Who Should Pay For The Bertrand Project? – Wingin’ It Wednesday

This week on "Wingin' It Wednesday", panelist Carol Ross, Mike Stagg, and Warren Caudle joined "Nathan and Bernie in the Morning" to discuss possible roadwork in Lafayette.

Here's what the panel had to say:

1. There is a new proposal for a streetscape program for $700,000 dollars. What do think? Should our money be used for these types of programs or for regular street work?

Carol Ross started us off:

In terms of streetscape I think we need to do both. Fix the potholes, fix the roads, and try these demonstration projects. I think if they do these things on an incremental basis and show what can be done they’ll get more buy-in. DOT has already said they’ll go to three lanes, but where the money is coming from I don’t know.
Is it a good thing to do? I think so. I’d refer to everyone to Downtown Lafayette. That was the first streetscape project and it was a spectacular success. I think the Bertrand project is doable. Not sure where the funding is coming from, but the idea of connecting the Horse Farm to the Athletic complex is a great idea.

Warren Caudle posited

I think all these kinds of things - you got to take into consideration who is it going to help and who is it going to hurt.You need to come up with some kind of program that puts an extra tax on the businesses there because there will be more traffic and more money coming in for them.

 

Mike Stagg posited

I used to live around there and I can tell you that that stretch on Bertrand is a racetrack. On Friday’s it’s not unusual for traffic trying to turn right onto Johnston can backup almost to Deano’s.
Generally this is a good concept. I think beautification works, but it’s a major connector. There’s a heck-of-a-lot of traffic there. I don’t know that moving it to 3 lanes will improve anything.
I think the basic problem is around the university we need to look at different ways of moving people around. I think we need to look at light rail eventually as a solution to moving people around.

To listen to the full audio from our Wingin' It panelists, click the play button below:

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.