The new and (re)improved SAFEclear
Mayor White has formally announced the SAFEclear changes that we have been hearing about for the past week:
The proposal focuses on several areas of cooperation. They are:
• A single MAP dispatching system in the TranStar facility with the Houston Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department, Metro Police patrol units and SafeClear tow operators.
• Increasing the number of MAP patrols from the current nine vehicles to 19. Initially Metro Police will staff the 10 additional vehicles during peak traffic shifts of 5:30-9:30 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. weekdays. Metro Police and HPD will work together to ensure that this additional deployment will be on those freeway segments with the highest volume of traffic incidents and responses.
• Vehicles will be donated by the Houston Automobile Dealers Association, as they have done in the existing MAP program.
• Implementing a towing assistance program funded by Metro for $30 per tow, not to exceed $442,000 per year within the SafeClear service area. Additional funding to bring the total up to $600,000 will be available for similar services outside the city limits based on agreements with those jurisdictions. Metro will also partially fund the free tows provided in the city under the SafeClear program. These tows will be limited to the peak periods of Metro’s increased MAP deployment. They will include short tows to a safe location off the freeways and assisting motorists with minor problems.
KPRC-2's story says that Metro Police will help staff the extra MAP vehicles, along with Harris County sheriff's deputies:
"The additional money that METRO will put in will amount to about $1 million per year. $400,000 of that will be salaries for the METRO officers," METRO spokesman David Wolfe said.
And the Chronicle's story has more information on the Metro funding:
The money would come from the portion of Metro's one-cent sales tax that dedicated for Houston mobility improvements. Houston officials have sole discretion as to how to use that pool of money, which totals $80 million, said White spokesman Frank Michel.
As for the unseemliness of making money off the forced towing program, the mayor agreed to put all money generated by SAFEclear into what was called mobility projects. In Sen. Whitmire's op-ed today he shed some light on what that means:
In regards to my concern that the city was using state highways as a revenue source, we concluded that the money raised through towing fees and bids will not go to the city for general purposes but will instead be applied to the expansion of the Motorist Assistance Program (MAP) and will fund an incident management program that will be placed under review by the Texas Department of Transportation
Therefore, in the spirit of the new and (re)improved SAFEclear, blogHOUSTON has made the momentous decision to stop using using the $ in SAFEclear. No doubt this is a huge relief for city officials.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/18/05 02:57 PM | Print |
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