DEMAND MANAGEMENT MUCH IN DEMAND

DEMAND MANAGEMENT MUCH IN DEMAND BY VERMONT CUSTOMERS

Apparently lots of the greater Burlington region commuters take to the Link buses which for a typical commuter between Montpelier and Burlington can increase the household dollars available—after taxes—by upwards of $7,000 yearly.

With just a month to go in the operational year of the Link buses between Burlington and the outlying connections—Middlebury Milton, Montpelier and St. Albans—ridership sets a new record, about 200,000 for the year and a growth of over 11% after a 14% increase last year.  From another standpoint about 440 workers now make their way back and forth to work on one of the 50 Link buses.  At the current growth rate that number will increase to about 500 this time next year, a number approaching 2% of all workers who cross the Burlington border to their jobs each weekday.

Pretty good growth numbers considering little change in the employment numbers statewide, a decline in car travel 2010-2011, and a state population increase Census estimates at 11 persons a month since the 2010 official counts.

Some of the growth of the decade-old Link services operated mostly by the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) occurred as the result of active programs to reduce solo driving, particularly by three of the largest employers in Burlington, the “troika” of Champlain College, Fletcher Allen Health Care (FAHC) and the University of Vermont  (UVM).  The “troika” works through their joint small entity, the Campus Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA) which undertakes a number of initiatives aimed at encouraging and rewarding their 10,000 employees and 16,000 students to switch from solo driving to car share, walking, bicycling and taking public transit.  Discount or free transit, for example, is offered students and workers by CATMA, including Link bus services.  And, the numbers taking Link and other transit services reflects the CATMA efforts to reduce solo driving which is called in transportation language the realm of “demand management.”  The goals of demand management may vary, but the central mission in demand management is to reduce the use of certain transportation facilities so as to avoid expensive capital expenditures to increase capacity—assuming increasing capacity is even possible in a given situation (consider the cost, for example, of widening Main Street in downtown Brattleboro or Bennington).

The future looks bright for “demand management” as increasingly young driving age population aged 15-30 no longer even have a driver license and efforts in the demand management remain in the early stages of development.  CATMA is beginning to work with the State’s largest public employer, IBM in Essex, for example.  Further, the largest State employer, the State of Vermont itself, until now stayed on the sidelines in providing support or alternatives to solo commuting.  But a sudden scarcity of parking in Montpelier caused by relocation of workers after loss of State facilities from the storm Irene in the fall of 2011 resulted just recently in starting demand management on the part of the State.  A few dollars a month cost to the State to convince an employee to drop solo commuting pales by comparison to the $600 for a ground level parking space per year and up to $30,000 to $40,000 per space capital cost in a parking garage. 

Meanwhile, CCTA this year added larger buses to handle the highest ridership Link between Burlington and Montpelier—also growing at the highest rate of 13% since last year.  Finally, the growth of Link services and demand management programs confirm the findings in a recent study touting the potential for commuter rail services along the corridors from Burlington to Middlebury, Montpelier and St. Albans. 

BOSTON CYCLIST CRASH STUDY, EDITORIAL, CALL FOR CYCLE TRACK

The Boston Globe editorial dated May 22 calls for bicycle infrastructure in the words of the last paragraph:

"Cyclists are correct, though, that many accidents can be prevented with better infrastructure. The city should hasten efforts to build bicycle tracks [cycle track] that completely separate drivers and cyclists."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/editorials/2013/05/22/crashes-mount-city-must-grapple-with-bike-safety/dU5aUxLw1s5UX25adFHtfJ/story.html

The editorial strangely does not address intersection safety where a fatality of a MIT scientist occurred Sunday.  Roundabouts in a Dutch study were found in general reduce cyclist injuries by more than half and a separate pathway around a roundabout (parallel or as part of the walker sidewalk and crossings) virtually eliminate bicycle injuries. Burlington area bicyclist fatalities included two, one each at a Burlington and Charlotte intersection.

