Widening Route 22 is a developer's dream, one that could spell death for the quality of life in the Lehigh Valley. Joe DeRaymond is a Green Party candidate for Northampton County Council.
This summer, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission unveiled its plan to widen Route 22 to six-to-eight lanes between Route 100 and Route 33. They spent a million dollars to determine that there is no other feasible method to move people around this Valley than to build a bigger road. They discarded all mass transit models as being too unwieldy and ineffective for reducing congestion on the one road that seems to matter - Route 22.
When I-78 was proposed, these same planners stated it would be too expensive and difficult to widen 22, that the way to reduce congestion was to build the southern corridor. Now, we have 78 and we have 22 upgraded, and we are embarking on the next phase of highway building.
Our local quality of life depends on a transportation system which can be flexible and efficient. Route 22 will never meet these requirements. Whenever I want to be sure to make an appointment or make it to work, I avoid 22 and 78, which can turn into parking lots in a moment.
More lanes will not change this. We are an area
The widening would cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion, but it seems cost is no object. When asked about the cost of a Lehigh River bridge widening, one planner stated it would cost "a good chunk of money". This is astute planning, to be sure, but my concern is that if we spend a billion dollars, more or less, on Route 22, there will definitely not be "a good chunk of money" for other modes of transport through and from this region.
It would be the largest public works project to hit this Valley, ever, and it would do nothing to help anyone's quality of life. It would simply be another congested highway running through an area that will very soon be indistinguishable from central New Jersey.
That is the point of this project. If you want to maximize the dollars reaped from land speculation and development you have to pump vehicles into the area and move them out on a daily basis. There is land here, and a highway of this type will simply encourage its development in the time-honored tract housing fashion, maximize the dollars and the hell with the people.
Turn it over, and get it done fast before the people catch up to the planners and demand sane development patterns which would facilitate mass transit. Time and again, highways are built to reduce congestion and are immediately clogged with traffic. With the traffic comes more strip development and population growth without sane patterns of development, sprawl development based on greed and lack of vision.
Saner Alternatives to Development
I believe we can do better, and it is not too late to stop this plan. The widening is projected for 2010, and the bottom line is that the decision to build the road cannot be made by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which has never seen a development it did not like or an industrial development that couldn't be built. It cannot be made by PennDOT, which simply can do nothing but build roads and then fail to maintain them. It must be a political decision, and citizens who oppose the idea of a superhighway bisecting the Lehigh Valley, ripping up hundreds of millions of dollars of businesses and residences, and condemning this region to sprawl development should let our politicians know in no uncertain terms that we want transportation choices for our future.
Recently, the Coalition for Alternative Transportation (CAT) held a series of meetings on "What Would You Do With a Billion Transportation Dollars?" This title would suggest that CAT is in opposition to the widening of 22, for certainly we will not be able to leverage two billion dollars in transportation money from the State and Federal government in the next ten years. Yet, the leader of this coalition, Steve Schmitt, who is a member of the LANTA board, stated at the meeting I attended that the widening was a "done deal", that the planning commission had voted, that we were left with crumbs for mass transit, for bikeways and pedestrian safety improvements.
To me, this is a sellout. The politicians, finally, must appropriate the money for this project, and the political tenor of the debate must be joined, as well as the monitoring of PennDOT plans as they appear. I believe that LANTA is a disgrace with their dirty and inefficient busses. We need better mass transit now, and we need a plan for the future that delivers for the people who live here and want to maintain some vestige of a decent life in this rapidly suburbanized region.
There is big money and big power behind these massive, absurd public works projects, and they must be fought with energy and determination. If those of us who know how important the widening of this highway is to our environment and quality of life do not mobilize with our voices, our money, and with time, energy and lawyers, we will lose this Valley.
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