Conway - Do you get stuck at every red light when driving along Dave Ward Drive? Are you tired of speeding cars using your neighborhood as a shortcut? Metroplan wants to hear the concerns, gripes and solutions that central Arkansas residents have about traffic congestion and safety issues. The regional transportation planning agency has launched Operation Bottleneck, a public outreach effort to identify and address those issues.

Jim McKenzie, executive director of Metroplan, said the agency needs the public's help to identify traffic bottlenecks and safety issues so Metroplan can focus resources to address them.

Traffic congestion wastes time and gasoline and contributes to pollution in the air, McKenzie said.

"If we waste fuel, we're wasting money," he said. "It doesn't matter if you're wasting five minutes in stop and go traffic on I-40 or three cycles at a stoplight. You're wasting five minutes of gasoline."

Conway Mayor Tab Townsell said residents are invited to share their information about traffic congestion and safety concerns not only on major highways but also in their neighborhoods. He noted if residents' children cannot safely walk to school, that is one thing that could be addressed by Operation Bottleneck.

Residents may participate by visiting www.metroplan.org and clicking on the Operation Bottleneck logo to complete a survey. Also, a town hall meeting will be held 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, for the Faulkner County area, at the McGee Center.

Townsell said a benefit to the Metroplan approach is that more than 32 percent of residents commute to Little Rock to work.

"They're going to have something to say about the I-430/I-630 interchange (etc.)," he said, adding those residents will provide a regional perspective.

McKenzie said residents may share concerns such as a driveway being too close to an intersection as well as safety issues from pedestrian and bicyclist points of view.

"We're going to get our share of 'You need to widen I-40 to Little Rock,' and we know that. We just don't have the (funds) to do it," he said.

However, he said, Metroplan can get a grip on other issues and wants to know residents' suggested solutions.

"No one knows the problems better than the people who drive the roadways every day, and that's the expertise we want to tap into," he said.

Metroplan will collect data beginning now through the end of September, then process the information and report to its board of directors. Metroplan will schedule more town hall meetings, hopefully by the end of the year, to report the results of the project, McKenzie said.

(By Rachel Parker Dickerson, Log Cabin Staff Writer.)