Wake County’s transportation woes are summed up in two statements made during 2006 by the region’s best planners.

• “A ticking time bomb of gridlock is on the horizon,” according to Ed Johnson, executive director of CAMPO, the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, as road construction funding fails to keep up with population and employment growth.
• Public transportation—trains, buses and trolley cars—could make up the difference. But according to a joint statement by the state Department of Transportation and the region’s transportation agencies, the Triangle has “no comprehensive, consistent regionwide blueprint for major transit investments,” let alone the money to pay for them.
• Estimates of the combined shortfall of road and transit funding for Wake are between $6 billion and $8 billion over the next 25 years.

The sprawl that characterizes Wake County’s growth to date makes transportation a difficult commodity here. Average vehicle miles traveled per day is increasing faster than population or employment, which means residents are asked to pay ever-increasing amounts of money for service that nonetheless keeps getting worse and worse. Meanwhile, air quality also suffers as cars stay on the roads longer distances and, because of congestion, go slower.

The obvious alternative to sprawl and traffic congestion is dense development in transit-supported corridors, as well as in downtown areas where pedestrian, bicycle and moped options are possible. But Wake—the county and major municipalities--has largely ignored the need to link land-use development decisions and transit planning. The result? The “ticking time bomb” is getting louder and louder.

The immediate need is for a “Transit Infrastructure Blueprint,” as contemplated now by CAMPO and the Triangle Transit Authority following the decision to postpone the initial Durham-Cary-Raleigh commuter rail project. Wake County leaders, as part of a regional effort, must choose transit corridors, decide how best to serve them going forward (rail, bus, trolley, and/or HOV lanes and express buses), and make a plan to pay for the services.

WakeUP will contribute to and monitor that process as it goes ahead in 2007.

At the same time, Wake County must decide how long it wants to keep complaining about the General Assembly’s failure to pay for road improvements in fast-growing metro areas—a policy rural legislators show no signs of changing—versus funding some of the improvements ourselves. Then the question will be, which improvements are our highest priorities? And, of course, fund them with what? Regressive sales taxes? Toll roads? Or progressive taxes and impact or transfer fees tied to the rate of growth itself?

WakeUP takes the same position on transportation funding as on new schools, parks and other public infrastructure needs. That is, we support a fair balance between the taxes paid by current residents and the fees charged to new developments. Right now, however, growth isn’t paying its fair share, which means the taxpayers are overburdened.
Indeed, some taxpayers—those living on fixed incomes—are caught in an anomalous position: The faster Wake County grows, the worse off they are.

Bottom line: We think growth should be good for everybody, and it can be if it’s made to pay a fair share of the costs it imposes on the public purse, and if it planned for in a comprehensive, coordinated manner.