Evaluating a dynamic variable

Hi I'm trying to write a little function to create, populate and select defaults for list type drop down menus, what I have works, but there is a small problem.

The select control name is passed as an argument to the function:

        <li>
                <label for="type">Type</label>
                <select name="type" id="type" />
                    <cfscript>selectOptions('type','VehicleTypes','type','id');</cfscript>
                </select>
            </li>

When the function gets a hold of it it needs to be eveluated, I'm using 'evaluate()' - but I understand that there are problems with evaluate.
Is there another method to do this?  [i.e. address the value of a dynamic variable] See below.

    <cffunction name="selectOptions" access="public" output="yes" returntype="string">
                
        /*------ unrelated code removed -----*/
    
        <cfscript>
                            
            for (i = 1;i lte showoptions.recordcount;i++){
                vlu = showoptions[value];
                txt = showoptions[column];
                if(evaluate(formvar) is vlu){sel = 'selected="selected"';}else{sel=formvar&' '&vlu;}
                options = options&'<option value="'&vlu&'" '&sel&' >'&txt&'</value>';
            }
            writeoutput(options);
        </cfscript>
    </cffunction>

-thanks

-sean