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

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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.

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Tribal Trail: bad timing for a big price tag

The Tribal Trail Connector – a half-mile segment connecting the existing Tribal Trail Road to Highway 22 in northern South Park – has been steadily working its way through the county’s approval process. As the date for the Board of County Commissioners to decide whether to advance the road process nears (on June 2), so do budget decisions in a fiscal crisis. So far, the projected cost to the county ranges from $2-3M, with a total project cost ranging from $8-17M. Given the controversial process thus far, and the commissioner’s own time, bandwidth, and funding constraints, we asked commissioners to put Tribal Trail on the back burner and not to fund it this year. Not to mention that the future of Tribal Trail is also closely tied to future development plans for northern South Park, which (if now is the time to consider its development) needs full funding for holistic planning.

May 20, 2020

Teton County Board of County Commissioners

RE: Please put the Tribal Trail project on hold

Dear Madam Chair Macker and Commissioners,

Thank you for the extensive time and detailed considerations each of you has made into determining next year’s budget given the COVID-19 funding crisis. We last wrote to you expressing our support for fully funding a neighborhood plan for northern South Park, if you believe now is the time to consider development there. In contrast, please put the Tribal Trail road on the back burner and do not fund it now.

Road building is a costly process, whether in staff time, consultant services, stakeholder facilitation, or construction. The cost to the county alone was last budgeted at $2.4-$3.2 million, and the entire project could reach $8-17M. Of course, you have not yet made a decision on whether or not to build the Tribal Trail road, let alone decided on the design that would determine final costs – so these numbers are rough guesses.

This discussion has long been controversial. We find it extremely significant that most of the stakeholder group asked that the process be halted – and that their request was not honored. A controversial proposal like this places a real burden on our community members to engage meaningfully during an ongoing public health crisis. And it adds a cost to your own decision-making bandwidth when you clearly have higher priorities.

Right now, and in the coming year, our community and our elected leaders should be most focused on core government services that provide for human health – whether that’s public health, human services, water quality planning and management, responsible planning, or conservation. These last few months have repeatedly demonstrated the fundamental value of these services for our mental and physical health. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, where can this money, whether several thousand for facilitation or many million for a road, be put to better use?

Please focus your limited budget and limited time on more-important, less-controversial projects, and put the unnecessary Tribal Trail project on hold for at least a year or indefinitely.

Sincerely,

Signature Brooke Sausser community planner

Brooke Sausser

Community Planning Manager

Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance

This letter appeared in the JH News and Guide and was reposted on the JH Conservation Alliance website

This letter to the Teton County Commissioners can be download it here.

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Tribal Trails Project Charter
is Flawed

The Board of County Commissioners (BCC) unanimously approved a Project Charter Document for the proposed Tribal Trails Connector Road (TTCR) at their July 3rd, 2018 meeting, disregarding the overwhelming public comment voiced against it even with it being released to the public only five days prior to their vote. This action is contrary to the BCC’s stated mission of upholding the Comprehensive Plan. The proposed TTCR would be a $7 million public expense that would likely damage the fundamental qualities of Jackson Hole that its residents and visitors value most.

Justification for this project is set forth in The Project Charter Document’s “Objectives”, which is a list of potential benefits. The problem is that none of these objectives has to date been substantiated by any data, analysis or other evidence, nor have any such benefits been evaluated relative to the project’s $7 million price tag and the risks it poses to Valley’s environment. We note that the Project Charter’s Risk Assessment indicates “The risk of failing to achieve the Project Objectives is moderate to high.”

There are many research studies conducted by leading traffic experts and consultants available on the impact of new or expanded roads in communities where demand far exceeds supply. Part of RGC’s mission is to be informed advocates on the subject of road policy, which qualifies us to review and comment on each of these claims, as follows:

1. “Safety – To improve emergency vehicle access and provide route redundancy in and around West Jackson and South Park.”

Emergency vehicle access is already available (and has been used) through Indian Springs Ranch (ISR). Furthermore, emergency vehicles can travel along the existing pathway. The number of instances in which this need arises in a calendar year is less than a handful.

The “redundancy” the proposed TTCR would provide is from US-26/89 at High School Road to WY-22 at Indian Springs Road. Today, three separate routes already exist from Highway 89 to South Park (High School Road and the north and south road intersections of South Park Loop Road). We question the need for yet another route given how seldom the 2.5 mile route along US-89 and WY-22 is totally blocked.

2. “Environmental Protection – To provide better connectivity and capacity in order to reduce vehicle miles travelled and vehicle emissions.”

We believe this assertion to be untrue.

The proposed TTCR would damage the delicate environment of the dedicated open space conservation easement that it would bisect, and result in wildlife habitat fragmentation. In addition, the traffic it would carry would generate additional emissions and noise pollution. We don’t see how this qualifies as “environmental protection”.

The proposed TTCR would not reduce miles traveled. In fact, it would induce demand, leading to increased traffic volumes overall, therefore increasing emissions, noise, and hazards to wildlife. In addition, the proposed TTCR route from High School Road to WY-22 is longer at 2.9 miles than staying on US-26/89 and WY-22 (2.5 miles).

3. “Cost Effectiveness – To reduce vehicle miles travelled and thus reduce travel costs for the community.”

This claim is unfounded.

The proposed TTCR would actually increase vehicle miles traveled, and therefore the community’s travel costs.

4. “Roadway Network Compatibility – To provide network redundancy to reduce local trips through the Y intersection. To minimize delays caused by maintenance operations and crashes on US-26/89 and WY-22. These events can isolate the Town from Teton Village, Wilson, and other West Bank areas.”

It is not clear why there is any need to reduce local trips through the Y intersection. The Y intersection’s recent upgrade increased its capacity significantly, eliminating it as a bottleneck, even at peak hours during the busiest weeks in this summer season. As noted several times in the past, the new road would only encourage more drivers and more frequent trips, with no impact on demand at the Y intersection.

The redundancy value in the event of accidents is noted above. The same value in the event of road works is also questionable, given that such road works are only relevant along the section of WY-22 from ISR to the Y intersection and from the Y intersection down to High School Road.

5. “Multimodal Function – To provide more direct routing for START transit services and Teton County School District buses between South Park and the West Bank.”

This claim is unsupported.

The proposed TTCR route in fact would be at least 0.4 miles longer and, assuming there would be a lower speed limit and traffic calming features, would take longer to travel on than using US-26/89 and WY-22.

We also note that no mention of the Traffic Study by Cambridge Systematics (currently underway at a cost of $150,000) is made in the Project Charter Document. The BCC previously promised residents to complete the Study, share its results with the public, and, if and only if those results justified the proposed TTCR from a traffic alleviation standpoint, proceed with its design and construction. The BCC have broken this promise. (As an aside, we can’t see how the Study, if conducted properly, would show any material traffic alleviation benefit, given the recent improvements at the Y intersection and the agreement by Cambridge Systematics to account for induced demand in its analysis).

Nevertheless, the BCC continue to ignore these facts and the majority opposition to the proposed TTCR, as they have for the past several years, to press ahead with this expensive enterprise which would compromise the valley’s pristine and unique environment. As such, the BCC are neither upholding the Comprehensive Plan’s mission nor serving the best interests of county residents.

RGC intends to continue efforts to inform the public of the facts about the high cost and dubious benefits of the proposed TTCR. We hope that our future leaders will make decisions based on fact and verifiable data while fully considering the real impacts that transportation infrastructure decisions have on Jackson Hole’s neighborhoods, ecosystem and economy.