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

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Decisions Must Be Logical and Science-Based

Letter to Teton County Commissioners from Patrick W. Hattaway and Mallory A. Smith

As property owners in the immediate vicinity (860 Whitehouse Drive) of this proposed road we are requesting your consideration of the following points:

1. When this issue was previously before the Commissioners, it was agreed that work at the “Y” and traffic modeling would be completed prior to construction efforts on the Tribal Trails connector. The “Y” has now been modified once by WYDOT and traffic modeling is supposed to occur this year. We object to a contract that includes any construction commitments prior to the completion of the modeling project. We strongly believe that this project and others facing the town and county must have logical, numeric based science backing decisions and not simply our local beliefs (for and against).

2. We strongly urge you to use the language in Appendix L of the Integrated Transportation Plan as guidance for the connector road. Our understanding of the future connector road was within these terms when we acquired our home and this would allow the neighborhood to maintain it’s residential nature, help to protect the soundscape, and enhance safety.

3. We do not know how the connector road could be built to a larger standard than described in Appendix L without additional construction to the south of Indian Trails. In the intervening years the planning commission has allowed a open market housing development and affordable housing to be built within five feet of South Park Loop. While there is clearly easement for a wider roadway, major construction (removal of the cottonwood trees and adjustments of the just completed pathway) of a larger road through this area would truly devastate those residents – some of whom live there due to our community’s ongoing efforts to house local employees.

4. Jackson now exists on a tourist based economy that several of you base your living on. Having been raised in a California winter/summer resort community, and having spent careers in major units of the National Park Service, we understand local emotions over traffic congestion and the frustrations this can bring. However one road is not going to alter the fact that WYDOT has determined they are going to expand the highways to the south and west – without local ability to route additional traffic in Jackson itself. If someone truly wants to be frustrated – try coming from the north on a summer evening as the Yellowstone visitor traffic backs up past the National Wildlife Museum and sometimes to the National Fish Hatchery. Those of us who work in Grand Teton NP and drive that route have come to expect the traffic, and either accept it for the three months of summer or seek alternative modes of transportation (bicycles). In all honesty, how many months does traffic at the “Y” truly back-up to an intolerable level? This is what the modeling study will hopefully tell all of us.

We look forward to attending the April 10, 2018 meeting to hear each of your thoughts and representation on this issue.

Sincerely,
Patrick W. Hattaway and Mallory A. Smith

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Tribal connector ruse

Letter to the Editor, Jackson Hole News & Guide, April 4, 2018

In an absurd case of putting the cart a (half) mile ahead of the horse, and in conflict with the comprehensive plan’s goal of “preserving and protecting the valley’s ecosystem,” Teton County commissioners have wasted their time and our tax dollars developing an memorandum of understanding with the Wyoming Department of Transportation to design and construct a Tribal Trails connector road. This half-mile, two-lane stretch of road connecting 2244 South Park Loop to Highway 22 would cost just over $6.8 million.

We at the Responsible Growth Coalition remain mystified by the commissioners’ continued breach of their fiduciary obligations to the county’s tax-paying residents.

The memorandum implies a high likelihood that the proposed connector will be approved. It ignores the commissioners’ prior promise to first complete the Cambridge Systematics traffic study, share its results with the public and proceed with Tribal Trails if — and only if — those results demonstrate compelling traffic benefits, particularly at the “Y,” and no viable alternatives to building the new road are available.

WYDOT’s recent upgrade of the “Y” has virtually eliminated its congestion. Induced demand generated by Tribal Trails’ added capacity would quickly offset its immediate benefit and restore the current equilibrium level of traffic, defeating the objective of “alleviating congestion.” In fact, there would be a permanent increase in car volume on our roads, whose contribution to air and noise pollution will come at great cost to the comprehensive plan’s mission.

It is also apparent that the project, were it justified, should not be single-sourced to WYDOT, but rather subject to a competitive bidding process, to obtain valuable information on road construction costs and identify more qualified contractors. Indeed, according to County Engineer Sean O’Malley, a single-source arrangement is unprecedented. More concerning is that WYDOT, by its own admission, has no experience building local county roads. This is demonstrated in its price quote, which is almost double what it was last year when Tribal Trails was proposed as a specific purpose excise tax initiative and over four times the cost cited in public sources. Here is a link to such a source: TinyURL.com/timsylvester.

The issues raised above justify voting against the approval of the memorandum on April 10. The traffic study must be completed first, and if its results justify building the connector, then a competitive request-for-proposals process should be undertaken, soliciting no less than three qualified road contractors (in addition to WYDOT).

Otherwise, the only plausible explanation for insisting on this memorandum (and Tribal Trails in general) now is certain commissioners’ pro-growth agenda and their desire for a development corridor in South Park.

