Jeff Collins (left) and Alan Clark discussed the state of transportation in the Greater Houston area.[/caption] Local transportation organizations are gearing up for the Nov. 3 election with Proposition 7 and road bond proposals for both Harris and Montgomery counties on the ballot. Alan Clark is the director of transportation planning for the Houston-Galveston Area Council and has more than 30 years of transportation experience with the agency. Clark also worked as a transportation planner with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County and as a traffic-engineering consultant. Jeff Collins, a board member for the Transportation Advocacy Group, has more than 35 years of engineering experience and is the vice president of the public infrastructure division for LJA Engineering.  

How important are the Harris and Montgomery county road bonds to funding projects and accommodating growth in the Greater Houston area?

  Clark: The counties are having to rebuild their roads from rural highways with just a couple of open lanes and big open ditches into modern urban infrastructure that can accommodate pedestrians and cyclists as well as multilane traffic intersections. The roads need sophisticated traffic control and signage that county officials never dreamed about 20 years ago. So those bonds are extremely critical. Collins: Really, it’s just growth. You put more cars on the road—and then we know our issues with transit. The Greater Houston area is behind on the transit side so more cars are on the road, and the roads are congested. We’re making the same kind of improvements to Harris County on Hwy. 290, and between Montgomery County and Harris County you’ve got the Grand Parkway, which will be finished close to the end of the year. We have to pass the bonds because it’s getting more congested. [With] transportation, we’re still in a catch-up game.  

Is raising the statewide and federal gas tax a feasible option to funding transportation?

  Collins: If you look at it from a common sense standpoint, what makes more sense than user pay? If you want to drive a big truck you’ll be paying more. If you want to drive an electric vehicle, you’ll be paying less. That makes sense. But I think, politically, that has gotten zero traction on the state level, and it’s being debated nationally. Clark: Right now, there’s just no political support for it. Someone told me, “The quickest way to become an unelected official is to vote for a tax increase, especially in Texas.” I’m not sure there’s not truth to that. The public is apparently not connecting the possible revenue that might be gathered to the solutions that they want. To me, that’s a real problem for us. We need to make sure we’re communicating how—if we had the money—that investment would be used.  

What will the completion of Grand Parkway segments F-1, F-2 and G mean for mobility in the area?

  Clark: Officially speaking, it is all still planned for implementation to be operational by the end of the calendar year. But last year, no one knew about the floods we’d have in the spring [and] what happened on Memorial Day. I believe [project officials are] likely to be able to get it open from Hwy. 290 to I-45. I’m less sure how much of the work between I-45 and Hwy. 59 will be open to traffic by the end of the year. The importance of it is we see the emergence of another major employment source on this corridor by I-45 in Springwoods Village. I think it will be a primary corridor for people going to work. It will connect a number of very important regional roadways. It will give us much greater flexibility if we have to do major evacuation. Just as Beltway 8 provides us flexibility, the Grand Parkway will as well. I think it’s going to be full pretty soon after it opens.