Like motorists racing through a school zone, state lawmakers are moving at breakneck pace, trying to transform the Texas Department of Transportation. We fear disaster is at the very next turn.

Caution. We advise hitting the brakes, even if it means carrying this complicated issue over into the next session.

Considering TxDOT’s power and inherent capacity for disappointing those whose highway projects are delayed for funding, it’s hard not to empathize with lawmakers who have waited a dozen years for the opportunity to take apart the agency and the Texas Transportation Commission that oversees it.

However, ideas from the Texas Senate and House for reforming how Texas builds its roads and moves traffic are so drastically different that we worry what might happen in the mad scramble to complete work before the legislative session ends in two weeks.

For instance, we have grave doubts about an elected 15-member transportation commission replacing the current five-member commission of gubernatorial appointees.

As some critics note, do we really want 15 separate highway districts across the state, their candidates all competing for yet more campaign money from highway contractors and special interests?

Besides, how many Texans pay attention to down-ballot races like the State Board of Education? Can most of our readers even name their state school board representative?

Plus, state Rep. Joseph Pickett, D-El Paso, has inserted language into the House bill that would require the Texas Department of Transportation to take its money and divvy it up between the 25 Metropolitan Planning Organizations across Texas.

That might sound good here in Waco, rankled as we are about decisions by state highway engineers precluding any federal economic recovery funds allotted TxDOT from being spent on highway construction in McLennan County.

Then again, as local MPO executive director Chris Evilia noted Friday in an interview with a Trib editorial board member, who knows what sort of criteria would be used to divvy up TxDOT money in future sessions — especially after big legislative delegations from Houston and Dallas weigh in on crafting state formulas and criteria?

Much good remains in all this legislative grist, including a watered-down version of state Sen. John Carona’s bid to create local funding options, allowing voters in municipalities and counties to decide on funding individually designated road projects without waiting for TxDOT to say yea or nay.

However, revamping TxDOT may prove too huge a task to press to any meaningful conclusion in what little time remains.