Tbe Globe Editorial follows on the heels of a major bicycle safety report from the Office of the Mayor in response to a rising number of bicycle injuries and fatalities at the same time bicycle use and encouragement of its use--including the surprisingly shared bike program "Hubway" of the last few years.

The reprort can be accessed at this site:

http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=6131

COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION AGE ARRIVAL....

COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION AGE ARRIVAL…

TIME HAS COME FOR BIG INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE SPENDING ON TOWN AND URBAN CENTERS FOR WALKING AND BICYCLING—THE CHANGES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

It happened in Germany and the Netherlands near the end of the last century, and now it is time for Vermont to launch a major town and urban center infrastructure program with initial investments at the rate of $10-$20 million mostly from federal transportation funds, entirely allocated to the walking and bicycling modes. 

A good start for walking and bicycling infrastructure spending would be an immediate infusion of $5 million this year with an invitation for submissions of proposals by towns and cities with basic cycle-track (a la Montreal), roundabouts, and other easily designed and built walking and bicycle facilities serving local residents along major streets and thoroughfares.

When starting their infrastructure programs Germany and the Netherlands already boasted the typical European modal share of bicycling and walking in the range of 25-35%, but still both invested heavily on big improved facilities for walking and bicycle travel.  Meanwhile U.S. and Canadian modal share remain stuck to on average about 1% for bicycling and 10% for walking.  

Two key factors demand the investment  $10 million or so each year right now. Consider a typical highway expansion or bypass which today costs $15-$30 million.  Several of these high expenditure highway projects are now in the State five-year construction program.  So, a $10 million-a-year expenditure for walking and bicycling infrastructure program over and above the current bikepath program continues very affordable.  The first factor favoring a new direction  involves the very success of the bikepath program itself--the cycle of building bikepaths and basic sidewalks in most of Vermont’s downtowns and village centers has run it course since the landmark program began 1990-1991.   

Second, more importantly, car travel plateaued and will likely decline this decade in much if not all of the state.  Part of this phenomenon gets reflected in car travel growth sliding to a crawl 2000-2010.  Remarkably in the workforce no increase occurred in car travel to work during this same period while a flood of over 9,000 workers, over two percent of the workforce, suddenly walked, biked, took public transit or worked at home.  The end of car travel growth and workers abandoning the car as a way to work means the need suddenly exists to make downtowns and town centers quality place—and safe places--to walk and bicycle as is the case in our urban small town counterparts in Europe.  Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace arose in great part as an inspiration from a similar effort in Copenhagen.  Now, Vermont town and urban centers, again, need to replicate the infrastructure changes which sustained and expanded walking and bicycling in continental western Europe over the recent decades.

Regional planning agencies and key state agencies need to develop on a coordinated basis detailed plans for town and urban center cycle track and roundabout (and traffic calming elements also) which assure markedly improved and safer walkability and bikability for all ages.  These planning efforts build on already existing basic walking and bicycling plans mostly done in the 1990s.   Planning this time around not only looks at basic cycle tracks and roundabouts, but also the informal built up area “back” ways and creation of connections closed off in the past but with camera monitoring equipment can now be safely made available for walking and bicycling connections to and between the street and sidewalk networks.  These investments surely will spur increases in walking and bicycling and insure either stable or declining car travel and congestion in all built up areas of the State.

Finally as Vermont surely will follow other states moving to broad base taxes and away from constantly declining revenues associated with car travel, a new stream of resources can fund walking, bicycle, passenger rail and public transit.

Now the modern age of community transportation begins: (1) first commuter and intercity rail passenger services along with local bus and other public transit; and (2) provision in our town centers and urban areas basic safe walking and bicycle infrastructure along streets and backways which enables a renaissance of walking and bicycling mode.

NH AND THE U.S. SECOND RATE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM PROBLEM

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND THE U.S. SECOND RATE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

PROBLEM

“All revenue…from registration fees, operators’ licenses, gasoline road tolls or any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation of motor vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels shall be appropriated and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of public highways within this state…and no part of such revenues shall, by transfer of funds or otherwise, be diverted to any other purpose...

