Texas Transportation priorities

Everybody wants an INTERSTATE (highway). If your community gets its own INTERSTATE, it undoubtedly will create economic growth. The problem is that building this INTERSTATE costs an almost unbelievable amount. Most of the time it is not even warranted. The bottom line is in MOST cases a DIVIDED RURAL HIGHWAY will suffice. The difference is that intersections with major roads should be controlled (over / underpass). The entire route with FEW exceptions should have a speed limit of 65 MPH or greater. There should be NO traffic signals on main lanes and when Loops and bypasses are built, the right of way should be purchased as per Section 6:( Texas Highway Trunk System) of the Texas Transportation Planning Manual:

  " Right of way should be initially purchased for the entire facility, although the facility will be developed in stages. The early acquisition of selected right of way, in certain instances, may be desirable along Trunk System routes. The priority of acquisition might not follow the approved project schedule in order to avoid delays and facilitate the economical considerations of acquisition."

What this means is that loops and bypasses should be built so that expansion to fully controlled access can be done in the future with minimal disruption to existent homes and businesses.  Loop 286 (US 271 & US 82) in Paris and US 69 / 380 in Greenville are excellent examples. Admittedly they were built in the seventies, both are grown up with little room for expansion. Loop 286 is trying to get rid of the traffic signals on the Northeast side of town, but it is a slow and messy proposition. There are no room for frontage roads and the best case example is right only turns.

MY way of seeing it is traffic seems to move well between these midsized towns but slows to a crawl as it goes through them. US 59 between Carthage and Texarkana is an excellent example of this. Traffic moves well from Carthage until Marshall. Marshall has seven traffic signals and a speed limit of 40 mph. Jefferson has a traffic signal and the traffic slows down. Linden has reduced speed limits. Atlanta has a loop with a hand full of traffic signals and a dramatically reduced speed limit.  There are even two traffic signals in rural areas between Atlanta and Texarkana.

While additional Interstate highway miles are desirable; ARE THE AFFORDABLE? If we can just get roadblocks of going through small and mid-sized towns out of the way so traffic can flow, it will improve the traffic dilemma manifestly. Currently from Carthage to Texarkana is 99.2 miles Google says it takes 1 hour 59 minutes. So about 50 MPH on average. Picking out the rural portion from the Junction of FM 2625 and US59 south of Marshall and Going to the Intersection of US 59 and US 79 on the North Side of Carthage is 17.5 miles in 16 minutes of about 65 MPH. If the entire trip were at that rate it would amount in just under 30 minutes less. Combined with the removal of starts and stops: the fuel economy, localized pollution, and even traffic safety would improve.

I CONCEDE not to the level of a fully access controlled Interstate, but again it is about what we can afford, not what is ideal. After I used US 59 as an example, I must add that it is actually an excellent candidate for the next Interstate. The point is that I was familiar enough with it to make the case. The bottom line is several roads in Texas such as US 287 from Fort Worth to Amarillo and  US 82 from Wichita Falls to Lubbock would benefit greatly with this.

There is much more to be added to this. I didn't even address the rail component of the equation. This blog entry is only a brief overview, but simply. We need to improve our transportation capacity without breaking the bank. In this case, the bank is US: THE TAXPAYER.

Immigration and College (reposted from June of 2008.)

Have you noticed that there is an increasing number of immigrant physicians and scientists? While we are complaining about poor immigrants or aliens coming in and taking jobs that we believe that the perpetually unemployed would take, aliens and immigrants come in and take highly coveted , well paid positions. People tell us there is a shortage of highly trained US workers to fill these positions. Why?

Part of it is that we make it difficult for middle income Americans to get a good graduate education. If you have been in many of the Universities around the country of late you have seen innumerable international students filling graduate assistant and research assistant positions. Why? Are they just that much better qualified than US citizen students? No. It often boils down to one thing. If they have a job in the university they pay resident tuition or even no tuition at all. The same goes for scholarships. Many colleges give students with as little as $500.00 per semester in scholarships resident status. I have even heard that if students live in on-campus residences they may also get resident tuition. Why can't these positions go to deserving US Students?

There is, in part an idea that an international student going home to help modernize his third-world country makes the whole world a better place. The problem is that many of them will never leave the US (see need for highly trained workers above). Even those that leave mostly go to countries that are far behind the US, but at the same time not poor countries nearing starvation (China and India particularly.) The bottom line is we subsidize international students education as much as we do those of US students and either they remain here and take US jobs or they return to economies that are competing against ours.

What happened to international students being a huge revenue stream? Even in private universities there is enough public financing to make it an issue of import to quit allowing this drain on our resources.

The bottom line is that IF we educated more Americans that we wouldn't need to allow untold migrant workers to take on significantly profitable jobs that native born Americans could and should be doing.

Who is this Texian who wears a size 8 (buckethead) hat?

I recently became unemployed. A friend asked me what it is I want to do. I want to be (as LBJ said) " G-D King of the World." This said, I realize I am not Barack Obama, I am not George Bush, or even Harry Truman. This said, I believe I am very capable of doing things that lead up to this.

What is community service? It is being of service to the community. It isn't doing what my friends want, doing what I want, or even doing what the majority of the people want. It is about doing what is right. Hopefully doing that one gets it right in the minds of enough of the people enough of the time that they can effectively govern.

The reason we call our government a REPUBLIC is because we send representatives to make the hard choices. If it were a democracy, we would all punch a button regardless of how poorly informed or radicalized we are.

The internet

Ever since Al Gore invented the internet back in the seventies, people have found uses for it and others have searched for ways to exploit it.

Last October, my wife and I went on vacation in California. We stayed at a bed and breakfast. The facility certainly wasn't the BATES MOTEL; at the same time, we would have had a better experience at the Best Western or Quality Inn in town for a little less money. My gripe here is not with the facility. It is with the rating sites. It took an act of congress including a copy of my receipt to publish negatively on bedandbreakfast.com/. Then she published a rebuttal (OK so she gets her turn.)

THEN she started publishing reviews of the place in her unique flowery style claiming to be several other people. When I complained, it got me nowhere. The problem is that she paid for advertising and the site was willing to let her get away with anything. This said, she also did this on TripAdvisor too.

How to tell if a positive review is bogus: Look at the number of reviews the REVIEWER has posted. If it is just one: question it. On the main sites I use I have over five. Someone may get mad and post a negative review when they are mad. People only post positive reviews if they just post reviews or booked through the site they did the review on. A single glowing review usually indicates that the management of the facility had their hands in it one way or another.