathroom rights.  It's a basic function our government is supposed to maintain and upgrade as needed, but due to the conservative mindset this country has had for the last 35 years, it as become a ticking time bomb.  It's transportation, and in Minnesota, as well as many other places in this country, it's a mess.

It wasn't always this way.  In post WWII America, we took pride in our transportation policy.  We began to build the Interstate system under Republican President Eisenhower.  We expanded busing and mass transit into the 70's, and even began to develop biking and hiking trails across the country, many utilizing abandon rail lines in a great show of recycling.

Then it all changed.  Reagan-era Republicans realized if you gave wealthy people back most of their taxes, they'd gratefully write you a big campaign donation, or give you a cush lobbying gig after your political career was over.  The Republicans started to go over every line item in federal and state budgets to find additional cash to hand over to their benefactors.

Conservatives developed an interesting strategy when they got to transportation.  They realized transportation was a necessity, something everyone wanted, so how do you convince people to start fighting against their best interest?  They insisted mass transportation (buses, subways, light rail, ferries) was just using tax dollars to subsidize transportation for poor people.  They sold it with faulty arguments like, "If they were real Americans, they would all have a car and drive," ignoring the people who are 16 and younger, the elderly who no longer drive, people who can't afford a car, people whose health issues prevent them from driving, and the individual who just liked the convenience of not having to pay for gas and parking to go to work.  The minute the left said, "What? Are you insane?" the lines were drawn.

To their credit, most Democrats and Independents are sane, and call for plans which include money for road expansion and mass transportation.  The Republicans molded their initial vilification of mass transportation into a "road expansion only" platform.  This war between common sense and self serving political greed, by itself, would've underfunded transportation spending, but here's the catch.  Republican lawmakers NEVER have followed through on their promises to spend the money needed for the road expansion plans they've put forward.  They call for road expansion, but then dramatically limit the amount of money to be spent, causing transportation's downward spiral to go faster and faster.

You want some examples of how intentionally (or unintentionally...I guess it really doesn't matter) bad the GOP is at a balanced transportation policy?  Let's start with Tim Pawlenty's disastrous idea; the toll lanes.  After the Hiawatha Light Rail line was opened, and it proved to be "one of the best mass transportation launches the country had ever seen" (not an opinion, but a statement from a MNDoT researcher), the GOP had a lot of egg on their faces.  They'd insisted light rail would be unused and wasteful, so jam packed train cars exposed them as wrong.  A rational person would've said, "well clearly the people of the Twin Cities want these, so let's start building more."  Not the GOP!  They came up with the idea of taking the carpool lane on 394 and making it a "pay to use" lane.  Here's the problem with that; its cost is too pricey for most people, so the main group of people taking advantage of it are the ones where $3 each way is not a concern, the super-wealthy.  The GOP created a class tiered roadway system, with the rich able to avoid having to mingle with the 'heathens' in the regular traffic lanes.  And, the toll lanes have yet to even get close to making a profit.  The Republicans fought what they labeled 'subsidized transportation for the poor' by having the taxpayers subsidize transportation for the wealthy.  Nice!

Then there were the two gems from when Carol Molnau foolishly thought the Lt. Governor could easily run the Department of Transportation.  Carol was not bright, and, being someone who insisted mass transportation was the devil's work, was the last person who should've been in charge of transportation.  But her failures on mass transportation weren't her biggest mistakes.  She gave up the GOP ghost when it came to road expansion in Minnesota.

The first was the insanely stupid idea to close the Crosstown Commons for three years and rebuild it, but for some reason not increase the amount of lanes entering, on, or exiting the Commons.  She went with the cheapest plan on the table, basically a three year re-paving.  After howls of laughter at her foolishness, she and the Republicans came up with more money to make the expansion happen, which, for the record, was still under done.

When the 35W bridge collapsed, Molnau once again showed her biggest concern wasn't an effective transportation plan, but rather how cheap could the replacement be.  The initial bridge plan she endorsed had no way to expand the bridge in the future, no way to integrate mass transportation and a budget contractors were insisting was way too low.  Common sense ruled again and a better bridge was built in the end, but Carol proved the Republican call for "road expansion, ubër alles" was a lie.

What do we need to fix our transportation problem?  Three hundred billion, and that's to start.  I know I just lost a few of you, but that 300B would've been already spent if we hadn't had political hacks turn transportation into a budgetary football.  Here's what needs to be done:

• Expand every Interstate in the core metro (94, 394, 694, 494, 35W and 35E) to at least four lanes in both directions, not including access lanes.  Four continuous lanes in both directions.
• For all major roads coming towards/and in the 494/694 loop (169, 100, Crosstown, 36, US 52, 280)  there should be 3 lanes, and no traffic lights within the 494/694 loop, or for five miles approaching the loop.
• Every major secondary road in the 494/694 loop (think Hwy 7, US 61, Hwy 55) needs another lane in both directions, or at least a redesign which limits the amount of traffic lights and utilizes more on/off ramps.
• Begin construction of the SWLRT, the Bottineau Line, and at least three more light rail lines heading out of the core cities into the most populated communities.
• With the new light rail lines, create bus hubs at every major stop, most effectively utilizing the light rails stations.
• Repair all state bridges which are ranked 50% or less stress tolerance immediately, and put into place a game plane to replace all of them which are 80% or less within ten years.
• Upgrade the top five roads in every county in the state.  
• All US Highways in the state should be two lanes, traffic light free, in both directions.
• Build a commuter rail line from Fargo to St. Cloud to Minneapolis, Duluth to Minneapolis, Rochester to St. Paul, and Eau Clair to St. Paul (at least to the St. Croix river).
• Fix every deteriorating sidewalk in the state.
• Maintain our trails throughout the state.
• Expand bike lanes through out the Twin Cities, as well as Rochester, St. Cloud and Duluth.

Pretty common sense stuff, stuff that should've been done in the last 35 years, stuff that shouldn't have been sacrificed so a select few could have massive tax breaks.  The most controversial proposal, the immediate expansion of the light rail lines, is only controversial because it goes against modern GOP transportation ignorance.  If you start adding all of what I proposed up, nothing which is outrageous by any means, you start to understand how I say 300 billon is just a start.  And this IS only the beginning.  All of these things need to be done by 2030, when a new round of maintenance and upgrades should be embraced.

Used to be, if the major roadway was backed up, there were plenty of good alternatives which allowed you to get around the back ups.  The other day, Baker Road, a minor north/south road which cuts through Minnetonka, and used to be a great alternate for 494 and 169 in the west metro, had a two mile back up at Minnetonka Blvd, almost to Excelsior Blvd.  Frustrated and furious commuters were shooting off into residential neighborhoods in an effort to try to find a different route, speeding recklessly through quiet, residential roads.  This back up wasn't due to an accident or a major construction project (it was like this before they began working on Shady Oak Rd., and they route that traffic to Hopkins Crossroads).  It was just a Tuesday. 

The GOP made this mess.  I pray someone fixes it before the cost will be a trillion.