Saturday, August 15, 2015

Davidson supports HOT lanes in spite of poor usability for town...

We told you earlier this week that Davidson Commissiooner Brian Jenest indicated that he would vote in support of the I77 tolling project at  upcoming CRTPO meeting next week.  You can check out his performance here on video starting at the 13 minute mark.

Here's what we've found out since then.  Based on the proposed entrance and exit points in the diagram below received via an FOIA request, Davidson will be supporting this project even though the ramps will be of little to no use for town residents.

It was disappointing at the meeting that no other commissioner spoke up on the subject.  Since this ramp information was sent out earlier to the towns at the end of July, one can only take their silence to be acceptance.

It's doubly disappointing because they had previously indicated they would fight for better usability for the town passing a resolution last year asking the LNTC to pursue better access for the town.



3 comments:

  1. Rick, thanks for the article. I think you are clearly focused on exit 30 since is solely serves Davidson. But there are 3 exits used by Davidsonians, 25, 28 and 30. Per Google Maps, exit 25 is the best route into or from Charlotte for anyone who lives in McConnell or east. I don't know the volume for each exit. I would presume exit 30 is a plurality, but not a majority. I'll see if I can find out. And please note that the diagram is marked 'preliminary.'

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  2. Rodney,

    Thanks for the comment.

    While i would agree to a point (I myself ride the bus from Exit 25) I would think if there was any real benefit to the HOT lanes the town would require that benefit be available to the town center. After all that's where the town wants to target as much growth as possible.

    Maybe a more tangible and immediate point is this.

    If NCDOT/Cintra hasn't even finished design of the ingress/egress points, how can the costs to cancel be as high as they stated based on any reasonable analysis - analysis they haven't even provided?

    Just a thought.

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