BEST OF TIMES ARTICLES:
March 2008 (Johnson County Human Services and Aging monthly newsletter)
Transportation – just where are we going?
In 2008, Johnson County will begin redefining its transportation future. The definition will not be about funding light rail or abandoning the bus system, a tax increase or a reallocation of existing spending; it will be about process change.
Good process yields good decisions. Process is often dull, while the decision excites. However, a process involving an important decision that is exclusionary, mysterious, or apparently random creates a lot of negative excitement.
One does not have to be too imaginative to realize that transportation is important to the Johnson County Community.
In the nation, all levels of government are involved in allocating money for the maintenance and construction of transportation mediums. In Johnson County, it is roughly estimated that over the past three years local governments annually have overseen spending between $175 to $320 million on transportation projects.
County government maintains and rebuilds the road system in unincorporated Johnson County, grants $15.4 million to our cities and operates the JO Bus system with federal, state and local tax dollars.
You may be aware that in 2005, at the State of the County Address, County Chairman Annabeth Surbaugh announced the creation of seven future focused task forces. Each commissioner was given an area of interest, mine is transportation. The Transportation Task Force set to work in the summer of 2005. Thirty-six of our neighbors invested 24 hours participating in eight meetings of the task force and produced a 22-page report delivered to the County Commission in April 2006.
The report concluded with the following:
“The greater Johnson County community must work within a system that coordinates resources more effectively to expand capacity and maintain mobility, develop in a way that supports transportation choices and uses technology to obtain additional capacity from the existing system. The cost of maintaining the existing transportation system is identified as an issue which both supports mobility and challenges investments in capacity.”
The task force made a number of specific recommendations to maintain and enhance mobility. However, they recognized that a report in itself doesn’t mean much without a path to implementation and further consideration. The task force identified fragmentation of governmental responsibility within Johnson County as both a strength and weakness. Rather than recommend the creation of larger governmental entity, the task force recommended the creation of the Transportation Cooperation Council:
“Planning and coordination are critical to a successful transportation system and especially one with limited resources. The task force recommends that the Board of County Commissioners support the creation and ongoing funding of a permanent forum to be known as The Transportation Cooperation Council (TCC) for elected policy makers, staff members and constituency groups within Johnson County communities to collaborate on transportation and associated land use issues.”
When the task force report was delivered in 2006, the County Commission endorsed moving forward with the TCC concept by formally discussing it with our cities. City and the county representatives drafted a formal charter for the TCC. Over the next couple of months the County Commission and our City Councils will be voting on approving the charter and joining the TCC.
The promise of the TCC lies in the fact that it will be a collaborative body to help our local governments have a bigger picture view of transportation within Johnson County and our region. The consensus evolving from the TCC provides an opportunity for the community to set priorities on transportation that are not possible in the current fragmented state. The TCC will also more effectively plug Johnson County into the emerging Kansas transportation planning structure.
As we age, our physical capability degrades. Unfortunately, this inescapable reality is one we all want to deny. Our present transportation system relies almost exclusively on the use of the personal automobile. While driving is second nature to most of us, it is also a demanding exercise of our physical capabilities. It is clear to many, that as our community becomes more age diverse, our personal automobile transportation system may become unsustainable. Instead of struggling with this situation silently until sheer numbers or tragedy forces us to act, the TCC can and should provide our community the opportunity to be proactive in making changes necessary to address this and other transportation issues.
The TCC is about creating a process. This is an opportunity for our community to prioritize the solutions needed to meet our transportation future. The TCC will test whether good process yields good decisions.
Please share your thoughts on this issue with me (john.segale@jocogov.org 913-715-0432) or visit my county website (www.johnsegale.com) for more information.