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Residents Voice Off About MoPac Proposal

Written by Kim Loop

This story first ran in a May 2007 edition of West Austin News.

West Austin residents interested in the proposed addition of managed lanes, or toll lanes, to MoPac gathered at the MoPac Neighborhood Associations Coalition (MoNAC) on April 17.

TxDOT project engineer Mark Herbert and DMJM consultant Mark Kelly answered questions about the plan, which would add a single northbound and southbound lanes from Parmer Lane to Cesar Chavez.

MoNAC president Joyce Basciano voiced her support for the plan because it encourages mass transit, allowing city buses and vanpools to use the new managed lanes for free. All other vehicles would have to pay a fee, which would be adjusted as often as every 5 minutes to keep the lanes from becoming congested.

"I come from the northeast where mass transit is a way of life already. This is a car culture down here. To shift that paradigm from moving cars to moving people-it's not going to be easy; it's going to be painful."

Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt, representing Precinct 2, reiterated the need for change.

The commissioner had concerns about the fact that passenger cars containing three or more people would have to pay the same amount as single occupancy vehicles to use the new lanes under the current proposal.

According to the TxDOT project leaders, currently available technology doesn't allow effective policing of such a policy.

One resident was worried about the safety of reducing the general use lanes to 11 feet wide.

Kelly sought to reassure the group.

"There's a lot of places on MoPac and other freeways around town and in the state that already have 11 foot lanes that have a higher truck percentage volumes than we do on MoPac," said Kelly.

Residents also expressed concerned that some neighborhoods won't receive sound walls under the current proposal.

The question of getting in and out of the managed lanes was also raised: If the general use lanes are congested, how will the managed lane traffic safely cross congested lanes to exit MoPac without getting stuck in traffic or causing worse congestion?

If there is enough demand, one way to handle this might be to create a lane with no exits or entrances between Parmer and Cesar Chavez, said Kelly.

But this solution would not serve the Capital Metro bus traffic well-much of which needs to access exits such as 35th Street.

MoNAC President Emeritus Francis Allen said the organization is still learning more about the proposed plan, but that she appreciates the fact that the TxDOT isn't trying to expand the highway.

"I really think it boils down to we're doing the best we can with limited space," Allen said.

"They took properties and neighborhoods when MoPac was first built, but we don't want to give anymore."

To provide historical background, MoNAC leaders played a recording of the late Gov. Ann Richards at a 2001 Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) meeting, discussing the assurances given to local residents when MoPac was first built in the 1970s.

"It [the assurances and promises made to residents at the time] was to promise these people not to worry about MoPac because it was going to have the atmosphere more of a boulevard like the George Washington Parkway," Richards told CAMPO.

"There were going to be beautiful trees all on either side. We were going to build permanent sounds barriers to protect those neighborhoods. We said that we were going to stop MoPac at the river, at the lake, and we said that MoPac would never go further north than 183."

For more information about the proposed changes to MoPac, visit: http://www.mopac1.org. For more information about the proposed Austin-San Antonio commuter rail, visit: http://asarail.org/.

About map: This is an estimation of where sound walls would be placed under the current proposal. For more information, visit: http://www.dot.state.tx.us/local_information/austin_district/mopac_1/drawings.htm.


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