New Hampshire Constitution, Part Second—Form of Government Article 6-a    Adopted November 1938

        

The meager and often low quality United States public transportation systems clearly come to mind when traveling not just in modern European nations or Japan but also when finding outstanding services available in Southeast Asia nations ranging from Korea and Taiwan to Singapore. 

While some cite the United States love of the car--and clearly that accounts for part of the scanty Amtrak network and less than two dozen commuter rail systems nationwide--the fact of 30 state constitutions and other law prohibitions on the use of gasoline and car taxation for anything but highway purposes stands alone as the leading cause.  Most highway oriented segregation of taxation occurred during the 1930s when states got into the highway building business as a means of improving their economies and when few states had sizeable tax sources so familiar today, for examples, general income and sales taxes.  Further, the federal highway programs and policies begun with the Federal Highway Act of 1914 and its successors required states possess administrative capacity to carry out federal highway initiatives and receive federal funding.

Now, however, the landscape in transportation moves through a period of historic change including the first substantial plateau in car travel with several states to record declines this decade, the first occurrence ever.  Meanwhile unprecedented growth in all other mode—walking and bicycling, bus, and rail passenger--experience growth levels not seen since the car came into use a century ago. At the same time efforts to address climate change, achieve economic competitiveness, address health, and conserve petroleum resources all combine to reverse decades of urban sprawl, create increased use of all modes except the auto mode as well as an obvious need to address substantial expenditures for modern infrastructure for he suddenly burgeoning transportation modes.   Meanwhile Americans learn, often for the first time, the value of public transportation and the varying quality of those services.

While the federal sharing of gas taxes to transit and all other modes began in 1982

New Hampshire reflects all the negative elements of the constitutional restriction of use of highway oriented fees and taxes.  The State now enjoys two passenger rail trains with stations in the State receiving tens of millions of dollars of support from federal and neighboring states funds--but no support from New Hampshire coffers.  The economic revival of former manufacturing community, Dover, is credited in great part to the now ten ear old successful Downeaster train service paid for mostly by Maine.  When a route-long celebration occurred with the extension of the Boston to Portland Downeaster to Brunswick all three New Hampshire stops (Dover, Durham and Exeter) hosted festive events at the celebratory trains made its progress stop after stop towards the new Maine stations at Freeport and Brunswick. 

When it comes to bus service the two top ridership systems in a state with three major metro areas are the low population Lebanon-Hanover service, second, and the highest ridership bus service, the UNH Durham campus.  The total Lebanon-Hanover service is dwarfed by commuter bus “Link” services to four locations outside Burlington, VT or even one free shuttle operated in Burlington linking the waterfront to its Church Street Marketplace, University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care.

A look at public transit, walking and bicycling journey-to-work shows New Hampshire trailing the most rural state, Vermont, and U.S. averages by a wide margin except for walking to work where New Hampshire trails Vermont but leads the U.S. average:

                       

 Journey to Work Modal Share           New Hampshire   US        Vermont

Motor vehicle                                                            89.5                   86.1             84.5

Public transit                                                            0.3                     5.0              1.1

Walk                                                               3.1                     2.8              6.0

Bicycle                                                           0.3                     0.6              0.7    

       Source:  American Community Survey        

We also know the transportation consumer has radically changed.  Younger driving populations licensing is ten percent below the figure of the mid-1990s.  Employers who must spend a minimum of about $600 a year to provide an employee parking space now increasingly participate in incentive programs for workers to quit solo driving—and workers are responding in sizeable numbers.   During the 2000-2010 commuter buses and employer programs factored into about 900 Vermont workers a year choosing not to ride in a car to work.  During that period while total Vermonter with jobs increased 9,000 no increase in car travel to work occurred. 

