Vermont
transportation investments need to put first things first. The
“biggest transportation spending plan in State history” touted by
Governor Peter Shumlin yesterday does not contain the elements needed
for a re-direction of Vermont transportation in an age when more
Vermonters daily reject the 100% auto centric life. The following
comment online today responded to the Burlington Free Press report
and points to the two principal gaps in our transportation
investments:
Vermont
transportation projects continue down a dead end street, failing to
address two key, long-neglected priorities—(1) establishing
commuter rail, a start towards an in-State rail passenger network
which recognizes rail the emerging backbone of Vermont transportation
as more Vermonters every day join in reducing or abandoning
altogether an unsustainable car lifestyle and (2) improving urban
areas and town center walking and car circulation through a dozen or
so new roundabouts annually—like the two under construction in
Manchester Center. AAA calls for a “zero fatality” rate on our
streets and anything but a roundabout on average increases serious
injury and fatality rates about 900% per the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety decade old study. Car travel in Vermont declines now
while public transit, bicycling, and Amtrak grow at single to double
digit rates. Time for a change in transportation, our lives depend
on it.
Other
important elements in the changing transportation market include: (1)
the need for businesses and government agencies to enable and support
employees use of their own dollars to take advantage of the incentives in the federal tax
code allowing tax free commuter benefits for those who commute by
transit, bicycle, or carpool--sorry walkers, you get left out in the
cold on this one; (2) supportive bus networks which work in harmony
with rail passenger services and extend or take the place of rail
where it is uneconomic or where the rails do not go; and (3)
re-examining the entire highway network to see where in a changed
environment federal and state highway networks can be downsized to
conform to the reduced demands for highways as car travel declines.
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