Duh:

The current scenarios for using tolls to pay for the Ohio River Bridges Project would leave the Clark Memorial Bridge as a “free” route, a step that could increase traffic on the bridge to the highest levels since the mid-1960s and create chronic traffic jams.

If implemented in 2013, a $1 toll on all the other Ohio River crossings would increase traffic by 35 percent on the Clark, from today’s level of more than 19,000 vehicles per day, according to an analysis by consultants Wilbur Smith Associates of Lexington.

If the toll were $2 on the Kennedy Bridge, a new I-65 bridge, the Sherman Minton Bridge and a new eastern bridge, traffic on the Clark Memorial bridge would increase about 71 percent by 2019, to 32,800 vehicles daily, according to the analysis.

This latest development in the on-going saga that is the Ohio River Bridges Clusterfuck (aka Anne Northup’s Zombie Plan from Hell) proves what many could already guess: If you have three bridges, and you place tolls on two of them, then the remaining toll-free bridge will be more popular than KFC’s Famous Bowls. Good thing the new downtown arena won’t contribute to the projected traffic congestion — whoops! Thanks C-J!

Then again, The Courier-Journal has long since abandoned any pretense of respecting the intelligence of their readership, especially as it concerns the aforementioned $4.1 billion infrastructural boondoggle. For all of the space allotted to reporter Marcus Green’s story, a good deal of it is concerned with the fiscal aspects of the plan. This is not only fine, but necessary: In the midst of a crippling recession the issue of financing such a massive project is (and should be) of utmost concern to the public.

However, when Green spends time discussing alternatives to the project-as-is with relation to bringing down its ultimate costs, he cites Wilbur Smith, architect of the toll-study in question, who then proposes the insane idea of placing tolls on four bridges. Now, this makes little sense on multiple levels, but the essential crime here is the omission of relevant information – namely, the existence of sensible and infinitely less expensive alternatives — but if you picked up your paper this morning you wouldn’t know about any of that. So it’s ludicrous to think that The Courier-Journal is serious about discussing real alternatives to such a costly plan when the alternatives they do acknowledge are far worse than the Bi-State Authority’s hideously expensive mutant brainchild.

Of course, Green, The C-J and the Authority itself cannot be bothered with reality when it comes to a decades-spanning project that’s already greased too many of the right palms to be felled by something as toothless as common sense — especially when some of those palms are shared by The C-J editorial board and members of a certain East End-bridge-blocking historical preservation group. There’s simply too much vested interest in this shit sandwich being shoved down our throats for it to die the quick death it so desperately deserves.

If you want evidence, just look at who’s actually calling the shots: 14 hand-picked bureaucrats who don’t have to answer to anybody except for Authority puppet master Joe Prather, himself a creature of the storied (read: corrupt) Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. The rationale behind this setup is simple: If you eliminate trifling matters like, say, the will of tax payers, then the whole process becomes a lot smoother. By artificially constructing the parameters of the debate and silencing the voices of thousands of Louisvillians who’d like to voice their concern on something they’ll ultimately be paying for, the city’s paper-of-record therefore puts the kibosh on other, better alternatives, which are the victim of The C-J’s McCarthyite blacklisting of anybody using their fucking brain, and disenfranchises the voices of everyday citizens. Worse, the paper aids and abets the entire sham by accepting this Authority at face value, which shows that either they’ve abandoned the practice of rational skepticism, or they’re just waiting for Gannett to roll out the next wave of furloughs.

In fact, so great is The Courier-Journal’s disdain for any thoughtful opposition to this terrible plan that they effectively fucked up their own “interview” with Democratic mayoral primary candidate (and co-founder of 8664) Tyler Allen. Earlier this morning, Allen was subjected to a half-hour’s worth of bridges-related questioning despite the fact that Allen could’ve probably talked about a lot of other things besides transportation, but whatever: The C-J was out for blood. And since they’ve effectively branded Allen as “the anti-bridges candidate,” their reporters didn’t need to hide the fact that they were again arbitrarily framing the debate in lieu of their own pet interest.

The high point of the “interview” came when Allen lamented that the issue was placed out of voters hands via the creation of an unaccountable panel of well-paid intelligentsia. the C-J then asked him, “What’s your idea of leadership, then?”

“You don’t do it by fiat,” Allen responded. “You articulate a vision and work with folks in a democratic process. That’s basic.”

Unfortunately, Allen is guilty of only one thing, and it might be what costs him the mayor’s race: he respects your intelligence too much to dumb things down. To rectify this, he should consider taking advice from The Courier-Journal, and that is, quite simply, a resounding “fuck you.”

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.