Can you say "wow!"?

This is an artist's rendering of the StarLight, the LightSpeed writer next generation. Full steno keyboard, computer keyboard, touch screen. You can load your own CAT software on it.

MPO contracted traffic abatement study

Although the Perry Hill Rd from Harrison Rd to Atlanta Hwy project remains in the 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan, the conclusions of the study commissioned by the MPO are that the MPO needs to look at alternatives to simply adding capacity to attempt to ease traffic congestion, such as access management and light timing. It seems like it would save MPO money to try these approaches rather than widen roads and add lanes.

Specifically about Perry Hill Rd., the study recommended not widening the road and implementing a traffic signal timing upgrade. For Vaughn Rd from Perry Hill to Eastern Blvd, the recommendation is to add a two way right turn lane and set the speed limit at no more than 30 mph. This is exciting because it recognizes the residential nature of that stretch of road. Of course, keeping people at 30 mph will be impossible.

We feel like maybe we made a little difference in the MPO commissioning this study and are excited about the results of the study. Now if MPO acts on the conclusions in the study and modifies its LRTP, we will really have a victory.

One small victory

Yesterday, September 20, 2007 the Montgomery Area Metropolitan Origanization held a special-called meeting to approve the 2008-2011 Transportation Improvement Plan, which included widening Perry Hill Road (the road Carla and I live on) from three lanes to five lanes.

We let this blog lapse while we worked to find out just what the MPO is and how it works. It is has been a journey through a lot of red tape and a lot of hard work, but I think we've figured it out.

We gathered our allies, mostly the residents of this road who do not want it widened, launched a letter-writing campaign to the mayor of Montgomery, and also coordinated an effort where the public submitted responses to the draft TIP plan. Carla attended the MPO meeting, and this is her report:

On September 20, 2007, the Metropolian Planning Organization met to consider final adoption of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). One of the items in the TIP is the widening of Perry Hill Road from Harrison Road to Atlanta Highway (Phase II). Robert Smith, MPO Administrator, stated that 39 comments in opposition to Phase II had been received. Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, Chairman of the MPO, asked how many guests at the meeting were there in opposition to Phase II. About ten people raised their hands. The Mayor stated that he had never been inclined to favor "putting down more asphalt" on this part of Perry Hill Road, and that if this many people were against it, he could spend the $8 million somewhere else. He spoke for a while about how this plan had come into being and his recognition of how this project would negatively impact the residents. Charles Strange, Montgomery County Commissioner, stated that he had a phone call from a "very prominent local political figure" who said his constituents had been calling him in opposition to Phase II. He suggested, and later made a motion to amend the plan to affirmatively state that Phase II would not occur unless, after the I-85 loop and Phase I (I-85 to Harrison Road) were completed, further traffic studies showed a need for Phase II. Then there would be more public hearings and more opportunity for public comment and opposition.

Carla's Genesis Part II

We did as much research as we could before the April 5 informational meeting, and talked with as many people who live on and around Perry Hill Road, encouraging them to attend the meeting.

Oh the informational meeting, I will leave that to Greta to discuss except to say we left with the strong feeling the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing, among the FHA, DOT and city, no one knew the whole story. Greta will have to tell us if the bottom line was that Proposal A got rid of Flip's and took a 15-foot triangle off her side yard and Proposal B kept Flip's and took less from her side yard. Both proposals took 2 feet (maybe, there is confusion about that as well) from my yard.

We were given a comment sheet which had "I support the project" and if you supported, you chose Plan A or Plan B, and "I do not support the project." We didn't know what would happen after that, would we be informed of the process or would some guy from DOT show up one day to negotiate our land price? Where did it go from here? Who made these decisions? All of that we needed to know.

Greta hired a private investigator and consulted an attorney (if you would like to donate towards some of her costs, use the PayPal button at the top of the screen).

