Todd Kuhns on City Council

High traffic on Baltimore is a major safety concern:

• According to MODOT, Baltimore has an accident rate much higher than the state average.
• When traffic is bad, people turning into traffic (especially left) often make bad decisions and cause accidents. There are more than 250 separate entrances onto Baltimore.
• We zip along side-streets to avoid Baltimore traffic - right through neighborhoods where are children are playing and people are walking, down streets that were not designed for the load.
• Semis and tractor-trailers are the major cause of congestion. They take about 4 seconds longer to start up from a stoplight, take longer to pick up speed, and move slower.

An alternate route 63 will not hurt businesses because:

• Kirksville is THE HUB for Northeast Missouri. Our city is a destination because we offer more than any city in a 60+ mile radius: restaurants, home centers, state park and lake, two universities, a community college, etc. No bypass will change this.
• According to a MODOT traffic study conducted last summer, only 10% of all traffic on Baltimore is “through” traffic. That means 90% of all Baltimore traffic is coming to town - to businesses, homes, etc.
• The majority of that 10% is large commercial trucks, which have no reason to stop in town: no places to park, no gas stations equipped to accommodate them. The only stopping they’re doing is at every traffic light.
• We can create jobs along this alternate route by building truck stops, quick-service restaurants, and other amenities to cater to our truck drivers - who currently has no place to park in town.

So we’re really just talking about providing an easier, safer way for through traffic - traffic with no intention of stopping in town - to continue past Kirksville.

The ballot proposal is an extension of the current tax to 2012. That means you will have no new taxes if this passes.

If we do not pass this initiative:

• The Amendment 3 funds will go to another project and, with recent transportation budget cuts, no funds will become available again in the foreseeable future.
• MODOT sees this as the next logical step toward a 4-lane 63 to the Iowa border. If it does not happen, the lane extension will likely fall to the back burner.

In short, if you want to make our neighborhoods safer, reduce accidents on Baltimore, extend the 4-lane to Iowa, allow further opportunities for development and jobs, and give our truck drivers what they want, vote “yes” on this measure.