Geoff Gottlieb
Jackson

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Resources prove more roads create more congestion

Adding more road capacity is like buying larger pants to lose weight.

Traffic congestion tends to maintain an equilibrium. As traffic volume and conjestion increases, delays discourage additional peak period trips. If road capacity increases, peak period trips also increase until congestion again limits further traffic growth. It’s called the Law of Induced Demand. Therefore, congestion is actually a good thing in that it limits travel during peak periods and encourages people to travel during off-peak times or use alternative modes of transportation. More or expanded roads in Jackson Hole would make our situation much worse and continue to degrade the ecosystem while diminishing the natural and scenic values that the Comprehensive Plan promises to maintain.

Compiled here are several references to help people understand how more roads or more road capacity actually increases traffic congestion.

City Lab: Traffic Myths

City Lab: More Roads Mean More Traffic

Victoria Policy Institute: Generated Traffic and Induced Travel

Brookings Institute: Why Traffic is Getting Worse

Wired: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse

CityMetric: Does Building More Roads Create More Traffic?

NPR: More Roads Pave Way to More Traffic

Transport Policy Institute: The Principles of Induced Demand

The Drive: How to Fix Traffic Forever

The Economist: How Not to Create Traffic Jams

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Study will create new traffic modeling system

By Melissa Cassutt Jackson Hole Daily | Posted: Thursday, February 9, 2017 4:30 am

Teton County has agreed to help pay the cost of a transportation modeling study that would help determine traffic and transit options in the community.

Commissioners will contribute $50,000 to the study, which is a partnership with the Wyoming Department of Transportation and the town of Jackson. WYDOT and the town will each contribute $50,000.

The work, expected to take six months, will develop software for officials to study how road changes would affect traffic flow on the Jackson Hole road network.

Representatives from the nonprofit Responsible Growth Coalition asked that the study focus on pathways and START bus services.

“We think the scope of work needs to explicitly take into account and direct an analysis of public transit and pathway usage, along with planned investments and improvements that will be made for public transit and pathways,” said Michele Gammer, who sits on the coalition’s board of directors. “It’s not clear how an analysis would be done or how it’s going to be factored in.

“Since we’re trying to change our culture and address some of our traffic issues, we think this is a very important component,” she said.

Coalition members also took issue with the study naming specific roadways for study, namely the Tribal Trails Connector, the [proposed] half-mile road extending Tribal Trails Road to Wyoming 22.

“Given the recent SPET issue — the idea of ‘OK, let’s design and build the Tribal Trail Connector road before any meaningful study has been done about that issue — raised a lot of concern in the public that this study might be used to simply confirm a foregone conclusion,” said Bill Smith, another coalition board member.

The clause in the contract that names Tribal Trails also identifies Spring Gulch Road improvements and “existing roadway and transit networks” as shown in Groups 1 and 3 of the Major Capital Projects of the Integrated Transportation Plan.

Group 1 concerns the “Y” intersection, Tribal Trails and the intersection of Wyoming 22 and 390. Group 3 projects “address traffic that may occur during peak summer months” on Highway 89 north and south of Jackson.

“We can change those. We can choose different ones,” Teton County Public Works Director Sean O’Malley told the commissioners. “What we were trying to do … is look at a couple projects that the consultant could train our local town and county staff as well as WYDOT in the model, and these would be good example projects.”

O’Malley said High School Road, Snow King Avenue or Maple Way could also be used.

“The intent was more as we would get some product, some analysis from the consultant, but really it was more experience for us,” O’Malley said.

The board amended the contract to include “other major capital projects.”

The board approved the contract unanimously. Work is expected to start this month and conclude in August.

“I believe this will have a public engagement process,” Commissioner Natalia Macker said before the vote. “I don’t think it needs to be in the scope of work, but I wanted this board to at least reiterate that.”

 

Read article at JH News & Guide

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Tribal Trails connector off SPET Ballot

The County Commissioners and Town Council members fully removed the design and the construction of a proposed Tribal Trails connector and East-West connector (named “South Park Road Network)” from the proposed May SPET ballot.

On January 23, they removed the construction portion and on January 30, at another public meeting, they removed the design portion. As promised, the valley-wide traffic study will be conducted and WYDOT will begin improvements to the Y intersection in August 2017.

Clearly, there is still resolve among certain elected officials to build these new roads in South Park. Several officials have indicated they plan to use other County funds to do what is needed to tee this up eventually as a new road project. Together, we will need to closely follow their efforts as this continues to unfold.

Many thanks to all who spoke at the meeting or sent in public comment. The comments were overwhelmingly against asking for funding of these new roads at this time.

More info:
SPET written Public Comments.
Today’s JH News & Guide article.
RGC’s Followup Letter.