The Tarrant Transportation Summit, presented by Tarrant County Commissioner Gary Fickes, NTETEXPRESS, and the TRTC, returned after a one-year hiatus on February 10 to present on the following topics:
Transportation and Mobility Outlook for North Texas
Transformation of Texas’ Transit System
Technology in Transportation
A Case Study in Managed Lanes
Update from the Texas Demographic Center
Special presentation from the Texas Comptroller
Immediate past chair of the board Andre McEwing and the Tarrant County College invited our Board of Directors members to attend this program. Andre McEwing, Onyinye Akujuo, Graham Brizendine, Cristal Hernandez-Galvan, and Tyler Arbogast were all in attendance.
An overview of the program & lessons learned were shared by our Board Treasurer - Graham Brizendine.
State, County, and Local leaders realize it is time for action in transportation projects to support the continued needs of our growing community. Russell Laughlin of Hillwood associated the time we live in with the early 1900s and the advent of the automobile and machine technology - Those who shunned the reality of the situation then, fell behind in the future. Those who embraced it saw their cities grow and flourish.
It takes all modes of transportation to make the plan work - and public transit is a large part of the equation. We can build toll roads, Support autonomous vehicles, etc. - but if we leave out public transit, we will continue to have an incomplete puzzle. It takes ALL of the modes for each of the individual modes to work optimally.
Tarrant County is woefully behind in terms of dollars. Nadine Lee from DART commented that they have $100MM of funds in hand with no defined use. Meanwhile, Paul Ballard of Trintiy Metro commented that he ‘hoped’ the increased sales tax revenue would generate $90MM over the original forecast of $80MM this year for transit funding.
Demographic changes are a big part of why we need more rapid acceleration of transit spending. The population is growing, and in the last ~15 years, our growth has changed from natural birth-related growth to domestic migration. This demographic shift has sped up the timeline for the need. While new babies don’t drive or need a new housing unit on day one. Those moving domestically from other states are a day-one draw on resources and present a day-one need. They bring a car with them the day they move here.
A special thank you to Tarrant County College for offering seats for our board to attend this great program.