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Encouraging transportation solutions consistent with safety, environmental, and wildlife core values.

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Can we Halt a Half Mile of Red Tape, and End Expensive Political Promises for Good?

This article by Jake Nichols appeared on JHpress.com on April 21, 2022. He really says it like it is. Please come to the open house April 27 from 4:30-6:30pm at the Teton County Public Library to voice your opinion.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — An open house is scheduled for the Tribal Trails Connector—a project hated by everyone not in government. The meeting will take place Wednesday, April 27.

After approving the controversial shortcut through Indian Trails two years ago, the county has been busy dealing with COVID and hiring issues to devote much time to how it might look and function and, more importantly, how to pay for it.

Envisioned as far back as 1982, the 0.5-mile of unfinished road would have connected with Highway 22. It just never got done. Now, it has become a political football, traffic solution boilerplate, and microcosm argument for or against growth. All that for a forgotten 2,600-ft stretch of road way through the sagebrush.

In county planners’ minds, when it comes to housing, you keep digging when you find yourself in a hole. When it comes to traffic, the only solution to excessive bleeding is to purchase more Band-Aids. (Maybe it’s past time to address the cause and severity of the injury).

Tribal Trails connector is one of the few growth items faced by the community that is not merely officiated by government but generated by government. Usually town or county planners present what one guy wants to do with his property that is either legal or quasi-legal while elected town or county officials referee and pontificate for three hours or three meetings before they pronounce judgement.

In this case it is government itself with their planner panties in a bunch over getting more asphalt down.

Everyone loves a shortcut, even it if has speed bumps, kids at play signs, and a long red light waiting at the end. (Teton County GIS)

Redundancy sounds so close to dunce

“Redundancy and reduction,” they spew into their bullhorns.

Fresh out of schools where treatises like Modeling Transportation Network Redundancy are part of the standard course workload, transportation planners point to a dire need for ambulances to be able find several different routes in answering that 911 call.

For example, a homeowner in Skyline opens his property tax notice and goes into immediate cardiac arrest. At exactly the same time, Griz 399 and her cubs create a monster bear jam at the Highway 22/Spring Gulch junction where the world’s slowest traffic light has two semis of cattle trucks from the Mead Ranch already backed up with cows bawling in the heat.

Now what?

Want to study up on something meaningful, kids? Every traffic analysis ever done has proven adding roads, widening roads does not magically alleviate existing congestion, it invites more.

Yes, Tribal Trails connector will allow a shit pile of smart drivers in their shiny SUVs to skirt the busy Y intersection on a Friday at 5:30pm where Teslas and Lexuses on Broadway are stacked back to Wendy’s drive-thru, which is also snaked completely around the building and spilling out onto Broadway back to town square.

But these same woke motorists will have to merge onto the Highway 22 summer parking lot sooner or later—presumably at a new traffic light intersection created across from Teton Science Schools, where first-year teachers have actually been tenured and retired while waiting to make a left out of there to go home.

Problem solved, as long as St. John’s Health gets working on that 911 drone service program.

Almost there…just a little longer to the next traffic light. (Google Maps)

Reducing miles travelled

Just the fact that there’s a government acronym for something called Vehicle Miles of Travels (VMT) should clue in even the most bollixed among us we are about to enter the spin zone.

“Most of Teton County traffic growth is made up of local traffic associated with short trips,” county traffic engineers say. Well, yeah, plus tourist driving associated with long trips. Plus, locals going on long trips. Plus, visitors taking a short drive. Plus, all the traffic generated by locals and visitors alike driving from restaurant to restaurant only to be told they were booked out for that Tuesday night 4 months ago.

The way to manage these naughty VMTs, according to the ITP, is to—WTF?—make more roads. Huh? Here’s another acronym at play: TBTF, as in Too Big To Fail. The county is too far down this unfinished road, financially, to surrender now. Heck, they even had a logo designed for the road to nowhere…so you know they’re serious about this.

To manage traffic growth and reduce VMT, the ITP calls for “more productive use of road and street capacity.” Substitute “productive use” with “increase” and we get a clearer picture of the game plan.

Building more roads and bigger roads will reduce emissions and petroleum use (that’s actually alleged in the county reading materials) like buying a bigger flat screen TV, and putting another one in the bedroom, will cut down on the time you spend on Netflix.

Just look at how Dallas, Texas has ‘roaded’ itself right out of a potential traffic problem. They build highways there faster than Waze can add them to its GPS software so that now, getting around the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Plano-Garland-Irving-Arlington urban complex has never been easier.

Dodge Ramming it through

When the county trotted this out the first time, they got caught with their eye on the prize, visualizing an end game before all their Subarus were in a row. The original draft plan had several alternatives for how a Tribal Trails connector would look and feel except for the one solution eventually preferred by everyone in Indian Trails and other affected neighborhoods: take no action. Even the Park and Forest Service have learned to stick that one in on the bottom of their lists of preferred alternatives.