Finally, the car has enjoyed tremendous private and public subsidy—for example, about 40% of all highway infrastructure  comes from non-user sources, primarily in the form of property taxes which support local street networks.  Air pollution costs, employer parking and retail parking support represent other major subsidies to the car. 

New Hampshire faces difficult funding choices for a transportation system moving quickly from car travel to other modes—and fairness alone requires public support of the more sustainable forms of travel, read just about any mode but the car and air travel. 

Waiting for constitutional change in New Hampshire may take some time as two-thirds approval is required and pro-motor vehicle interests remain substantial.

New Hampshire can look to the first two states to recognize the changed demands for state transportation finance—Virginia and Massachusetts.  Virginia abolished the gas tax in February and now funds all transportation from an across –the-board dedicated sales tax of 0.8 percent.  Massachusetts stretched traditional car oriented taxes and now is on the cusp of using income taxes to support operation and expansion needs of all transportation modes.  New Hampshire, long a no-broad base tax haven, must seek innovative ways to support non-car modes.  One avenue might be to shift all municipal road program expenses to motor vehicles through vehicle sales taxes, increased gas taxes and increased sales taxes on car accessories.  This “car property tax shift” would allow imposition of a statewide property tax which would then be available for other modal support, particularly public transit, that is, regional bus and rail networks and intercity rail, like the Downeaster.  This is just one example of tax innovation—the point remains that finding a tax source does not prevent addressing the need for the State to quickly address a long festering and deepening need to provide support for non-car transportation modes. 

In a general sense, any state with restrictions on use of car-oriented revenues—and three of five states do—must address how to fairly fund other modes with rail and bicycle/walking infrastructure and all public transit requiring a proportional support endemic in the car mode.

BURLINGTON, VT--NO NATIONAL TRAIN DAY TRAVEL!

MAY 11 NATIONAL TRAIN DAY—EXCEPT IN BURLINGTON AND WINOOSKI VERMONT

As a Burlington, VT resident and train enthusiast, got nice information on a free one-way May 11 trip on National Train Day to Bellows Falls, then an old fashioned train ride back to a ceremonial event in White River Jct., then on your own with a $12 Vermont special on the northbound Vermonter available—unless you live in Burlington and Winooski.

While lots of small cities and locations get connecting bus service from Amtrak City, not the Queen City in Vermont, just seven miles from the Essex Amtrak Station.  National Train Day on a May Saturday occurs when during weekends there is seriously deficient Chittenden Country Transportation Authority (CCTA) service on one of their busiest routes—Burlington-Winooski-Essex (Amtrak Station). 

The CCTA connection “problem” is a systematic issue relating to all regional transit agencies which provide limited or no connections at all stations stops of the two Vermont  Amtrak-supported trains which now cost $7 million in State dollars support yearly.  Every additional person who takes a trip on Amtrak in from a Vermont station directly reduces state dollars required to support the service. Yep, the mainline track in Vermont even got a $52 million upgrade to 80 mph operating speed level last year, a half hour cut from the timetable between St. Albans and Burlington to Brattleboro and Bellows Falls—but from Burlington to Amtrak at Essex on weekends, “you can’t get there from here.”   Well, you can, but the taxi fare with tip can amount to $20.  A taxi fare of $20 compares to about a 300-mile roundtrip Burlington-Brattleboro at the Vermont regular promotional rate of $24. 

(The Burlington-Amtrak connection compares, unfortunately, to connecting by taxi from North to South Station for about $15—you would think Amtrak would operate a shuttle service there.)

Now air travelers and bus travelers get far better treatment by CCTA.  Service to the airport operates at convenient times for most Greyhound bus connections seven days a week.  A traveler can connect on Saturdays to the airport from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.  And for the mid-afternoon arrival and departure of Megabus service to Boston, CCTA provides easy connection at the UVM Davis Center on the University Mall route. 

