Springfield Chamber
Attended by almost 20 professionals from various governmental agencies, state, county and local, along with representatives from various transportation related trades, construction, materials, labor, etc.
Each agency gives updates on progress and issues they face in our community.
The new bus station downtown is now complete is looking like it will be successful in being cleaner, safer and more efficient, hopefully boosting bus riding with greater ease and comfort for our citizens who do not have access to vehicles, or prefer to help decrease the traffic on our roads.
Sara Fields with OTO handed out a 20 page detailed MoDOT SW District 2017-2021 Highway and Bridge Construction Schedule detailing all the many projects underway and planned all over our community. Anyone who feels our tax dollars are being wasted really don’t know the facts. Many great projects for more efficient and safer transportation are in the works which takes money and our tax dollars are being used very well.
We received several reports about the legislative session, most of which concerned all the important bills that did *not* pass; a disappointing session overall, in my humble opinion.
Locally, many of the ongoing projects are of the nature that most of us don’t notice, but which bring safety and aesthetic improvements to our city, such as safer sidewalks and crosswalks, better lighting, ‘streetscapes,’ storm water, curbs, ADA ramps, etc.
A point was raised regarding how slow traffic moves through the city, and whether the lights could be timed better. I commented that much of this is affected by driver behavior. Drivers need to pay greater attention to their driving, traffic and lights, so they move more efficiently. The best computerized light timing system won’t work properly if the drivers are slow to take off and don’t follow the speed limits on which the light timing systems are based.
A new and very interesting perspective not ordinarily a big issue with transportation is the water quality regulations, run off, and storm water management. The regulations pose greater complications with design and construction as well as maintenance. The goals are good (clean water) but the application of the rules and evolution of the regulations is a painful process for many entities that never had to deal with these matters to this degree in the past.
All in all, a very good and informative meeting.