This post is written and paid for by Jackson Hole Working
JACKSON, Wyo. — Transportation needs in our valley rank alongside housing as significant concerns, impacting our overall quality of life and requiring leadership to move forward.
Tribal Trails – the one-mile stretch of road – has received more attention in the last five years than probably any other road in Wyoming.
Over the last 30 years, this road has been included in every major transportation study and important document in our valley. Local and statewide experts and consultants have discussed the lack of redundancy in our roadways. This presents safety issues for emergency vehicles and means that every car is funneled into the same road no matter their destination.
With visitors, commuters and everyday motorists adding to our roadways, we need to move forward with transportation solutions that will provide redundancy, choices, and the infrastructure necessary for our changing community.
Neighborhood and local concerns regarding speed limit (25 MPH), potential noise impact, protection of our groundwater, and pathway safety have been addressed. We believe that the proposed neighborhood road designs will encourage lowered speeds and keep this road from being a “cut off” to High School Road and others.
Tribal Trails Connector will also reduce Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT), which is a larger community goal to make our travel more efficient and reduce our carbon footprint. By forcing drivers to the “Y” Intersection and other pinch points in our roadway network, we push drivers to drive longer stretches, expand standstill traffic, and provide no alternative routes.
We see how well our system works whenever there is a traffic accident on Highway 22. Every vehicle comes to a standstill, with traffic sometimes backed up to Millward Street in downtown Jackson.
By providing more direct travel routes, we allow drivers to reduce VMT and our overall carbon footprint. Tribal Trails is hopefully the beginning of more redundancy in our comprehensive road network, which is critically needed to address many transportation concerns we have ignored for decades.
Now is the time to move forward on Tribal Trails and stop calls for delays and pressing pause. We have been doing that for three decades – nothing has been solved and our transportation issues have only gotten worse. Our roads need redundancy, and our community needs to move on from this one issue.
We have given a lot of time, resources and thought to this road, and the alternatives address the concerns many have voiced during the last several years.
Four alternatives are being presented for the Tribal Trails Connector, and they need your input. Attend the virtual open house until May 11, 2022, here.