Seems like a service on Saturdays should be possible—the train southbound a.m. is generally right on time about 9:20 a.m. now and returns—again with much better on time performance at 8:17 p.m.—17 minutes after the last CCTA departure from Amtrak to Burlington!   No problem on with three early bus runs in time to catch the southbound.  This suggests there could be a connection both ways on Saturday—perhaps one about 9 p.m. assuring accommodation of some northbound delay which a rider is willing to take a chance on—preferably just a dedicated bus which departs five minutes after the northbound train arrival.  Otherwise how many want to bet on making connection to a bus ride that costs a dollar or so versus a $15-20 taxi ride? 

On Sunday, no problem at all, no bus service at all by CCTA to Essex/Amtrak.  On Sunday a skeletal service—a single run in the a.m. to align with the southbound Vermonter, a noontime run to service local needs, and a third trip leaving within five minutes of scheduled Amtrak arrival. 

Meanwhile, I plan to celebrate National Train Day on the day before—Friday—with a day trip to Brattleboro.  Maybe CCTA could celebrate National Train Day…with a bus to Burlington from the northbound Vermonter!

UPPING URBAN WALKING, BICYCLING AND PUBLIC TRANSIT SHARES--THE TASK AHEAD

THE URBAN TRANSPORTATION MODAL CHALLENGE...INCREASING WALKING, BICYCLING, AND PUBLIC TRANSIT NEEDS MORE THAN ENCOURAGEMENT, ENFORCEMENT AND EDUCATION

PART 1:  INCREASING WALKING AND BICYCLING MODES

Many U.S. and Canadian major cities and population centers make promotional efforts to potential visitors describing walker and bicycling friendliness, touting particular promenades and bikepaths, and suggesting these “active modes” make up niche in the community.   In just the last four years led by Montreal seasonal bike-sharing networks starting with rental bicycle kiosks sprung up in many metropolitan with surprisingly huge trip numbers and positive public response.  A new stream of initiatives arises from transportation and community efforts advocating walking, bicycling and public transit as a means of addressing among other concerns better health, global climate change and traffic congestion.

From another entirely different direction comes a wave of economic change driven by workers and employers alike which takes the form of locating work and residency in compact communities—we used to call them cities—where all services are available without a car and home-to-work trips occur primarily through one or more of the three non-car modes—walking, bicycling, and public transit.  The new trend involves living and working without the expense of car ownership.  Car share programs quickly arose to support a primarily non-car lifestyle.

This transition from the auto age—the millennium represents a nice reference point—to the new urban “community transportation age” forces a look as to where we are now heading and those nations—principally Western Europe—where the three key modes already account for 40-50 percent of urban trips, about four times the U.S. 13 percent share of U.S. urban total trips by foot, bicycle and public transit.  By knowing the comparative modal shares, the infrastructure required to support larger shares for non-car trips quickly becomes apparent.

Since a growing segment U.S. urban transportation “consumer” already abandoned the car for other modes, the needs for alternative mode infrastructure—equality with that of the car—can not longer be ignored.   And, a look at the comparison of the U.S. and Canada urban travel by mode to those nations with well established and continuing modal share reveals a truly momentous gap.  

First let’s look at the modals shares for urban trips using the median number of seven Western European countries:

Walking           29%

Bicycling          12%

Public Transit   12%

Median Total Walking, Bicycling and Public Transit:  53%

The U.S. and Canada walking and bicycling urban trip shares are very similar: 

    Walking: Canada 10%  U.S. 9%.

    Bicycling:  Canada 1%   U.S. 1%

    Public Transit: Canada 14%  U.S. 3%

These numbers for the European group versus the U.S. are clear:  European group walking mode shares three times the U.S., and bicycle mode share ten times the U. S.  Ditto for the European group versus Canada.  For public transit modal share, again the European group, 12%, four times the U.S. share, 3%.  The U.S. and Canada similarity in walking and bicycling shares are noteworthy as Canadian gasoline prices are about $2.00 more a gallon and incomes somewhat below U.S. levels.  The point is that modal shares for walking and bicycling are not just a product of gas prices and income—though they do a play a role—but also infrastructure to support those modes.  Note that European gas prices are four to five dollars more a gallon than the U.S. and incomes in some of the nations in the European group (Germany and some of Scandinavia for examples) are higher than the U.S.

