Mary Peters is now the head of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C. Back when she was head of the Arizona Department of Transportation, she publicly asked all departmental staffers to start living up to the departmental name. "We stopped calling ourselves the Arizona Highways Department two decades ago. It's time we started acting appropriately." Unfortunately, ADOT is making very clear in its "MoveAZ" long-range plan that it is still almost exclusively a highways department, regardless of what the public wants. In late 2002, ADOT set out to gather public comment as it began to put together the MoveAZ plan for the state of Arizona, guiding us through the first part of the 21st century. The staff held focus groups and regional open houses and tabulated surveys to find out what the Arizona public wants out of our transportation system. The Arizona public spoke clearly in Casa Grande, Flagstaff, Lake Havasu City, Phoenix, Tucson, Willcox, Winslow and Yuma. All over the state, we don't just want highways; we want real transportation options. Here are some excerpts from ADOT's own final reports on the public input: ● "Each of the participants chose a particular mode on which they had their best (transportation) experiences. Across the eight forums, the majority of participants selected transit as the mode on which they had their best experience." ● "Transportation options was the second-most frequently raised concern at the forums. Responses for the surveys indicated that forum participants felt, overall, that local areas should take the lead on transit, though it is clear that they think ADOT should also play a role." ● More survey respondents agreed with the statements "Commuter rail should be developed on existing rail lines, connecting suburbs to central employment areas" and "Develop intercity transit service connecting one city to another" than agreed with the statement "Expand capacity of interstate highways." ● "Participants supported a proportional distribution of funds to alternate transportation modes (i.e., light rail, buses or bicycles would receive guaranteed funding). Participants suggested that there needs to be a separate division within ADOT dedicated to transit issues. Participants also encouraged ADOT to take the lead in promoting rail transit along the I-10 corridor between Phoenix and Tucson." ● "Rail issues were raised most frequently in cities along the I-10 Phoenix-to-Tucson corridor, with Casa Grande and Tucson both supporting additional investment in rail. These issues received some support at the Lake Havasu City and Yuma forums as well." ● Even in Willcox, "there was surprisingly strong support for additional transit funding, in particular for a rail connection from Willcox to Tucson and Phoenix." Given all this across-the-board support for other transportation choices, including public transit and intercity passenger rail, one might expect ADOT to produce a fairly balanced transportation plan. Unfortunately, one would be wrong. The people of Arizona are talking, but ADOT isn't listening. The draft long-range plan being circulated now by ADOT ignores the public entirely. Twenty-two funded projects are listed along with 76 unfunded projects. Not one involves any type of public transit. All are highways or interstates. So, public be damned, ADOT is proceeding with an estimated $1.5 billion plan to add another lane on I-10 in each direction between Tucson and Phoenix while ignoring a much less expensive plan to build an 85-120 mph diesel passenger rail service between Arizona's twin economic powerhouses. The rail plan is gathering a great deal of support from business, tourist, neighborhood and environmental interests statewide. If ADOT isn't going to listen to the public, let's at least change the name back to the Department of Highways again. We won't get good public policy, but at least we won't be expecting it. If we want passenger rail service between Tucson and Phoenix, or simply a Department of Transportation that gives us modes other than roads, we're going to need to talk to our legislators and our governor. And we're going to need to get them to take action before we're stuck with no other options but a road-dominated transportation system that we can no longer afford to use.