Going Places: Streets, Sidewalks, Alleys, Traffic & Transportation

For over two and a half years, I've attended meetings of the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition and the Rockwall County Transportation Infrastructure Coalition. I've learned that the transportation problems we face are the same all over DFW. This is a regional problem that requires a combination of localized and regional solutions. If elected mayor, I will reach out to surrounding cities to participate in cooperative efforts to find those solutions.

I propose that the council create a new subcommittee devoted to transportation issues in general or alternatively, one more narrow in scope to address issues and foster the city's relationship with DART. As mayor, I would continue to pursue that.

Some of the top complaints I hear from Rowlett residents are:

"<Insert name of major thoroughfare, secondary artery, or neighborhood street> is in terrible condition. It needs to be fixed ASAP."
"All the streets are under construction all at the same time. The city should coordinate those projects better."
"It takes half an hour to drive to the other side of town. I used to do it in fifteen."
"It's really hard to find your way around here. Too many streets dead-end."
"Why is it so difficult to walk from my home to restaurants and stores? There are long expanses without sidewalks."
"I hate driving to Dallas, but I don't ride on DART. I'm afraid for my safety."

These are legitimate concerns. Citizens rightly want to know what I, as a mayoral candidate, plan to do about them. First, a caveat: councilmembers, including the mayor, are prohibited by the charter from interfering in operational matters. Transportation issues include both policy and operation.

Division of responsibility

Elected officials have authority over the budget, policies, and ordinances. The council can allocate the money to fix the streets, set policies defining criteria for prioritizing street repairs, and pass ordinances assigning responsibility for street and sidewalk maintenance (for example, making homeowners responsible for repairing their sidewalks or making HOAs responsible for street repairs in a gated community).

The council may, by consensus, advise the city manager regarding the order in which they would like to see the streets fixed. But the city manager ultimately has control over the scheduling and details of the work.

Some issues fall under the purview of the city and some don't. Interstate highways such as I-30 and state highways such as SH 66/Lakeview Parkway come under the auspices of TXDOT. The tollway belongs to NTTA. Thoroughfares such as Dalrock and Rowlett Road, along with residential streets that are open to the public, are the city's responsibility.

It's this multijurisdictional factor that contributes to multiple roads are being worked on at the same time.

My positions

I am very much in favor of continuing and expanding the effort to bring concrete and asphalt work in-house as much as possible, where the city has more control and can hold workers accountable. There are situations that require expensive specialized equipment for a one-off job and in those cases, it makes sense to hire a contractor, but for most street, road, and alley repair, I believe the best solution and most cost-effective option is to do it ourselves.

I won't make empty promises that I can't deliver just to get votes. Here are some of my thoughts on transportation issues:

Congestion - The traffic problem won't be solved in a couple of years. The city has been diligently widening roads, but the population keeps growing. As mayor, I would advocate for measures to help alleviate the congestion, including ongoing improvement of the infrastructure, encouraging carpooling, walking, and bicycling, and working with DART to improve safety and convenience of public transportation.
Navigation - The lake is our city's greatest and most beautiful asset, but it complicates the road layout. Bridges are expensive and complicated to build. As mayor, I would support reducing traffic bottlenecks by implementing strategies such as improving traffic signal coordination, adding dedicated lanes for specific traffic types, and widening road sections at choke points.
Road Conditions - Progress has been made on surface repairs - pothole patching, panel replacement, and reconstruction. The repair methods that last longest also cost the most and cause the most disruption while in progress. As mayor, I would support the continuation and expansion of our newly established in-house concrete and asphalt crews.
Walkability - The city has focused on trails in parks and along the public lakefront or within subdivisions. These are great for getting exercise and enjoying nature, but as mayor, I would advocate for building more sidewalks for functionality, which people can use to get out of the neighborhoods and walk all the way to the retail and entertainment areas.
DART - Full disclosure: I was not in favor of bringing DART into the city. I wish Rowlett wasn't at the end of the line. I don't like that our sales tax allocation to DART prevents us from being able to create an economic development corporation that could fund some of the projects we all want. But the rail system is here, and we can't undo that. As mayor, I would be committed to working with the DART board on behalf of our citizens to get the safety concerns addressed and would negotiate to make the relationship as financially and practically beneficial to our city as possible.