The public transit comparison does present a surprise.  The U.S. number, 3% urban trip modal share for public transit is dwarfed by a number four times as large, 12%, for the European group.  But in the case of Canada, 14% of the urban trips are by public transit, two percent above the European group median.  Suffice to say the three major Canadian metropolitan areas—Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver—all feature extensive public transit systems with both Montreal and Toronto possessing subway and commuter rail as well as miles of walker undergrounds.

Clearly North American laws, education, and encouragement related to bicycling and walking modes require advancement.  But regardless of those three areas, without modern infrastructure little change in the modal shares can be attained.  One cannot get to half the West European modal shares—five times the current bicycle modal share here now and half again the walking mode share—through simply cheerleading, better transportation law, and more traffic tickets.  This target, for example, represents shifting more than one in seven urban trips to walking and bicycling.

The infrastructure barriers to more U.S. walking and       bicycling:  cycle track, roundabouts and shared space

The major barrier to increased bicycling and walking numbers in urban North America can easily be identified as Europe which came into the auto age late, had to react to protect a once dominant and safe walking and bicycling increasingly unsafe and repressed by cars.  The reaction came in two forms—traffic calming (increasingly in the form of roundabouts) and cycle track, both developments coming into their own in the last quarter of the 20^th century.  Roundabouts literally invented in the U.K. in 1966 began to find its way into North America in the 1990s and today there about 14,000 roundabouts here—and Americans now have at least occasional first-hand experience with this technology.  And traffic calming in one form or another has become widespread.  Cycle track—protected onstreet bike lanes using curbing or planters--only now is beginning to be recognized with Chicago in the process of installing 100 miles of cycle track and Montreal with several curb separated miles of cycle track dating from early in the last decade.  Shared space—a no signs, no signals, no curbs—represents a fusion of roundabouts and traffic calming elements taking advantage of the fact that drivers operating at a few miles and hour will, essentially, interact with human traffic in a friendly way and yield to walkers and bicyclists.  Shared space gets employed primarily in busy retail and tourist contexts. 

If U.S. urban areas aim to multiply their walking and bicycling modal shares, then extensive investments in cycle track, roundabouts (with walker crossings and for bicyclists multi-use paths or bikepath crossings) and shared space infrastructure holds the key. 

How this infrastructure works with the other key mode, public transit, gets addressed in the next post.

UNLEASHING THE NEW ERA OF VERMONT AND U.S. TRANSPORTATION

A SURGE IN WALKING, BICYCLING AND PUBLIC TRANSIT TO NATURAL LEVELS AWAITS MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS ENABLING FOR THE FIRST TIME WALKABLE, BIKABLE, AND YES, DRIVABLE COMMUNITIES

         --MOVING ABOUT VERMONT DOWNTOWNS, VILLAGE CENTERS AND BUILT UP AREAS, A DEFINING OF QUALITY TRANSPORTATION FOR THOSE WHO WALK, BICYCLE, DRIVE AND USE PUBLIC TRANSIT

The sudden and unprecedented shift of Vermonters from traveling to work in cars to other modes between 2000-2010—about 9,000 workers or three percent of the workforce—demands attention and demonstrates the changed face of transportation needs today in all builtup areas, from small village centers to Vermont’s one metropolitan area centered in Burlington.

Vermont—and national—lack of infrastructure for walking and bicycling modes smothers these modes and in turn depresses public transit usage.  Vermonters quitting car use (nationally driver licensing among the under-30 crowd dropped ten percent in the last decade or so) unmasks the huge deficit in walking and bicycling infrastructure and indirectly public transit demand, particularly for intercity and commuter rail passenger services.

