Each day, I make the dreaded drive down Interstate 35 to go to work in Fort Worth. Each day, I slug through the snarl and sludge of ceaseless traffic, which intensifies my growing desire to commit hari-kari, or at least incites a vehement curse of the highway gods. Certainly, we in Texas need more lanes, more roads, more rails, more something to deal with the ever-expanding urban population and growing international commerce. Yet how do we solve our transportation needs without carving up the countryside like some congratulatory cake? Or should the construction of a superhighway-rail-utility corridor even concern us?
All along I-35, one can enjoy the pastoral views of horse and cattle ranches, longhorns and buffaloes lazily relaxing in pipe-fenced pastures, and, occasionally, llamas, alpacas and even camels wandering amongst the flowering bitterweed, all apparently content. I wondered if the caustic criticisms of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) were warranted. Was I being enticed by some bucolic dream, lost in some idyllic nostalgia? Perhaps the laying of more cement, albeit a massive amount of cement, would have little ill effects and may actually benefit the public interest of Texas.
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