It wasn’t public outcry, really, that stalled progress on Tribal Trails for the past two years. It was more the price tag (estimated $17M for the most expensive half-mile ever built) and the timing: How to connect with Highway 22 when WYDOT has not yet begun their major overhaul of the busiest two-lane in the state?

But the issue is back on the front burner. Once again affected neighbors will have to take off work, coordinate efforts, and try to stop the bulldozers. Those without a dog in the fight will either remain ambivalent or be reeled in by the pretty promises of government, mouthpieced by the pro-growth News&Guide who actually had this to say in an editorial a day after the June 2, 2020 greenlight to move forward was given by county commissioners:

“…it took political fortitude to maintain momentum in the face of predictable opposition by county residents.” —News&Guide editors

Political fortitude (gag)? So, ignoring the voice of the people and jamming its agenda through is the BCC showing “political fortitude?”

Pro-connectors say the road is just an unrealized vision planned 40 years ago. So was the idea back in the ’60s and ’70s that no one needed sidewalks or bike paths in downtown Jackson. Now we spend millions every year correcting that poor vision of the future.

They also say let’s just do it now before costs rise even higher. That’s the rationale of a pressure-to-buy car salesman or the pushy real estate agent.

“Someone else has their eye on this beauty, better act now.”

Time only will tell whether a shortcut through a tranquil residential neighborhood will shave even 20 seconds off your commute to Driggs or your ski run to the Village. The Y will still be jampacked, 22 will still be a parking lot, while another neighborhood chokes on the exhaust.

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What is a Fen?

What is a Fen?

A fen is a groundwater-dependent peat layer within a wetland, which takes centuries to form (one inch every 100 years). It creates a unique watershed that is home to rare flora and fauna. There are multiple fens in the Yellowstone ecosystem, but the one we are most concerned about is right here in our backyard.

The fen, located in the north end of the Tribal Trail Scenic Pathway, is 12 inches thick, or 1200 years old. This is “young” compared to most fens in the Rocky Mountains, which are more than 6,000 years old.

Why is a fen important?

A fen is an irreplaceable ecosystem, which counteracts global warming naturally by capturing CO2, recycling nutrients, trapping eroding soil, and filtering out pollutants to create hotbeds of diverse flora and fauna
Globally, peatlands store carbon and nitrogen, retaining about one-third of the world’s soil carbon and 16 to 28 percent of the world’s soil nitrogen while occupying only 3 to 4 percent of the Earth’s surface
Dozens of rare plant and animal species are supported by fens
Fens require stable hydrological conditions which are important for their water storage and release capacities – activities that disturb the groundwater-dependent hydrological regime of a fen, causing drying or warming, can permanently damage, or destroy them


To learn more about Fens in the Rocky Mountains, read this USDA study.

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A Call to Action on Hwy 390

JH News & Guide Guest Shot by Luther Propst, Nov 4, 2020

https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/opinion/guest_shot/a-call-to-action-on-hwy-390-speeds-safety/article_aebba7e1-6948-5ff9-87ed-c4971966563c.html

Highway 390 has one of the highest rates of collisions between motor vehicles and moose of any road in the contiguous United States. The all-too-frequent photos of dead animals are heartbreaking. The high speeds along 390 are also a hazard for people — from toddlers to retirees — who cross the road to access the pathway.

The 390 corridor plays several important roles. Given these various and competing functions, speed limits are patently too high. Current speed limits and patchy enforcement simply do not strike an equitable balance between highway engineers’ desire to move traffic fast, wildlife advocates’ desire to reduce collisions between ungulates and motor vehicles, residents’ desire to turn left safely out of The Aspens or Nethercott Lane, or parents’ desire to safely cross the street and walk the pathway with a stroller.

Instead we live in a dictatorship of highway engineers in which their desires trump everything else. In the latest example of imbalanced priorities the Wyoming Department of Transportation just completed a speed limit study that spends 71 pages to tell us that the current mix of speed limits is just fine, thank you and if anything, they should be higher.

They are not just fine, and they are not too low.

The crux of the study reads: The traveling public is the best judge of a safe driving speed for themselves and most of the people (85%) will travel at a reasonable comfortable speed based on roadside conditions consciously or unconsciously [sic]. Setting speed limits lower than the 85th percentile creates violators in law-abiding citizens.

Does the same laissez-faire principle apply to blood alcohol content while driving, speeds through school zones and pretty much every other law in the books? Under this logic there would be no speed limits and we would all drive at a speed that makes us feel comfortable.

Here’s the challenge: WYDOT controls Highway 390. Its highway engineers are dedicated public servants. I am especially grateful to the local WYDOT folks who plow snow and maintain our highways. The issue is that speed limits are determined by an agency dominated by a single professional caste: highway engineers. These speed limits do not adequately account for competing values. Their priorities are not the priorities of folks who live along the road and certainly not the priorities of the moose and other critters that inhabit the corridor. The highway engineering profession creates conditions in which motor vehicles move fast and efficiently, while discounting competing values. Period.

