Anyone who has tried to make their way out of Gainesville on a Friday afternoon or has attempted to rush over to The Oaks Mall for that last-minute gift knows that we live in a football town with a major traffic problem.
The Alachua County Commission will finally have to take a good look at a transportation management plan this year, and with many main roads busting at the seams, it's a wonder it took this long.
The commissioners will have to figure out how much money can be gathered from road improvement taxes and how to get some of the developers to pay more for infrastructure. Also on the table is the decision to create rapid transit.
While we understand the dire need to maintain and improve the most commonly used roads in Gainesville - like Newberry Road and Southwest 20th Avenue - we don't think placing more gasoline taxes (a possible reality) on an already overburdened population is the best solution to the problem.
Just this past January, a county increase of 5 cents that was approved in summer bumped the gas tax up to 12 cents a gallon.
The extra money is expected to bring in a whopping $5.5 million a year.
So where is it all going?
Road resurfacing will take about 75 percent of the added revenue, 15 percent will be spent on alternative surfacing for unpaved roads and 10 percent will go to sidewalk and bicycle lane projects.
We think the commission has allocated the existing tax unwisely, and an additional tax would not be necessary if they approached the traffic issue from a different angle.
The source of the problem must be addressed, instead of continuing to deal with its expensive consequences.
The most basic definition of traffic is simply too many cars and not enough room on the roads. But building more roads is not going to stop the frequency of bumper-to-bumper gridlock. Essentially, if you build it, they will come, and that is precisely what we don't want in Gainesville.
It seems that allocating more funds to sidewalks and bicycle lane projects would be a wiser choice, and it would have the added benefit of making Gainesville and Alachua County greener in the process.
With Regional Transit System switching over to biofuel, the county should understand that environmentally friendly options are no longer revolutionary.
Initiating road-widening projects is also not the answer, and anyone from South Florida would agree. New roads simply cause more traffic, repeating a vicious cycle that will leave Alachua County paved over and more congested than ever.
The bottom line is that the commission should strive to create an environment where using a car is no longer the most convenient option. Accommodating the people who use cars, and taxing them for the privilege of doing so, is not the most innovative idea.
Those that argue if driving becomes more expensive, less people will choose to do it are misguided.
It's well known that those who already cannot afford to use cars don't drive, and those who do will not be deterred by rising gas prices.
In a sense, there has to be a more powerful incentive to use alternative transportation, rather than a punishment for doing more of the same.