We have sort of determined that the Montgomery Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is the body that makes the final decisions. This is a group composed of the following (although this does not appear to be current):

Voting Members:
Bobby Bright – Chairman – Mayor, City of Montgomery
Jim Byard – Mayor, City of Prattville
Clyde Chambliss, Jr. – County Commissioner, Autauga County Commission
Randall Estes – Sixth Division Engineer, Alabama Department of Transportation
Jo Glenn – Mayor, City of Wetumpka
Kenneth J. Groves, Jr. AICP. – Director of Planning and Development, City of Montgomery
Frank R. Houston – Mayor, Town of Coosada
Charles Jinright – City Councilman, City of Montgomery
Todd Strange – County Commissioner, Montgomery County Commission
Al Kelley – Mayor, City of Millbrook
Janet May – Councilwoman, City of Montgomery
Joe Faulk – County Commissioner, Elmore County Commission

There is lots of stuff I'm skipping over, but basically we think we made a small difference in that the city asked the DOT to make the I-85 interchange a priority and do further traffic studies. We're not sure if they mean do studies now as to the projected impact of a well-functioning interchange or have the interchange fixed and then do further studies.

Then we discovered the MPO's 2030 plan, which widens by two or three lanes every major road in the city: McGhee, Carter Hill, Vaughn, and others I'm not remembering right now. It appears the MPO's big plans for the future of Montgomery are to pave the whole damn town. We are now learning about and advocating SMART GROWTH, which means not solving every traffic problem by widening a road, being less motor-vehicle oriented and more people oriented, and using the ideas that are already in place and working beautifully in cities such as West Palm Beach. Smart growth will make a city people want to live in and want to invest in, as opposed to motor-vehicle oriented growth which makes areas where people don't want to live and they move out and no one invests in the area and it becomes a bad area of town.

We don't want Perry Hill Road to become like Ann Street!

We want the MPO and the City to begin to think outside the box, hire forward-thinking consultants and engineers, and look to the future of this city and the effects of the decisions they make now.

We can end up with a crappy, crime ridden, urban, polluted area with anyone who can do so moving to Prattville or Wetumpka or areas beyond, or a beautiful, forested, safe, innovative, pedestrian-oriented place where people want to live and that other cities can look to as a positive example.

It seems pretty obvious to us, but now we have to convince the people with the power. The way to do that is to have as many citizens as possible behind us with at least their signatures, and maybe some can donate time or money.

We want to bring together all like-minded people in Montgomery, especially those whose lives will be affected by these proposed projects - residents on McGhee Road, Carter Hill Road, Harrison Road, and anywhere else that short-term solutions are slapped on traffic or property issues.

With enough people behind Smart Growth, we can affect the direction in which our city is going.

Genesis - Carla's version

In September 2005, there was a public hearing on the budget of the Montgomery Planning Organization which was duly advertised as required by law; however, I don't receive the Montgomery Advertiser, did not see the notice, and would not have known what it was if I had seen it. Would you know that this meant, "we are budgeting money to turn the 3-lane, heavily residential road you live on into a 5-lane major 'corridor'?"

OK the print's a little small, but what it says is the MPO will hold a public involvement meeting to gather input for the draft Fiscal Years 2006-2008 Transportation Improvement Program.

That was it, no contact by our city our county representatives, nothing. No indication of which roads or residents would be affected. Then last Fall (2006), we saw an article in the newspaper about the proposed widening of Perry Hill Road from I-85 to Harrison Road, which doesn't sound like that bad an idea, but again, nothing about the rest of Perry Hill to Atlanta Highway (fondly known as Phase II).

We heard nothing else until February 2007 when my boss, a public official, brought me a letter from the Alabama Department of Transportation (DOT) which solicited comments on the proposed widening of Perry Hill Road from Harrison Road to the Atlanta Highway. If I had not seen this letter, we never would have known this was in the works.

We immediately began research and fact gathering, and I was personally informed when I went to the DOT to look at proposed maps that there would be a public information meeting on April 5, 2007. I never saw a printed notice placed in local businesses as DOT indicated they would be, and never saw a notice in the paper for obvious reasons. If I had not made the effort to do some digging, I wouldn't have known about the public information meeting, either, and neither would most if not all of the neighbors who we encouraged to attend.

Because of our concern about this issue, we joined the Forest Hills Neighborhood Association. At its meeting on March 18, 2007, our esteemed councilman, Jim Spear, presented a map of the proposed widening project, and indicated that everyone thought this was a good idea except for "two little ladies" who just didn't want to see it happen. Greta being one of the little ladies, she stood up and said she felt he mischaractarized us, that we were not completely opposed to the idea, but that we had very real and important concerns and felt alternatives should be studied. I don't think the public involvement meeting was discussed or even known about at the time.

More history later . . .