KDOT priorities: Billions for building, bupkis for biking | Commentary

The Kansas Department of Transportation overlooked a lot at their “consult” in Wichita a few weeks ago, as they devoted all their $5.6 B-B-B-Billion to cars, trucks, speed and pulling past errors into our future.

Nope to diversity: The 150 decision-makers looked and sounded alike. All were white, 80% guys and 20% women, aged 40-70.

No people of color, young people or disabled folks? No police, school or hospital folks? Academics, students, social workers? Any of the of the one-third of Kansans who do not drive? No.

No word on climate change: Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas in the U.S. One national media source calls the climate emergency, “the catastrophe to end all other catastrophes.” Just manufacturing of cement produces 6% of CO2 worldwide.

Against that backdrop, about half of KDOT’S big money was for “expansion,” not repair or maintenance. It amazed me that there was no mention of using KDOT’s vehicle money to avoid or reduce future droughts and the extreme heat that challenges agriculture, wildlife, water, air or soil.

Safety? The middle-aged white dude near me was dismayed he heard nothing about safety — because he’d recently been hit on his motorcycle while legally, cautiously crossing U.S. 254. Many roadway crashes are not inevitable incidents, but largely predictable and preventable with better designs.

Speed? Yes, that was the foundational assumption. Although speed kills, the faster the roadways, the better. To me “eco-devo” —economic development— doesn’t mean faster and faster speeds and bigger and bigger vehicles.

To these groupthinkers, it does.

What else wasn’t discussed at the “consult”?

▪ Innovation: I heard nothing new, just extending past precedents.

▪ Freight: Little mention of the army of heavy-duty double- and triple-trailers that pay little extra for their stress on our roads and bridges.

▪ Air quality from increasing fossil fuel emissions? No.

▪ Driverless vehicles? No.

▪ Any other transportation? No. In fact, advocates for rail, aviation, transit, bike/ped were sequestered in a separate room. None got one cent of the $5.6 billion.

A new federal rule says states and urban areas will be required to set goals to reduce carbon emissions from cars and trucks, and the first targets must be met by Feb 1. Shouldn’t “transportation” have been widened to include other ways to get around?

But KDOT is not the only state entity overlooking wider transportation essentials. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment could also connect transportation to health. KDHE could facilitate biking, scootering, walking and outdoorsiness to improve individuals’ and society’s physical and mental health.

The risk of most chronic conditions—including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers--can be avoided or reduced with moderate physical activity. In addition to or instead of expensive pills, procedures, injections and surgeries, lifestyle choices can be helped by walking or bicycling for groceries, schools, stress relief, healthful independence, clean air. Active, equitable movement can significantly reduce the fast-growing epidemic of chronic diseases and their high medical costs. Whoops, alternate transportation to enable low-cost wellness must also be safe from vehicle speed and crashes. Hmmm…inequality. Again.

The KDOT groupthinkers’ decisions will cost $5.6 billion tax dollars statewide over the next ten years. The public assumes those dollars are for cars, but they are ideal for heavyweight trucks, the really, really big ones that damage highways and stress bridges. And although the public widely assumes that gas taxes pay for highways, that’s only a part of it: the federal gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1993 nor the Kansas gas tax since 2003. Sales taxes are almost 40% of KDOT’s income for the year ending June 30, 2023.

Other states are innovating new ways to relieve congestion and to support other movement choices. A few examples include incentivizing the purchase of nimble electric scooters and bicycles. Carpooling. “Places for People” neighborhood nodes so folks don’t need to drive to errands, parks, schools, churches. Painting bright lines for safe routes for walkers, bicyclists and scooterists, for children, disabled and seniors. For the health and safety of everybody.

I am joyous to hear bits of good news outside the October KDOT consult. I’ve learned there are a few other pots of funding separate from KDOT’s vehicle-focused $5.6 billion. Okay, those other pots are much smaller, but still.

Some towns and counties are applying directly to the feds for grants for safe walking and biking; there’s a distant possibility of area passenger trains; and there’s some federal money to potentially improve air quality in 2025.

Those groupthinking decision-makers are good people for sure, but so are the other Kansans excluded from the Really Big Bucks to enable and expand vehicles, no matter their dangers, air pollution or inequity.

Transportation by the people, for the people? I wish.

Jane Byrnes is an instructor at Wichita State University and a member of The Eagle Community Editorial Advisory Board.