Area transit best solution for pollution
by Bernie Scheffler, editor-in-chief

    Last week as I was riding my bike to school, I was having some trouble focusing on the traffic around me.

   It was humid out, so I thought my glasses were fogging up; the visibility was that bad. But when I removed my glasses to wipe them off, the haze remained.

   Here is the worst part: I wasn’t surprised. The same thing has happened to me quite a few times in the past few years, but I think it’s a good illustration of just how bad metroplex air quality is getting.

   Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr is finally beginning to recognize the need for a regional transportation authority. He proposes a one-cent sales tax (instead of the current half-cent) to help pay for a “regional transportation umbrella organization.”

   Such an organization is necessary because of the way local cities run together. A commuter rail system, such as the successful Trinity Railway Express, might run through multiple counties and even more cities.

   There’s just no way for each city to be effective with separate transit authorities.

   Perhaps the most disappointing part of this dilemma is that voters had a chance to avoid this problem more than 20 years ago.

   In 1980 voters in Dallas and Tarrant counties denied a proposal for a regional Lone Star Transportation Authority.

   In 1980 traffic was not even close to today’s levels, and our air quality problem had not yet become visible. The voters, in their usual selfish fashion, decided they didn’t want to pay any more taxes.

   Maybe voters shouldn’t be trusted with such an important decision. They’ve voted the idea down once, and we all know how people react to increases in taxes.

   No matter how many new, wider roads we build, they’ll still get clogged by six-passenger SUVs with only one person in them.

   We need a regional authority to make mass transit an efficient alternative way to get around the Metroplex.

   Maybe then we could gradually start to see the Fort Worth skyline on summer mornings again.