Letter to State Senator Riegsecker

---

 The following is taken from a letter written to Goshen's
Indiana State Senator Marvin Riegsecker,
dated May 30, 1998, written by Marvin Bartel, posted to the Internet, June, '99.
Riegsecker is Senate Chairman of Roads and Transportation for Indiana.

---

MY FEARS 
If we allow the current proposal(s) (simply widening residential streets to four and five highway lanes) to go through, will there be enough incentive and political will to get the bypass project underway? If bypass planning does get underway, will it move at a very slow pace unless we are actually suffering? Will this internal city and county widening gradually ruin the city and the surrounding countryside? If the bypass is ever built, will the damage have been done from these internal projects and other similar projects? 

Is the peripheral road proposal on county roads one more halfway measure that simply reduces the pain temporarily, but does not cure the illness? In a few years annexation may take those roads into the city. Either way (city or county) local maintenance funds are used to repair damage done by through traffic. Truck traffic is many times more damaging than car traffic. Why should local governments take on this burden from the state? 

PERIPHERAL ROAD FEAR
Another fear relates to uncontrolled development along any nearby peripheral road with high traffic levels. Because of truck noise, it is not a good place for residential development, but it is certainly attractive to commercial and industrial developers. Three persons who happen to be county commissioners hold all the power to allow any developer zoning changes. History is not too encouraging on the point of professional planning and zoning in our county. 

Because of pre-existing development, driveways, and intersections along the roads being proposed for the peripheral roads, speeds will be slow and stops will be too frequent. It may still be quicker to go through the middle of Goshen on INDOT's wider thoroughfare. 

THE HARD WAY FOR NOW IS THE RIGHT WAY FOR THE FUTURE
Unfortunately, we probably have to endure a few more years of worsening congestion, safety hazards, and periodic gridlock in order to convince the governing bodies, the designers, and the planners, that a bypass is actually needed. If we encourage or allow these halfway fixes, don't we damage more and more community and never solve the problem? 

THE LONG TERM SOLUTION
Doesn't a limited access bypass reduces internal traffic and maintenance expense on many city and county roads forever, as compared to what these traffic levels and expenses would be without a bypass? Wouldn't these savings more than justify giving up state maintenance and control of US 33 through town? If the bypass is US33, wouldn't the state build and maintain that road forever - regardless how busy it gets? Wouldn't the city and county be relieved of repairing extra damage caused by through traffic that currently elects roads that are locally maintained. 

Most through traffic is probably repeat traffic. This includes commuters and truckers. Repeat through-traffic migrates to the quickest route of least resistance. Commuters and truckers do not stay on state maintained roads (unless these are the best choices or drivers are forced to do so by the police). Currently, according the mayor, police are not enforcing truck routes because the downtown is too congested. A bypass, no matter how long it takes, is the only good solution I 
see. Why destroy neighborhoods, health and safety, and properties in the city with this INDOT project? 

Respectfully, 
Marvin Bartel, May 30, 1998 

Goshen, Indiana has the dubious distinction of being a city where you could be killed by a house as you cross Main Street.

Marvin Bartel 
www.bartelart.com

Links to more pictures, essays, about the traffic 
problems and solutions in Goshen, IN

• Home
• NIMBYS vs PIMFYS: An illustrated essay from an Not In My Backyard person about the Please In My Front Yard people who are responsible for much of our problem.
• The Goshen News Online: These pages may include something about this topic, depending on what the editors decide to put online.
• See a photograph of what a well planned roadway should look like. "Most Frederictorians commute to work in less than ten minutes. Traffic jams are unheard of . . . . City Planning authorities have provided Frederictorians with an environment second to none."
• See a referendum ballot initiative from the League of Women Voters of  El Dorado County, California, that would charge developers for the cost of roadways needed as the result of their development. In Indiana, we all pay for roads even though we have no profits from the developments. Furthermore, homeowners and landowners are forced to submit to eminent domain appraisals which may not fairly compensate for the losses suffered, particularly when family homesteads are destroyed or when beautiful front yards are mutilated. Who should be paying these costs when large corporate developers benefit at the expense of the average taxpayer and property owner? Is eminent domain actually the best way to deal with the powerless homeowner when the need for the road improvements is clearly the result of new development?
• Top of this letter to Indiana State Senator Marvin Riegsecker