Raleigh, NC, February 14, 2008 -- Justice Bob Orr, Republican candidate for Governor, responded today to fellow candidate Pat McCrory’s transportation proposal released on February 11th.  

 “While I am glad to see that Pat McCrory is now joining the ongoing debate about transportation in North Carolina, I believe his proposal is misguided in several respects and lacks important details in others,” Orr said. “Pat has proposed that alleviating congestion is the top priority for transportation funding and I could not disagree with this assessment more. While I understand his desire to put Charlotte’s issues first, I believe a broader perspective is needed.”

 Orr added that “our first priority for transportation funding must be to ensure the safety of the traveling public all across North Carolina. This is not an academic debate. Transportation funds are limited and every dollar spent on alleviating congestion will no doubt save our citizens’ time and aggravation. But every dollar spent on straightforward safety projects—bridges, guard rails, stop lights, etc.—will save our citizens’ lives.”

 “Pat has frequently mentioned that this campaign is about leadership,” Orr remarked. “I agree wholeheartedly and would suggest that a hallmark of good leadership is making tough decisions. Setting the right priorities for NCDOT is a critical first step in addressing the damage that has been done to our transportation system by Democrat mismanagement. Placing congestion ahead of safety as the top funding priority does not reflect the judgment or understanding of our transportation problems that we need in our next governor.

Additionally, setting “environment” as a funding priority is questionable. Environmental review and approval is a critical component in the preconstruction planning process, but how “environment” projects would be planned, funded and completed is beyond me.”

Beyond not establishing the right long term priorities for transportation, I believe the McCrory plan has other flaws:

• He proposes to “Insure [a] top priority of [the] Board is to develop [a] 50 year state wide transportation vision”: This makes for great campaign rhetoric, but the fact is that the Board has no planning resources, so this requirement will fall on DOT. The DOT already produces a 25 year plan, North Carolina’s Long-Range Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan. It’s unrealistic to think we can adequately judge our needs 50 years down the road and especially unrealistic to think we can estimate costs. Pat’s proposal would simply add to the workload of an overloaded planning group and would increase operating costs with little apparent return.
• Second, he says we should “Convert interstate shoulders where needed into additional lanes during peak travel times”. Engineers will tell you that this is a bad idea. It is not safe for drivers or for EMS personal. Where are drivers supposed to go in case of an accident or a flat tire? Pat points out that this has been done in France but it is incongruent with our road building standards and concepts of transportation safety.
• Third, he also proposes to “Create [a] separate funding formula to maintain and expand interstate highways.” Transportation funding is complicated enough as it is. It is hard to imagine how adding another funding formula will improve the execution of our transportation plan.
• Finally, Pat asserts that he will “Instruct the DOT Board to revise organizational structure and objectives to better meet future transportation needs.” This is an important proposal and one for which I have provided a detailed plan. I wonder though, why Pat would propose that the Board of Transportation should take on this restructuring task. The next Governor must immediately exercise his executive authority and direct his Secretary of Transportation to restructure DOT along the lines of the proposal I have laid out. Strong executive leadership could have the process well underway before the Board could even get around to meeting to discuss it.

It is imperative that we reform our transportation system to ensure the safety of our citizens, promote our economy, and preserve our quality of life. This reform requires first and foremost a leadership change at NCDOT and specific reforms to transform the culture and operations of the Department. In short, NCDOT needs real leadership from the governor’s office, and the McCrory plan simply doesn’t get the job done.

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