Back Talk Far North Dallas

Car crashes into UTD apartment

Last week a driver traveling down Waterview Parkway lost control of her car and crashed into a UTD apartment. The driver was not hurt---and neither was Crystal Layman, the UTD senior who lives in that apartment. In fact, she was making a sandwich in the kitchen when that car came crashing through her back door. "I heard a loud crash, and glass flew in my sandwich," she told the UTD Mercury. UTD police say there is more than $10,000 of damage to the apartment.

LBJ Freeway construction meeting tonight

OK, sorry for the late notice, but I just got word of this: Tonight at 7:30 the Northwest Dallas Improvement League is hosting a public meeting about the new LBJ Freeway construction. The meeting will be at the Royal Haven Baptist Church, just behind the shopping center at Royal Lane and Webbs Chapel. TxDot Deputy Director Bob Brown and project engineer John Hudspeth will be there to talk about construction details, and how they'll affect neighbors. Spread the word, everyone's welcome.

LBJ Freeway construction begins in a few months

Construction of the new $1.5 billion tollway tunnel on LBJ Freeway will start in early 2009. This reconstruction project, which is one of the largest that North Texas has seen, is supposed to turn that parking lot we call LBJ into a functioning freeway. LBJ was originally designed in 1969 to handle about 180,000 cars. Today it's estimated about 280,000 motorists commute on LBJ.
I had coffee with councilwoman Linda Koop earlier this week, and I picked her brain a bit about this new LBJ overhaul. She said while the construction will be a huge pain in the neck, it's a necessary evil if we want to see things get better in the long run. I tend to agree. Something needs to be done, and unfortunately, all the solutions involve some sort of inconvenient construction.
She's also obviously hopeful that the project will be completed within its five-year timeline. I'm not as hopeful. Maybe that's because I still remember the nightmare we all saw on Spring Valley when they added a tunnel under Central Expressway. That project turned Spring Valley into a concrete disaster for about four years. That project was small in comparison to the one about to take place on LBJ. So I can't help but seriously doubt it'll all happen in five years. Plus you throw in all the development that's going on near the Galleria, and you’ve really got yourself a commuting headache. I don't know about you, but I've already started mapping out those side streets.

I-35 toll lanes: What will they think of next?

Apparently, the state and federal governments are so strapped for cash that the only way to widen I-35E is to put in toll lanes. The project, to add capacity between Farmers Branch and Denton, requires $2.9 billion, and only $535 million exists.

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, is one of the proponents of the plan. You can email him with your thoughts through his web site. Interestingly, the release on the site that details yesterday’s news conference doesn’t use the word toll once.

Once again, just in case any politicians aren’t paying attention: No. No. No. Once they start tolling free highways, there is no turning back. If it’s I-35E today, then it’s LBJ tomorrow, and Central Expressway the day after that.

Technorati Tags: I-35E,toll roads,Michael Burgess

Standing on DART trains: Wave of the future?

We’ve seen record ridership numbers for DART, which have been mirrored across the country as gas prices have increased. In Chicago, where the cash-strapped CTA has also seen increases but can’t afford to buy new rail cars, the transit agency has a plan: Remove seats from existing cars.

 

The CTA expects to cram 25 to 50 more passengers onto trains that normally hold 90 riders if it takes the seats out and eliminates the aisle. The seatless cars will be used only during the busiest travel periods; an eight-car train could have as many as two cars without seats. The agency will start using the new trains later this year.

 

DART apparently has no plans to do this, and the agency added bigger capacity cars earlier this summer. The new cars seat 25 more passengers than normal cars, and DART says standees can add another 75 more.

   

Technorati Tags: DART,ridership increases,mass transit

Dallas North Tollway and George Bush Turnpike: Don't slow down

According to a DMN Story, drivers on the Dallas North Tollway and George Bush Turnpike will no longer be required to slow down as they approach express lane toll booths. The speed limit for express tollways will remain constant, and all cash booths will begin to transition into an automatic electronic tolling. This pretty nifty change should begin to take place at the end of this summer and is anticipated to be completed by 2010.

This change in rules seems promising for drivers who frequent the tollways. Without the need to slow down, traffic will be less likely to build up and possibly even be safer sans the drastic changes in speed.

High gas prices keeping cars off roads

So maybe we won't need all those new highways? Like the Trinity toll road?

That's the gist of this piece from the New York Times, which reported that in May, with gasoline at more than $4 a gallon in the northeast, traffic at key bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, mass transit use was up 4.3 to 9 percent on the systems that bring commuters into Manhattan. This includes a 5.5 increase for the Long Island Rail Road, which New Yorkers love to hate. Said one expert quoted by the Times: "We’re at the point where people really are changing habits."

Gas prices: Does it make sense to hedge against increases?

It looks like $4 gas has finally arrived. I saw Seven-11s at $4.009 and $4.019 for regular over the weekend -- though most of the stations I drove past in my decidedly unscientific survey were stuck at $3.999.

Which raises this question: Is it financially practical for individuals to hedge against higher prices, in the same way big companies do? Southwest Airlines, for one, credits much of its success, despite rising fuel prices, to hedging. This means Southwest buys fuel now and takes delivery of it at a later date in an attempt to get a better price. (Here is a much better and complete discussion of the futures market and how it works.)

That's the theory behind MyGallons.com, which sells debit-like cards that drivers redeem for gas. In other words, I give MyGallons $100 now (plus the fee it charges to sign up and to reload the card), and it sends me a card that I swipe at the pump when I fill up. I've locked in $100 worth of gas at $4 a gallon, no matter what happens to the price of gas.

So does MyGallons make sense for those of us who don't run airlines that buy millions of gallons of fuel a year?

Toll roads: Texans say no -- loudly

Or, on a scale of 10, 45 percent of us give toll roads a grade of 4 or less and nearly a quarter of us give it a zero. That's the result of a survey taken by the Texas Lyceum think tank, which looked at Texans' attitudes toward building and paying for new highways. And what do we like even less? Tolling existing roads, where opposition increased to 69 percent, including 53 percent who "strongly" oppose tolls on existing highways. Think tolls on LBJ to pay for its upkeep and maintenance, and you'll get the idea.

Development, traffic and hardening of the arteries

Note to Mayor Park Cities and various members of the council who believe in paving over the city to build roads to benefit suburbanites. The following quote, which appeared in Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper, came from one of you -- a real estate developer, in fact. So I expect you to pay more attention than if I said it, being a cranky, pro-neighborhood type:

When you develop this way you have to consider foot traffic, bicycles. The city tends to take the approach that it's all about traffic control and the fastest way to get from here to there. Widening the freeway is like an obese person getting a bigger belt. It doesn't address the problems. We need to come up with a better method than just bigger roads.

That's from a fellow named Will Pinkerton of Options Real Estate Development, which focuses on southern Dallas County. Will, if you're ever up this way, I'll buy you a cold one.

Technorati Tags: Dallas traffic,development