CITY TO STATE: EXTEND I-94 COMMENT PERIOD

On December 10th, 2007, Public Works Commissioner Jeffrey J. Mantes and City Engineer Jeffrey S. Polenske sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi asking to extend the public comment period for the I-94 North-South Corridor Study from December 31st, 2007 to January 25th, 2008. They argued the issue required one cycle of common council meetings before the city could submit a formal "comment/position" on the preferred alternative. The next council meeting is scheduled for January 15th, 2008.
The DOT has been criticized, most notably by Gretchen Schuldt and Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, for scheduling the public hearings on the $1.9 billion project during the Thanksgiving - Christmas season, (she nails the department in this post) and for holding them in obscure locations and under byzantine rules. (The public was allowed to comment, one at a time and behind closed doors, before a court reporter, which hardly gives one the "Town Hall" feeling.) Busalacchi's silence on the matter makes it seem unlikely he would expand the hearing time unilaterally. However, the DOT hearings are largely held to satisfy the requirements of the Federal Highway Administration, which possibly might not object to giving citizens another month to digest the intricacies of the largest public works project ever proposed for this state. (I have a call on this subject pending to David Scott, the Southeast Freeway Coordinator for the Federal Highway Administration, and a recipient of the letter from the city.)

HOW TO COMMENT
The Department of Transportation has published the following contact information for those prepared to drop their holiday plans for a few moments:

• calling the project hotline: (262) 548-8721
• e-mail us at dotsefreeways94nsc@dot.state.wi.us
• fax your letters in to (262) 548-5662
• or send to WisDOT: Attention Bob Gutierrez at P.O. Box 798 Waukesha, WI 53187-0798

THE SOUTH 27th STREET ISSUE
One provision of the highway plan that has businesses and residents concerned is the proposal to eliminate the existing northbound exit at S. 27th St. The street, Milwaukee County's longest, was developed as a post World War II shopping strip, with relatively dense housing adjacent. Such neighborhoods are facing numerous challenges, including competition from more accessible neighborhoods. Closing a major exit, they say, could accelerate the decline of the district, which already sports vacant storefronts and feeble property values. The South 27th Street Business Association, led by Todd Reardon of Braeger Automotive Group, has been the most vocal and active organization on the topic.
According to the I-94 North-South Corridor Study 27th Street Fact Sheet, the elimination of the 27th street exit will eliminate "the existing 'weave maneuver' which requires drivers to merge across three lanes of traffic. This specific segment of freeway has a crash rate over twice the statewide average."
When pressed for an alternative design, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation refused to incorporate the possibility from consideration because it would cost $40 million extra, would require the acquisition and demolition of 10 homes and 16 apartments, and would not provide any significant improvement in traffic flow or safety.
The department "recognizes that businesses are concerned with this change in access. WisDOT will continue to meet and discuss with the 27th Street Business Association ways to mitigate these impacts so that the commercial district can growth (sic) along with traffic volumes."
Traffic would instead be routed to Layton Avenue, extending the trip by about three minutes, and steeply increasing the volume of traffic and pollution on that already burdened stretch of road.
Reardon and his groups got some media attention on the subject in October when they first noticed the disappearing exit, which had been present in earlier renditions. He's now making the organization's case to elected officials like Ald. Bob Bauman and Mayor Barrett. Almost all of the business on the street originates within 10 miles of the area, and asking people to exit the highway at S. 13th St. and W. Layton Avenue to get to S. 27th St. is hardly intuitive. Bauman challenges the orthodoxy of the engineers, who feel obliged to eliminate each and every one of the left-hand exits on the interstate system. However, permitting a left-hand exit at 27th St. would solve the problem at that location. The group challenges the number of homes said to be endangered, and has called for an independent study of options. Also, Bauman says there may be opportunities to relax certain of the numerous federal highway standards to remedy the situation of S. 27th St. However the DOT has not been responsive to those requests.

WISDOT: $2.30 / GALLON GASOLINE IN 2035
One of the crazy presumptions that drives the data WISDOT engineers use to plan our highway system can be found on p. 487 of the "Regional Transportation System Plan for Southeast Wisconsin 2035" published by the Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission [SEWRPC].
On that page you will find "Forecast Year 2035 Motor Fuel Cost and Motor Vehicle Efficiency" charts.
According to the data, which apparently no engineer dared challenge, motor vehicles will get 30 miles per gallon of fuel in that marvelous world of the future. Remarkably, the price of gasoline will cost $2.30 (in 2005 dollars) per gallon 28 years from now! These numbers were derived from the U.S. Department of Energy, which forecast gasoline prices of $2.19 in 2030 in 2004 dollars. So, the era of cheap fuel is going to dawn over the next quarter century, according to the credulous engineers. No wonder they design sprawling highways. Anybody who believes in a future of cheap oil is not paying attention to world events. We are, for the first time, using more fossil fuels than we are discovering; China and India are exhibiting a voracious, unpredicted, appetite for oil, and at last count a dependence on foreign oil (there being little of the other kind) can be fraught with political peril. Just ask our troops in Iraq.
As I look out my window right now, Mr. Chavez of Venezuela is selling us his Citgo gasoline for $3.00. That's in 2007 dollars.
--Michael Horne