RM 150 is not going to be renamed

US Highway 75 is a comparably long road — 1,239 miles, to be exact — stretching from downtown Dallas northward to the Canadian border at Noyes, Minn. (It used to be longer than that. Before the mis-named Interstate 45 fully came into existence in 1987, US Highway 75 extended all the way southeast to Galveston.) Some 10 miles of those 1,239 — that section running from its southern origin point in downtown Dallas north to the LBJ Freeway — bears the name North Central Expressway, or simply “North Central,” to the locals. There’s a section of that aforementioned should-be-called Intrastate 45 — between downtown Houston and Galveston — that’s called the Gulf Freeway. In fact, it was called the Gulf Freeway when it was still part of US 75.

I mention all of this because of the debate going on about “the renaming of RM 150.” Let’s get one thing straight — the approximately 35-mile-long RM 150 that runs from just south of Dripping Springs to State Highway 21 is not going to be renamed. Just like there’s a small section of US 75 called North Central and a section of I-45 known as the Gulf Freeway, there’s a small (four-mile) section of that 35-mile stretch of RM 150 — between Center Street and Old Stagecoach Road/Jack C. Hays Trail — that used to be called Rebel Drive. When, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter activism earlier this year, Hays High School dropped the last vestiges of its Confederate identification by dropping “The Rebel” as its mascot, the city council decided it should follow suit and come up with a new name for Rebel Drive.

Its first try at renaming the street ended, shall we say, somewhat disastrously. So the council decided to punt. In the guise of “obtaining citizen input” on coming up with a name to replace “Rebel,” it appointed a 15-member committee to make recommendations. I’ll get back to that committee in minute. At the same time the council officially permanently removed the name “Rebel” from that four-mile section of the 35-mile long ranch-to-market road. So, for the time being, it is officially known by its TxDOT-designated name of RM 150 just as many, many miles of US 75 that haven’t been giving an additional local overlay name are officially designated US 75.

And, after the committee makes its recommendations and the council takes final action on a new name, that four-mile stretch will still be RM 150. That’s not going to change. The process the city is currently going through is not a “renaming” but a “designation.”

There also seems to be some confusion concerning a proposed new routing of RM 150, which would depart from its current path just west of Arroyo Road and, six miles later, join I-35 at Yarrington Road. This “bypass,” as some are calling it, is still a long way away — I am doubtful it will become a reality in my lifetime. For one thing, it is still unfunded. For another, although a “corridor” has been designated for the new route, the actual path of the highway has yet to be determined. That’s akin to saying I’m going to store my dinner dishes in the kitchen … somewhere in the kitchen. Of course, no rights-of-way have been acquired, environmental studies need to be completed, utilities will have to relocated. In fact, when I last checked with Hays County, only 15 percent of the road’s schematic design had been completed.

Speaking of Hays County, officials there insist when and if this new routing of FM 150 finally becomes a reality it will “facilitate removing existing FM 150 (Main Street) through the City of Kyle from the State Highway System.” However, those with that State Highway System, namely TxDOT, say something a little different. I’ve talked to a number of planners at the Department of Transportation who have told me on background that the section of what is now FM 150 that will be bypassed will be re-designated as “Business FM 150.” The reason is, they say, there are going to be motorists who will be on RM 150 west of Kyle who ultimately desire to go north on I-35 and the bypass would add an unnecessary 12 to 15 miles to their journey. In fact, these officials predicted, there will be more motorists who will want to go north on I-35 than don’t and thus the total vehicle load going through downtown Kyle will still be greater than those using the bypass. At least, until …

This brings me to the climax of this story. The new routing of RM 150 is designed to be more than what some may refer to as “a road to nowhere.” These same officials who talked to me on background said the ultimate goal is to extend the road east of I-35 at Yarrington as a four-lane controlled-access highway that ultimately intersects with I-10, providing a quicker route between the Texas Hill Country and Houston. This new alignment is not a “Kyle bypass,” but, in reality, is an “Austin bypass.”

One additional point needs to be made. That railroad siding that causes freight trains to stop, thus blocking traffic on Center Street, will be moved long before the FM 150 bypass is constructed. Funds have actually been designed for moving the siding further north and it was those trains blocking the road that was the primary reason officials gave for the bypass (when the real reason, all along, was the Austin bypass). But moving the siding removes some of the pressure from needing to act more quickly on constructing the new FM 150 route.

Now I’m going to keep the promise I made earlier and get back to that committee that is supposed to recommend a new name for the “four-mile stretch.” In an ideal world, I wouldn’t want the committee to report with a single recommended new name (but, if it had to settle on one, I would be pushing for Samantha Dean Blvd.). In an ideal world, I would like see the committee settle on a list of possible new names. Then I would like the city to send a postage-paid postcard to all registered voters in Kyle asking them to check the box next to the name they preferred. If the city deems this exercise in citizen democracy as too expensive, it could accomplish something akin to this by conducting one of those on-line surveys it posts annually to measure city services.

If the council really wants to gain citizen input, then it should really go to the limit to gain citizen input.