2-2000 Letter to The Goshen News
An eighteen wheeler semi truck ended up in a 
residential yard on 5th and Madison in Goshen about 
three feet from the bedroom of the house.

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 This letter was published in the Goshen News on February 11, 2000, 
and posted to the Internet, February 16, 2000

I have a letter from INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation) that says they are willing to consider a bypass for Goshen. However, if we want a real bypass around Goshen, our city officials and MACOG have to ask for it from INDOT. Our state senator from Goshen is the chair of the Roads and Transportation committee of the Indiana Senate. Yes, it takes time to plan and build a bypass. But, unless we get it started now, it will take longer. We have to believe INDOT wants to be accountable to our needs. 

Our "public servants" favor their consultant's Thoroughfare Plan. The widening is supported by Goshen's mayor, city council, the Goshen Chamber of Commerce, the county commissioners, and The Goshen News. INDOT has done the surveys and plans to widen the truck route through the middle of our residential areas. Widening the route encourages more traffic. Today's proposal is for Madison Street. Inevitably, without a bypass, it will also have to be South Main and North Main. 

All of Goshen's old town neighborhoods are being downgraded by monster trucks. We shouldn't have to worry about our children being hit by a trucks while playing in their own yards. If we widen the thoroughfare, fewer eighteen wheelers will opt for alternatives such as SR13 and SR19. Our public servants have no plan to require trucks to avoid our neighborhoods. Hundreds and hundreds of citizens have objected. INDOT said they never got so many objections to one of their plans. However, our city officials, county officials, and our newspaper all refuse to listen. Safety hazards, air pollution, neighborhood blight, and noise continue to get worse. How many accidents and health problems can we allow them to inflict on us? Truck drivers prefer a bypass.

Apparently our local officials still like the antiquated notion of trucks and doublewide houses going right through the heart of Goshen. Apparently our elected officials want us to suffer the safety hazards. Our public servants want us to get sick from pollution. Our public servants want our peace  to be disturbed by the noise. They are not willing to ask INDOT to build a bypass for Goshen.

If you think the Northern Connector Route is a good alternative, please see this web site: http://www.bartelart.com/traffic/NCR.htm

If this letter sounds like a NIMBY (not in my backyard) complainer, you are invited to my website that explains the democratic citizen obligations of NIMBYs to resist the organized efforts of the PIMBYs (please in my backyard). Visit http://www.bartelart.com/traffic/PIMBY.htm

Yours truly, 
Marvin Bartel
 

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Marvin Bartel 
www.bartelart.com

problems and solutions in Goshen, IN

• City Centers Need More Traffic Congestion. Would you believe it? When you provide a bypass for the trucks and doublewide homes, the retailers do benefit.

 

 
 
 

"Enthusiasts of traffic calming point to places like Winter Park, near Orlando in Florida, where traffic moves very slowly through narrow, tree-lined streets, with plenty of parking and the kind of lively retail scene that seems to be deserting other US cities." http://www.globalideasbank.org/crespec/CS-134.HTML

In Goshen, a very small percentage of the trucks are making downtown deliveries, and they can do it during off peak hours and at night. NOT ONE of the double-wide houses is making a downtown delivery. The so-called "local truck traffic" is, for the most part, being generated by commerce and industry on the edges of Goshen and nearby towns.

Do you know that if a trucker wants to drive to or from a southeast plant near US33 and CR38 or CR40, they are required to first go to downtown Goshen before they can go to or from New Paris, Warsaw, Nappanee, or Milford south of Goshen? This is their shortest route. They actually are forced by current truck route rules to detour to downtown Goshen. Many companies have several plants and they move lots of inventory from plant to plant. This so-called local traffic could move around Goshen on a bypass rather than first going downtown to get on another highway.

A properly designed limited access bypass accommodates industry and commerce on the edges of the city. It allows the trucks servicing the edges of the city to exit the city, no matter which way they are headed.  The center of the city becomes off limits to through trucks and once again becomes a friendly and inviting place for people. 

This Traffic Congestion theory from a Wall Street Journal article also states that we should not widen the streets to facilitate faster traffic flow. This link is a summary from the article in Wall Street Journal (Aug. 7, '96).See this link for more on this theory.
 

• NIMBYS vs PIMFYS: An illustrated essay from a Not-In-My-Backyard person about the Please-In-My-Front-Yard people who are responsible for much of Goshen's traffic problems. 

• The Goshen News Online: These pages may include something about this topic, depending on what the editors decide to put online. Here are the lyrics of the "Land of Goshen" song written by third graders at Chandler Elementary School. Chandler has the school crossing doomed to become more hazardous by the INDOT's street widening proposal for Madison Street. INDOT and local city officials want to accommodate the 18 wheelers and the double-wide houses passing the school. Chandler Elementary is also on Eighth Street, as is Parkside Elementary School.  MACOG's traffic projections predict much heavier traffic on Eighth Street with this Thoroughfare Project than with a Bypass Project for Goshen. Also see Diesel Smoke and consider its effect on the our children.

• 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."

 
• Here is a site that helps ordinary citizens with good ideas face the power of City Hall.

It is called, "THE CONTROL GAME"  It is a guide for recognizing political control used by corporations, consultant firms, and government entities. Yes, we can resist bad ideas from City Hall, INDOT, and their consultants. This site helps us recognize the strategies they can use against us.
 
• What is Quality of Life in a Neighborhood? This site lists what is important to people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 
• 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.

Links to government agencies, representatives, and candidates your can write, e-mail, or phone with your questions, opinions, and ideas. 
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• The INDOT home page. E-mail: indot@ai.org

• The MACOG home page. E-mail: macogdir@goshen.edu

• Senator Marvin Riegsecker, Chairman, Roads and Transportation, Indiana State Senate. E-mail: S12@ai.org

• Indiana Rep. John D. Ulmer,  Elkhart County Representative. E-Mail: R49@ai.org 

• Indiana Historic Architecture  A place to add some Goshen buildings

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