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This letter was written in mid September, 1999, by Marvin Bartel (published in the Goshen News on October 3, 1999), posted to the Internet, October, 21, '99 In the Thursday, Sept. 23, Goshen News it was reported that our mayor is consulting yet one more traffic consultant. Why? Most of the citizens of Goshen know what is needed, but he wants to convince us otherwise. We have a very bad traffic plan from Wolpert from Indianapolis. Unfortunately, this ill-conceived Thoroughfare Plan is currently being supported by our city and county governments, by MACOG, and by INDOT. An overwhelming proportion of public opinion here in Elkhart County and Goshen is clearly against their proposals. The late local public servants, Phillip Warner and Larry Chupp, were very clear about the need for a limited access bypass for Goshen. Too many of our remaining public servants are unwilling to listen to the public. They stubbornly hold to outdated and unrealistic patchwork solutions planned by the firm they hired. Who needs to spend more on consultants and traffic counts? We know that we have too much truck and manufactured house traffic through the heart of Goshen. On June 29, 1999, James Burke, author of The Knowledge Web, 1999, made a statement on an NPR radio interview, "If somebody wants to put nuclear waste in your backyard, you don't have to understand the half-life of radioactivity in order to have an opinion." I am not saying traffic is similar to nuclear waste. I'm saying, "When a Goshen child gets hurt or killed by an interstate truck while she crosses a neighborhood street in Goshen she is just as hurt or dead as if she suffered cancer from a Three Mile Island accident". A Goshen College student was very seriously injured on Main Street after INDOT widened it to four lanes in that area. We have unreasonably hazardous traffic in Goshen. I am saying, "Too much traffic is now in our back yards. Too much traffic is now in our front yards. We need to speak out, to write, and we need to vote in order to get a better solution." The ill-conceived Thoroughfare Plan keeps the interstate trucks on South Main and on North Main. Downtown it only moves the interstate trucks to other side of courthouse. This is a "consultants" solution. Goshen is being overrun by southbound and northbound interstate traffic being dumped by recent Toll Road interchanges added at Bristol and CR17. Goshen needs to challenge the Toll Road, MACOG, and INDOT to solve the problems it has created by these "convenient" interchanges. In fact, they were built with funds collected from tolls that were to have been discontinued once the road was paid for according to the original Toll Road agreement with us. Our ill-conceived Thoroughfare Plan also continues to route the long
outdated highway from Fort Wayne to South Bend right through Goshen's heart.
Previous INDOT bypass proposals for this route were never built because
Goshen business interests lobbied against being bypassed. They are PIMFY
(please in my front yard) citizens who accuse the majority of us of being
NIMBY (not in my backyard) people. I am quite proud to be a NIMBY.
The ill-conceived Thoroughfare Plan uses our county roads as a "bypass". Truckers don't want to roar down residential county roads nor should they. Truckers want and need a faster, non-stop route. We, the citizens, the local taxpayers, would rather see the interstate trucks on State and Federal highways maintained by those funds. We need those State and Federal funds to build and maintain a bypass. Legally, nobody can require trucks to take county roads even if some of us, as well as the ill-conceived consultant's Thoroughfare Plan, hope they will. The Thoroughfare Plan looks like a political power play. It pits neighbor against neighbor, stalling anything reasonable from getting started. Homes in Palestine are being destroyed because of long standing political power plays. Important homes and neighborhoods will be destroyed in and around Goshen by the Thoroughfare Plan. Fortunately, we have solutions. We can vote for new officials. We can have a better plan. I am taking James Burke's advice. I invite you to do the same. Using my own time, and Internet service provided by an interested friend who has visited Goshen, I have published a web site with lots of information about Goshen's Traffic situation. If you don't have a web browser, you can study it with a City Library computer. Please visit: http://www.bartelart.com/traffic/index.htm This web site includes links to better ideas by other cities. While many cities can boast of their modern traffic systems, Goshen now has the distinction of being promoted on the Internet as a city where you can be killed by a house as you cross Main Street. While other cities enjoy quiet neighborhoods, we plan for more noise while we pass new laws to forbid noise. While other cities can say they are improving air quality, we are a city that has a plan to add more diesel fumes to our downtown and near-town neighborhoods. While other cities are touting bypasses and ten minute commutes, we are shutting off our engines to wait for a train. We get to work late. Productivity goes down. According to an Associated Press release by Glen Johnson, 9-23-99, ". . . construction aimed at easing traffic congestion can create such delays that it takes years afterward — if at all — for commuters to recoup the time they lost, according to a study by an environmental group." On the NBC Evening News, 9-23-99, it was stated that the number of vehicles on U.S. roads has increased 50 percent in the last 20 years. During the same 20 years the country has only increased road milage 2 percent. This is why we have congestion. Building a Goshen Bypass is overdue. Our official planning is sad to contemplate. As much as I appreciate many of their non-traffic initiatives, we need either new officials or new traffic plans. Widening is patchwork, and patchwork
can temporarily fix a few potholes. Patchwork can not fix our worn out
traffic plan. . . . . get involved. Elections are coming.
If officials don't start responding, we have no other choice.
www.bartelart.com "Never doubt that
a small group of dedicate citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
problems and solutions in Goshen, IN
It is called, "THE CONTROL GAME" It is a guide for recognizing polictical control used by corporations, consultant firms, and government enitities. 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.
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