I wish you all luck with this. Here in Atlanta, I've been involved peripherally in a fight against a new outer perimeter highway, the Northern Arc of which is still in the planning books.

What I like about the approach taken by the group I linked is the slash-and-burn political zest of it. Rather than duly noting the usual sidewalk-and-bike-paths alternatives, it goes full-tilt on two poll-tested points: that the road costs way more money than the state knows how to pay, and that even when finished, it wouldn't get anyone anywhere any faster. The group runs its effort like a political campaign, in short -- and as for the heat that puts heat on public officials, the more the better.

I have a pretty hard time believing that expanding Katy Freeway to 3x it's present size will not cut down on traffic, so I'm not sure the arguments in Atlanta apply here. We were told the expansion of US59 between Houston and Kingswood wouldn't reduce congestion and that turned out verily not to be the case. There are still traffic jams, but they don't last from 5-8pm like they used to. The only way that it could "encourage" enough people to move out that area is if people bought houses in Sealy to commute. Not happening.

I interviewed Jim Blackburn for the Houston Review and he seems like a real straight-shooter. There may be some environmental issues here that the report didn't cover, but I'm uncertain how five ours of bumper-to-bumper congested traffic would not be improved upon.

Maybe the idea is too expensive, I don't know. It doesn't affect me one way or the other since I live closer to US59, but during my 10 months of traveling it, I understand the belief that something should be done. I know that I will avoid relocating off that freeway in the future.

Whitlock