MODERN TIMES
Art Hobson
ahobson@uark.edu
NWA Times 2 Aug 2008
Beltway madness
The
wealthy, powerful, and self-appointed Northwest Arkansas Council, comprising
the Waltons, Tysons, J. B. Hunts, and other corporate interests, is pressing
for quick Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission approval of a
feasibility study of a new 4-lane "western beltway." It's a project that will change all of
Northwest Arkansas massively, forever.
The
new highway will run from Greenland to west of Bella Vista, and lie several
miles west of I-540. Although it's
probably the most important Northwest Arkansas infrastructure project ever, the
feasibility study is being pushed through with lightning speed: It was proposed only on July 16, and
could receive final approval this Thursday, August 7. It's an outrage that we are not being allowed time to fully
digest and comment on this project.
NWARPC should either disapprove the study, or delay its approval for
several months.
It's
true that the beltway was discussed in a general way in 2005 and 2006, as part
of the region's 2030 plan. But
these discussions of a distant regional plan didn't really engage our
individual towns, and they occurred before the present national energy crisis
which is transforming U.S. transportation.
The
NWARPC, an association of Washington and Benton County mayors and county
judges, argues that they will be approving only a feasibility study, not the
actual highway project. But the
project will become a done deal once the feasibility study is approved. The NWA Council will settle for nothing
less than a finding that the project is feasible, and this finding will make it
practically impossible for our region to resist the Council's campaign to build
the highway.
The
western beltway is a bypass to bypass the bypass. It will bypass the stretch of I-540, completed only some 15
years ago, that bypasses U.S. 71 from Greenland to Bentonville. Predictably, I-540 became a magnet for
cancerous growth. Northwest
Arkansas "developers" have now completed the standard "geography
of nowhere" along the entire bypass:
instant suburbs, shopping malls, big box stores, land-consuming parking
lots, plastic eateries, and even a mega-church. This of course caused congestion, a problem that was
entirely self-inflicted by the folks who proposed I-540 in the first place, and
who stood to profit from it.
The
new beltway will wreck our region and damage the planet. NWA will be sprawled several miles
further to the west. It will be
one more nail in the coffins of every downtown. Traffic generated by the new sprawl will worsen I-540
congestion. Increased sprawl will
make mass transit more difficult to achieve. Businesses will be attracted to the new highway, making it
as congested as I-540.
Rural areas, including those near Lake Wedington, will be irrevocably
covered with "development."
The increased driving miles will kill and injure many more people. Pollution, including greenhouse gases,
will increase. Quality of life
will decline. The same business
interests, many of them associated with the NWA Council, that profited from the
I-540 bypass will profit from the new bypass.
It's
a mark of the Council's narrow vision that their answers to the self-induced
congestion of I-540 is, first, to widen that highway to eight lanes and,
second, to build an entirely new bypass.
They're stuck in a cars-only mentality. The widening plus the beltway will cost at least $750
million. For that kind of money,
we can buy the realistic solution to our transportation woes: mass transit.
This
is not the time to plan new highways.
Gasoline prices can only increase, because the world is running out of
easy oil while developing nations are buying more cars. The proof is that difficult and
expensive oil recovery projects are getting underway that make no business
sense if there is still much easy oil in the ground. The end of easy oil marks the beginning of the end of the
oil age. Simultaneously, gasoline
tax revenues are declining because people are driving less and because gasoline
taxes are tied to gallons consumed, not dollars spent, so road-building funds
are heading downward. Global
warming is a powerful argument for alternative transportation; future "cap
and trade" legislation will create a cost for carbon emissions, further
raising the price of oil and reducing driving. Train and bus ridership is
rising everywhere. We suffer from
an absence of affordable and effective mass transit. Lack of vision is causing the collapse of the American
automobile industry. Will
Northwest Arkansas follow in their footsteps?
The
Northwest Arkansas Council has been reluctant to endorse the widely-supported
notion of light commuter rail.
Light rail could solve transportation problems, save money, reverse
sprawl, rejuvenate our cities' centers, save lives, save oil, reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, and improve everyone's quality of life. Informal studies indicate that light
rail is feasible, but the project is currently stopped for want of the roughly
$750,000 needed to finance a full-fledged feasibility study. Representative John Boozman could get
these funds from federal transportation programs, but has failed to do so. It's clear to most observers that the
Council, fearing that the rail project would distract attention and money from
its roads projects, has discouraged Boozman from seeking these funds.
The NWARPC wants your opinion about the western beltway feasibility study. Please email NWARPC Director Jeff Hawkins <jeffhawkins@nwarpc.com>, and assistant director John McLarty <john@nwarpc.com>, or write a letter to the Commission at NWARPC, 1311 Clayton Street, Springdale, AR 72762. Because Fayetteville has a seat on the new Regional Mobility Authority, you might also contact Fayetteville's city council.