North Texas officials who took a lot of heat for traffic movement during Super Bowl week say they may form a region-wide sports commission to deal with transportation issues at any future Super Bowls or other major events that are hosted in Dallas-Fort Worth.
"Maybe we need to create a sports commission, so you can maintain this level of effort, whether it's the Final Four that's coming up or TCU football," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "With a region of six and a half million people, you're going to be looking at hosting the Democratic and Republican conventions one day. You're going to look at this foundation starting to grow."
Morris' comments came during a regular monthly meeting of the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition. The presentation was meant as a post mortem of sorts for the way Metroplex traffic was handled during Super Bowl week, which was marred by historically icy weather than forced schools to cancel classes and stores to close for much of the week.
Even so, Morris and other officials from the western side of North Texas were mostly complimentary of the way highways, trains and buses were able to keep moving during the week. Several officials said comments by national sportscasters who were critical of the region's mobility were unfounded cheap shots.
"We did a fantastic job of making sure people who weren't from here got to see some of the best stuff we had," said North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino. "If you really get down to it, every major artery was open."
The concept of a sports commission likely will be debated later this year by the Regional Transportation Council, Morris said.
-- Gordon Dickson, gdickson@star-telegram.com
Twitter: @gdickson
This makes about as much sense as a Traffic Commission planning all the sports activities in the region.
Posted by: Notch Johnson | June 01, 2011 at 11:25 AM
This is just another layer of bureaucracy and made up of UN-ELECTED officals. This commission will not be looking out for the best interests of "John & Jane Taxpayer"!
Posted by: Kammie | June 01, 2011 at 02:23 PM
"Even so, Morris and other officials from the western side of North Texas "
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Has it now become politically incorrect to say "Fort Worth"?
Posted by: Binh | June 01, 2011 at 02:43 PM
Why don't we just take the money and fix our roads instead of paying these people to do nothing.
Posted by: Mike | June 01, 2011 at 02:45 PM
public transit should be part of the solution.
Posted by: daniel | June 01, 2011 at 03:22 PM