There is little, if anything, that Teton County government can do directly to reduce the speed limit or otherwise influence management of Highway 390. The only hope to change decisions is through sustained community engagement.

As Abe Lincoln said: “Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”

The public must express its sentiment to change anything along 390.

Speed limits only work with a reasonable level of enforcement. Enforcing the speed limit on 390 is primarily the responsibility of the Wyoming Highway Patrol, with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office playing a secondary role. Given the state’s deepening financial crisis, the highway patrol is spread thin. The sheriff also has limited staff and generally prioritizes patrolling county roads that the highway patrol does not. Therefore, the County Commission should increase the sheriff’s budget to support more speed limit patrols on 390.

To create the needed changes, nonprofit organizations and/or members of the community, perhaps with support from Teton County, need to create a citizens’ vision for the future of the corridor and a comprehensive corridor action plan for realizing this vision. This action plan should:

• Propose more consistent speed limits for the 7.7-mile Highway 390 corridor that balance various values.

• Increase enforcement of speed limits.

• Determine best use of portable dynamic message signs and fixed radar speed signs.

• Analyze whether removing vegetation or adding streetlights makes 390 more or less safe for people and wildlife.

• Develop pilot projects for testing animal detection systems that detect wildlife near 390 and warn drivers.

• Expedite planning for effective placement and design of wildlife crossings.

• Evaluate design improvements and traffic calming investments such as roundabouts, pedestrian crosswalks, narrower lanes, bulb-outs, bus lanes and medians.

• Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of transferring management of 390 from WYDOT to Teton County, designating 390 as a national scenic byway or designating the corridor a special wildlife management area.

We can make Highway 390 better serve the needs and aspirations of the community. Now is the time.

JH News & Guide Guest Shot by Luther Propst, Nov 4, 2020

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Building More Roads is Like Addressing a Weight Problem by Buying Larger Pants

As seen here in Jackson Hole News & Guide

Guest Shot by Brot Coburn, November 11, 2020

As an older guy I sometimes step back to take a broader look, beyond the time horizon of the daily news cycle. The population of the earth has tripled during my lifetime (I passed this eerie personal milestone on Dec. 5, 2019, by my calculation). The first tertile of that growth took some 500,000 years to unfold. Unconstrained, head-spinning economic expansion, as I’ve witnessed over decades in China and India as well as in the U.S., cannot continue indefinitely.

Perhaps our leaders and citizens can take a moment, too, to ponder the possibilities (and needed sacrifices) of a truly sustainable world and ask at least one pertinent local question: How long can we continue to expand our road network?

Politicians speak nobly about transit, sustainability, the environment, reducing fossil fuel consumption and preserving the character of Jackson Hole.

In a recent survey conducted by Friends of Pathways (“How Do Local Candidates Feel About Pathways?”) the candidates unanimously called for expanding use of alternatives to personal vehicles, and voiced support for the ongoing development of pathways. Yet only Christian Beckwith went on record opposing construction of the Tribal Trails Connector, along with Commissioner Luther Propst.

“One of the most dismaying aspects of serving on the Commission,” Propst wrote, “is the width of the disconnect between the steady stream of aspirational resolutions about climate change, etc., and the real decisions that continue to push our community in the wrong direction.”

What we need are transportation alternatives, not road alternatives. Our abiding task is to address growth, not merely accommodate it or, more typically, build our way out of it.

So what will the community get out of paving a new road at the Tribal Trail Connector, and at what downstream cost?

At the moment it appears to be an expensive, potentially dangerous, environmentally unsound and locally disfavored way to increase the incentive to drive cars more, and ride bikes less. If driving a single-passenger car is easy and enjoyable, why do anything else? Inevitably the connector will be used as a shortcut between south Jackson and Teton Village, through a neighborhood with four schools.

Smarter alternatives exist, and have been proposed by Beckwith and others: congestion pricing, careful transit design (including micro-transit), and smart traffic signals.

When the weather allows, the existing Tribal Trails Pathway has long been my preferred transportation option to south Jackson: I can reach the door of Smith’s grocery from our house in Wilson faster on my e-bike than in a car, even when there’s little vehicle traffic. The pathway allows for this and was a major incentive for me to purchase an e-bike. (Never mind that this travel advantage is thoroughly enjoyable, too — a rather different feeling than I have when driving locally. I do ride responsibly, as we all must.) For half the year e-bikes present a viable alternative to driving for many, and it’s no coincidence that sales are mushrooming.

Once a motorable road connects Highway 22 to Tribal Trail, however, I might as well just drive. In the meantime, I really don’t want to be stuck buying a larger pair of pants.