S.M. Wright arguments sound familiar

Jeffrey Muhammad, a member of a steering committee that's fighting TxDot plans to convert S.M. Wright Freeway in South Dallas into a six-lane roadway, thinks a better idea would be to re-design the freeway as a four-lane boulevard with commercial and residential development on each side. In others words, he doesn't want a highway going through this area, he wants a neighborhood-friendly street.

Muhammad makes sense to me and his arguments remind me of some of the reasons I was against the construction of a high-speed tollway as part of the Trinity River Corridor Project. Both the tollway and TxDot's plans for S.M. Wright are not designed for the folks who live here, but for those who drive through here.

TxDot claims a six-lane roaded is needed to accommodate all the traffic that will use the road. Muhammad correctly counters with the fact that a six-lane road will only increase traffic that would find alternative routes if the four-lane neighborhood boulevard is constructed.

Muhammad nailed it perfectly when he told the Dallas Morning News: "Why should people who pass through get more consideration than people who live here?"

I have been asking that same question for years.