Here we have a head of a state DOT putting these concepts out there very publicly. He identifies fundamental problems. This needs to be shared, applauded and celebrated.
The following video is only a 4 minute investment of time. I think it’s critical for anyone who cares about transportation reform to watch. Tennessee and Commissioner John Schroer get it #transportationreform
Commissioner John Schroer – “1.8 Billion dollar a year business with 4000 employees” “We broke the department down and built it back up” “Top to bottom review. Looked at everything we did”
Fundamental issue is (paraphrase) – “Alot of places did a poor job of long range planning and took very little consideration into transportation mode – oftentimes these places would call us (TDOT) and say how do we fix this?”
The fix of course is to throw more and more and more money at the problem. “Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to build a bypass of a bypass” “It would be alot cheaper for a school board to buy a better piece of property with existing transportation infrastructure from the get go, than it would be to buy the really cheap (short term) property but one where the state needs to come in build a 30-40 million dollar access road.”
How do we avoid these pitfalls? What’s the bottom line? “We need localities to make better decisions. This helps the state save money.”
STOP WHAT WE’RE DOING! Re-evaluate assumptions. Identify alternatives. TDOT gets it.