The year ahead
And you thought people were impatient waiting for a traffic signal to change, a bus to arrive or a road detour to be lifted — just wait until Kansas University students begin signing leases and Lawrence shoppers start paying higher sales taxes.
Leaders know it’s time to accelerate cooperation between bus systems serving the KU campus and the city of Lawrence, especially early in the new year.
“It needs to happen in the next 90 to 100 days,” said Rob Chestnut, a Lawrence city commissioner.
The push to make concrete changes for the two systems — creating new routes, organizing new schedules and even printing new combined route maps — ranks among the highest transportation priorities in 2009, but by no means dominates the desire for speed.
To-do list
Among other issues, projects and decisions to come:
• Road construction. City leaders need to decide, likely by summer, whether they want to start formal plans for rebuilding one or more major city streets lined up for millions of dollars in financing as part of a new 0.3 percent, citywide infrastructure sales tax. The city essentially has two options: Borrow money against future tax revenues, which would allow the city to start reconstruction of, say, Kasold Drive from Clinton Parkway to 31st Street, within a year; or wait for enough cash to accumulate, potentially pushing construction back but also possibly saving money for more work down the road.
• Trafficway in court. A lawsuit challenging the federal government’s decision to back a so-called 32nd Street alignment for completing the South Lawrence Trafficway is pending in federal court. While the Kansas Department of Transportation already has released money to help expand the Baker Wetlands, and survey crews have been dispatched to start gathering information for drawing plans for the extended highway, all parties involved will keep close tabs on the lawsuit filed by environmental groups and others who object to the project. Opponents long have argued that the trafficway should turn south from Iowa Street along a 42nd Street alignment, crossing the Wakarusa River and avoiding the wetlands before intersecting back with Kansas Highway 10 near Noria Road.
• Turnpike construction. Work to rebuild the Kansas Turnpike’s bridges across the Kansas River will continue throughout the year, and drivers will continue to face changes to their routines. Among the earliest: An existing ramp for eastbound traffic exiting the turnpike at exit 204 is closing, and a new one is opening up to help accommodate construction of a smaller bridge. The change means traffic leaving the turnpike will need to stop at the end of the ramp, then turn left against oncoming traffic. The work precedes the scheduled closing of the interchange for reconstruction beginning in 2010.
• Finding financing. After two decades working from a comprehensive transportation program — the overall financing package for major road projects, transportation programs and other modes of conveyance — state lawmakers will be without one come June 30. That’s unless they craft a new one this coming session, a prospect few leaders see as possible, given the state’s financial constraints. Deb Miller, state transportation secretary, said last month that local partnerships would be key to getting projects done, regional priorities would have a “really big influence” in which projects get done, and projects would be more likely to get done if they demonstrated a strong case for lasting value. The state can get by without a new transportation program, she said, for a while. But not for the long term. “We can’t be too complacent,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, in Lawrence, leaders with KU on Wheels and the Lawrence Transit System — commonly known as the T — will be busy reviewing ridership data, crunching operational costs and distilling results of public-input surveys to see what changes could be put in place by KU’s spring break.
“Students are making decisions about where they’re going to live next year,” said Danny Kaiser, assistant director of parking and transit at KU. “We want to do as much as we can do, planningwise, by March.”
Comments
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KS (anonymous) says…
I guess I don't see any changes coming to the "T".
SettingTheRecordStraight (anonymous) says…
Please stop calling the Kansas Tollway the "turnpike." It is a tollway. Any other name is simply PR spin designed to make Kansans hate it less.
Boston_Corbett (anonymous) says…
No STRS, the road has a statutory name. Kansas Turnpike.
SettingTheRecordStraight (anonymous) says…
Boston,That may be true, but the statutory name is no accident. It is part of government's plan to disguise taxes and fees and to lull constituents into believing that government isn't gouging us as much as it really is. In fact, I suggest renaming the Department or Revenue to the Department of Taxes and Fees.
aldo (anonymous) says…
The City needs to hire a Public Transit Coordinator before much will happen on the Transit side. This job has been vacant since Cliff Galante left and the job posting is still open until Jan 12. Anybody want to step up ? Spread the word. This would be a great job for the right candidate.
Boeing (anonymous) says…
What's wrong with Kasold btwn. Clinton and 31st that needs a likely multi-million dollar project associated with it? It seems like a fairly decent road to me. Much better than, say, 23rd between Iowa and Haskell.
Sigmund (anonymous) says…
Just hand out $5.00 bills at bus stops and have people call and share cabs. Cheaper better service, done.
redmoonrising (anonymous) says…
I tried calling for a cab to take me to a medical appointment and they told me they couldn't, they didn't have enough drivers and had a couple of other people to pick up. They call that a taxi service? Had I been able to walk the about 8 blocks it would take to catch a bus, I would have. But how long a walk back to the bus and then home? The reason I was using other than my own car was I was told I couldn't drive after and had no one to drive me. Looks like there are cracks other than in the roads that need to be fixed here.
justthefacts (anonymous) says…
The senior center already provides lift service to elders, IF you call ahead and it's on the days they serve. My 74 year old mother-in-law uses their service all the time to get to the doctors and even shop for necessities. It's a real help to her b/c she does not drive and we cannot always take off work to help her. Sooooo, Red Moon, if you are over the age cut off (sorry, I don't know what it is) you may want to call them the next time.
sunflour (anonymous) says…
Larry, you forget that your property tax has been moved to other city costs, as of yesterday. If you want to complain about something, why don't you complain to city hall about not keeping the funding that was originally set for public transportation there? Instead it will be paying for wage increases for city employees, etc.
xbusguy (chris Ogle) says…
We need to monitor our sales tax revenue. The additional sales tax could get re-directed just like the 4 mills. Remember, when the piggy bank is short, the weasels work overtime.