Gridlocks Can Bring Progress to Standstill

By: Glenn B. Callison
Dallas Business Journal
April 2, 2010

How much time do North Texas drivers spend in gridlock each day? According to recent surveys, average commute times have grown to 23 minutes, with 15% of commuters spending more than 45 minutes in their cars each way. Now imagine our traffic when the 6 million cars currently on the roads in North Texas will likely double to 12 million by 2050. Studies show that just a 10% increase in congestion will reduce productivity in Texas by nearly $260 billion between 2008 and 2030.

The 2030 Committee — a blue ribbon panel of business and transportation leaders — estimates that transportation needs in Texas will exceed $300 billion in the next two decades. The reality is that the Texas Department of Transportation, as well as the State of Texas and Federal government, lack the money to address these problems. So, Dallas and the North Texas region must find new funding alternatives for transportation. The benefits are many: increased mobility, enhanced connectivity, improved air quality, and continued growth of the North Texas economy.

Through a combination of fortunate circumstance and visionary leadership, Dallas has enjoyed sustained economic growth over the past 50 years. Benefits like a central location, temperate climate, comparatively low cost of living and well-known pro-business environment have allowed North Texas to lead the nation in job creation and population growth. A year ago, Fed Chief Richard Fisher was quoted in The Wall Street Journal saying he looked out his window at “the most modern, efficient city in America.” Yet Dallas risks losing its competitive advantage.

In the last Texas legislative session, several courageous lawmakers proposed new legislation to address the funding needed for critical transportation infrastructure. However, the bill’s passage succumbed to political pressure. Because efficient transportation is an essential economic driver that impacts quality of life, it is critical that we provide relief to the area’s growing congestion and there are a number of ways to make progress:

• Greater Accountability and Transparency for TxDOT – Administrative processes based upon transparency, accountability and efficiency are needed to restore public faith in the management of our state’s transportation infrastructure. Sound practices such as management auditing, financial reporting and codes of ethics should be adopted in conjunction with the TxDOT Sunset bill.
• Adopt Enabling Legislation for Local Option – Legislation should be developed that would allow individual counties or groups of counties to hold local option elections so that citizens can vote to fund specific transportation projects benefiting the local community and/or region — much like a local bond election.
• Stop Diversions – Good public policy suggests that highway user fees and related tax revenues should be used to fund highway construction and maintenance. Diversions from the State Highway Fund unrelated to transportation should be stopped such that $200-$250 million would be redirected from the General Revenue Fund to the Texas Mobility Fund.
• Fuel Tax Indexing/Toll Roads – Indexing the state gasoline and diesel fuel tax and using toll roads to increase capacity should occur. While critics may argue against the same, there is some logic to a “user fee” approach to address certain transportation needs.

All of these options should be evaluated, but still may not provide enough relief. In the current environment, no individual or business wants to pay more taxes. However, we should insist that our elected officials make transportation a priority and properly allocate resources to the same.

Continued growth in the local economy relies on a fully functioning infrastructure. We must invest in the region’s transportation systems if we are going to maintain our ability to attract businesses to the area and serve a growing population. Forward-thinking leaders like J. Erik Jonsson, who envisioned the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, understood the long term benefits of transportation assets. We as business leaders tend to evaluate decisions on a cost-benefit basis. Making wise investments in our future will bring enormous rewards, but if we are short-sighted, we risk ever-increasing backups that will bring our progress to a standstill.

We can no longer afford the problem of inadequate transportation resources — the cost of lost growth and missed opportunities is too great. It’s time for the Texas legislature to empower our local counties and municipal governments to hold local option elections so that Dallas — and communities across the state — can decide how to best address our transportation needs instead of remaining at the mercy of an under-funded state agency. It is time for our lawmakers to hear from the business community in North Texas that we support their political courage to solve this problem.