Reader Responses

(Editor's Note: Reader comments this week are on the topic: Do you think videotaping license plates on busy highways and a follow-up survey of drivers (with response voluntary) is a good way to get information for future highway planning, or does it seem to be an unacceptable invasion of drivers' privacy?)


BEYOND REASONABLE

It should be pretty obvious to everyone, taxpayers and TxDOT employees alike, that spending $781,000 for such a survey as described is way beyond reasonable - it has to be close to stupid! In fact, spending that kind of taxpayer money without any tangible benefit is grounds for dismissal due to incompetence. But such spending seems to be occurring quite often in the TxDOT empire!

It seems to me TxDOT could have analyzed I-35 traffic for a few dollars in gas. Just take a drive at several different times during any week from Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth and observe. They'll conclude the same thing I discovered after a few trips north from Austin: Too many cars! Not enough road!

To fix the problem, why can't TxDOT turn to its own staff for input and solutions to the I-35 problem? Isn't that what they are paid for? A good beginning would be to construct bypasses around a few problem areas that I've experienced; such as Temple and Waco.

Regarding privacy, unless someone receives a survey who wasn't supposed to be in the survey area, it's a non-issue. Of course, anyone who completes and returns the survey has no excuse if her privacy is invaded.

However, such actions (recording without notice) by any government entity is not in the best interest of the public, and it should be avoided and smacks of illegality. I'd like to know how many surveys have been returned!

On the other hand, perhaps this is just the beginning of the "Future 69 Corridor" public relations campaign to prepare the taxpayers for another fiasco at our own expense.

Norm Beavers
Tyler

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