Articles about transportation issues...

While this web site is relatively new, we've been involved in transportation issues for quite some time. Here, collected in one place, are a few articles for your review. A number have been published (primarily in the Missoulian) while others have not.

Transportation Demand Management (etc.) in Missoula

"...Imagine, if you will, the possible change in traffic levels and our sense of community pride if we re-created the deadzones of the 93 strip and North Reserve Street in the image of downtown. Imagine if we started filling in some of our asphalt wastelands with shops, offices, pocket parks..."

Happy Birthday Interstate System

"...To see what the Highway Age has brought, look at the dusty 5-lane strips that lead into almost every Montana city. Look at the franchise ghettos that grow up around every new interstate interchange. Look at the downtowns struggling to survive. Look at the sprinkling of new houses that dot what just a few years ago was open land..."

Widening North Reserve Street

"...Such people often see their excessive auto use as "normal" and make fun of those of us who walk, use transit, or ride bikes for some of our trips. They believe all Americans want to drive twenty miles each way to get a bag of potato chips...."

Keeping the "E" of Efficiency in Transportation

"...As I watched the hearing, it became clear that the powerful Highway Lobby wants to gut ISTEA and go back to just building "highways as usual." You won't hear the AAA, the State Departments of Transportation, or the asphalt and concrete lobbyists talk about the crying need for trains, walkways, or more people-friendly communities..."

Are Highways the "Only Thing?"

"...as I stood there at 7:45am watching car after car coming off Interstate 90, it seemed that Marvin Dye was right in a way that he probably didn't intend. Our highways are becoming the 'only thing' in Montana..."

Devolution and Other Scary ISTEA Stories

"...While the DOTs and their highway lobbyist friends are working hard to get their way, other groups-like the National League of Cities, the AARP, the National Association of Counties, the Environmental Defense Fund, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Public Transit Association, the Sierra Club, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are working just as hard to keep that from happening..."

Great Falls' 10th Avenue

"...Monster road projects harm those "in the way." Traffic noise and pollution increase for people living in the impacted area, neighborhoods are cut in half, residential streets become one-way couplets, houses are moved or torn down, five lane roads come between kids and their schools or playgrounds..."