We love facts. Can't get enough of 'em. But our opponents? Not so much. Here, we set the record straight.
This is an extensive fact sheet. Only brief excerpts are shown here. Please see Trinity Vote for more.
Also, refer to RIGHT SIDE BAR: Specific Toll Projects - Trinity Parkway
When the roadway bond proposal was put to voters in 1998, the parkway was to be a 45-mph road with left-turn lanes allowing motorists to exit directly into the park. But the state, which was to foot most of the highway bill, said it couldn't tackle the project for at least a decade. So the city asked the tollway authority to consider building the road as a tollway."
--Dallas Morning News, Feb. 27, 2000
"Officials have proposed posting a 45-mph speed limit and banning trucks on the new road. They also have promised that the highway will have plenty of on- and off-ramps leading to parks along the river and nearby commercial areas."--Dallas Morning News, May 13, 1998
The Trinity Parkway reliever route would comprise of an eight-lane split parkway...with a posted speed limit of 45 mph....The Trinity Parkway reliever route would be constructed a s lower speed parkway design rather than a freeway design, allowing left turn exits towards the river floodway...The parkway design would incorporate access locations directly from the parkway lanes into the adjacent park area, serving ingress and egress at several locations as determined by the City of Dallas.
--Texas Department of Transportation Major Transportation Investment Study,March 1998S
So it does sound like in 1998, the Trinity Parkway was planned "to be a low speed access road for the park."
But we're fascinated by the opposition's logic. According to them, the City knew all along the "parkway" was really going to be a high-speed toll road. Luckily for voters, opponents of the 1998 bond referendum (not the City, mind you) put ads in the DMN stating the "Parkway" was really a toll road. So, apparently referendum opponents are arguing that voters shouldn't have trusted what the City was saying about the toll road back in 1998. To get the truth, voters should have listened to the opponents. Sounds reasonable.
Click Here to READ WHAT THE VOTERS WERE TOLD WHEN THEY VOTED ON THE TRINITY PARK BONDS and WHAT THE FACTS ARE NOW.
