I recently attended a transportation summit in Jefferson City where a joint committee of the House and Senate transportation committees heard testimony from lots of experts on MoDOT’s funding challenges.  The bottom line was that the state doesn’t fund transportation nearly enough, and ultimately voters will have to pony up more money in gas tax, license fees, and/or tolls if they want decent roads.  There’s no way around it.

I was there representing the Missouri Bicycle Federation and keeping tabs on the whole thing to make sure that bikes, pedestrians, transit, etc aren’t left out of the discussion.  Fortunately Senator Joan Bray of St. Louis is on the joint committee.  She stood up and took MoDOT director Pete Rahn to task for neglecting bikes, peds, transit, and rail as vital parts of the transportation system. Senator Bray is a rock star and we are luck to have her in Jeff City.

Unfortunately I noticed that not a single member of this 14 person joint committee is from the KC metro area.  It was about 50% St. Louis, 30% Ozarks, and 30% miscellaneous. It’s no wonder the KC area continually lags behind St. Louis in transportation funding when we aren’t represented at the table.  Even more disturbing that I have not heard a single KC area Rep or Senator complain about it.