That's the challenge a local government official posed Tuesday at a meeting of the Transportation Policy Coordinating Committee.
The committee, which looks at transportation in a regional context, heard an update on a state study of U.S. Highway 93 from Florence to Missoula. The problem is congestion. Drivers run into traffic hiccups around Lolo, and they meet full-fledged jams north of Lolo and on the south side of Missoula, said an HKM Engineering consultant.
That wasn't the last word, though. After the presentation, Office of Planning and Grants director Roger Millar challenged some of the findings of the Montana Department of Transportation study.
First of all, he said, the study area should stretch from Missoula all the way to Hamilton.
And no one has big money to change the highway, but officials still can manage the traffic, he said. In fact, they can change people's typical behavior - riding alone in a car - if they're willing to make hard decisions about land use and parking.
Millar pointed to a commute in Colorado as an example. It's a 45-mile route running from Glenwood Springs to Aspen, and there, community members decided they didn't want to move cars. Instead, they wanted to move people.
So, he said, they opened a carpool lane, and construction workers, for example, shared rides.
The general idea went like this, Millar said: “I'll throw my toolbox in my buddy's pickup truck.”
They also increased the cost of parking in town and invested in transit. Transit can be a social service provided for people who have no other way to travel, or it can be a viable way for most everyone to get around, Millar said.
At the meeting, he also asked that MDT remain flexible in the way it allows Missoula to spend transportation dollars.
HKM's James agreed transit is a critical piece of any solution. He pointed to some options that don't cost too much, such as getting more people on buses and in van pools.
He also said that while a train is too costly in the short term, the committee should talk to Montana Rail Link and preserve right-of-way along the track to keep options open in the future.
Councilwoman Stacy Rye questioned whether the cost of rail was indeed prohibitive. She said it might be comparable to the price of a bundle of other options.
Cost comparisons were not available, but Rye said she did not want to just pay “lip service” to rail.
“I think it is a viable alternative,” she said.
Ravalli County Commissioner Kathleen Driscoll agreed a corridor study should run from Hamilton to Missoula.
Nancy Wilson, director of ASUM's office of transportation, said committee members could ask state legislators to fund such a report.
MDT has held a series of meetings to gather public comment about potential solutions to the stretch of road from Florence to Missoula. Consultants plan to submit a draft report to the state agency soon.
Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at keila.szpaller@missoulian.com.
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