Cap Metro workshop of Oak Hill
Last night's Cap Metro meeting was a introduction to their current and future plans, which included a variety of different kinds of buses, contributions to Austin's Hike and Bike trail systems, Park-N-Ride, and a freight rail line that they are now operating.
They will be back in June to host a workshop, which will be our opportunity to help them design and plan for our SW Austin transportation needs. They are intersted in things people need and places people need to go, and real ways to help reduce our growning traffic congestion problems.
You can make a difference in just a couple hours at this workshop. They will bring back the suggestions that about 20 people gave them and wrote down for them on some big charts.
Unlike the TxDOT/CTRMA meeting, Cap Metro has many things already working for us and they are very open to new ideas - it's not just about buses!
They are very interested in the Hike & Bike trail systems in Austin and recently purchased an $80,000 bridge over Waller Creek. (That's something TxDOT will never do for us.)
On the other hand, the TxDOT/CTRMA meeting at Kiker was even more dismal than the last one. If anything, the issues were more vague and answers were less encouraging. They just aren't listening and they only thing they could offer was building more roads. - very, very expensive new roads and new Tolls on the roads we already paid for.
The only comment I heard that made any sense, was to put tolls on all the roads, not just pieces fo them, if you have to do it at all. A gasoline tax would work, but of course, it's a political hot potato that nobody wants to endorse.
