March 25, 1999

Open Letter to OKC-area Citizens from Sierra Club, Oklahoma Chapter

First, the MIS does NOT capture the whole Outer Loop issue. The MIS is the latest of many Outer Loop studies performed over the past 30 years. The MIS is important because of its broad scope, its comprehensiveness, and because under federal rules it requires public input. However, Oklahoma state law has authorized studies of the Loop for decades—and possibly its construction as well—through the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA), an agency that plans & builds new roads as it sees fit with virtually no public input or oversight. The NAFTA Trade Corridor study adds more complexity, as it may recommend that an I-35 bypass be built around OKC. Such a bypass COULD be integrated with an Outer Loop, but it need not be. The bottom line: the recently announced "death" of the eastern half of the Loop within the MIS does NOT guarantee that an east-side highway won't be built.

Second, building a Loop is merely ONE OF MANY ways to relieve future traffic congestion. There are many reasons to avoid building a Loop; we explain them in detail in our Loop position paper, available upon request from opitz@qns.com. The MIS examined several "non-road solutions" that relieve congestion WITHOUT a Loop, including better bus service, better train service (commuter rail for people, intermodal truck/rail combinations for freight), dedicated carpooling lanes, and incentives to reduce the number of vehicles on existing roads during peak traffic periods (ride sharing, telecommuting, shifting work schedules, congestion pricing). In the MIS's preliminary analysis, 4 of the top 5 solutions, and 7 of the top 11, were non-road solutions.

Third, supporting the MIS's "no-build" alternative by itself is an ineffective response to expected future traffic congestion. No-build means we make no transportation system improvements beyond current commitments. The Sierra Club supports a better approach: "no-build PLUS the non-road options," allowing us to relieve congestion WITHOUT a Loop. We encourage local City Councils to support the non-road options explicitly, and to communicate this support to the highest levels of state government.

Finally, if our government agencies and politicians behave properly, OKC-area communities WILL NOT lose their influence over Outer Loop-related issues by opposing construction of a Loop road. The Outer Loop MIS is headed by the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG). If a city is an ACOG member in good standing, that city should not lose its membership privileges because of its stance on any public policy issue. When people say otherwise, they probably really mean: "Gee, we're doing something unexpected. The people in power won't like us for it, and may even punish us." If this thinking is correct, we have a great example of broken government, and the citizens need to start fixing it immediately. Our government will behave only if we insist that it behave.

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