While most developed nations urban modal share for bicycle trips tops ten percent, Vermont and the U.S. even with substantial growth over the past decade remains at slightly over one percent.  While U.S. and Canada walker and bicycle mode shares of about 9 percent and 1 percent respectively, Canadian urban dwellers public transit trips top 12 percent compared to the U.S. 3 percent.  Total U.S. walking, bicycle, and public transit share of urban travel amounts to 13 percent, a little more than half that of Canada and about a third of the typical Western European nation. 

But with Vermont and the nation now experiencing a revolution in urban travel a substantial, inevitable move toward European modal shares bubbles just below the surface.  A harbinger of Vermont change comes not just from the 50 workday bus commuter runs started since 2003-2004 between Burlington and three other job centers—Middlebury, Montpelier and St. Albans—now serving almost over 400 commuters, but also from the fact three of the largest Burlington employers also started providing reduced or no cost bus access as part of a program to reduce solo commuting.    Employers taking a lead in encouraging non-car travel reflects the economic benefits which accrue to their workers, better health which arises from use of the “active modes” of bicycling and walking, and direct economic benefit to the employer as well through reduced need for allocating resources to expensive employee parking spaces.

The trends from a flat or declining statewide car travel (for example year-to-year Vermont total registered cars and pickups declined 0.1 as of February 2013) suggesting the real potential for commuter rail along the commuter corridors out of Burlington are matched by consistent statewide public opinion surveys for decades showing low support for more highways and strong support for more bicycling, walking, public transit, and passenger rail investments.  The drop in car traffic along major entry streets to downtown Burlington is instructive as declines date from about 1990 with decreases of 8 to 28 in daily traffic along representative points of Main Street, the Northern Connector (VT 127), Pearl Street and Pine Street—trends continuing based on traffic data reports in recent years.

Meanwhile an unusual convergence of the interests favoring walkable, bikable and drivable communities as well as public transit suggests there exists a simple nexus meeting the needs of all four groups.  Note urbanologist  Peter Calthorpe stresses for successful transit there first must be a “walkable” community.

For walkability two infrastructure forms are sufficient—sidewalks which in most cases are already in place along street segments and roundabouts at intersections which assure comfort and ease of crossing and a reduction of up to 90 percent in injury rates.  The roundabout also reduces delay and improves safety for all users, particularly for car occupants.  Drivability absolutely depends on the presence of roundabout infrastructure in downtowns as well as along commercial and retail corridors.  Middlebury’s Adirondack Circle, Montpelier’s Keck Circle and the new three-roundabout corridor in Manchester Center (slated to be Vermont’s first “all roundabouts and no signals” community)—are town center roundabouts reducing traffic speeds and delay over a distance of three to four blocks.  These roundabouts reduce delays for all users and have greater capacity to move vehicles.

For bicycles the needs are somewhat similar to those of walkers.  First along busy streets a grade separated “cycle track”, protected lanes, providing safety and enabling higher speeds comprises the key to urban bicycling.  Cycle track can be described as a one or two-way “bicycle highway” on a roadway employing curbing or bollards where no parallel bikepath or multi-user path is available.  (A route comprised of a mix of cycle track and bikepaths is a common treatment in Europe.)  Second, where possible, intersections with roundabouts feature a separate bikepath side by side with crosswalks or a multi-user path as the crosswalk.  With cycle track and intersection provisions, the bicycle gains equality as a mode with walking and car travel.  Cycle track also protects drivers from bicycles.  For motor vehicles, roundabouts at busy intersections mostly improve safety, reduce travel times, and provide greater capacity.  In sum, for a walkable, bikable and drivable town and village centers as well as all built up areas, cycle track and roundabouts offers a ready solution to the current infrastructure deficit.   

A European import, cycle track is new in North America with one extensive set of corridors already in place in Montreal. But where to get the five to ten feet for cycle track remains difficult even with allocated parking for the purpose on one side of a busy street.  However, since roundabouts handle traffic quite easily compared to signals, many turn lanes can be eliminated in part or altogether enabling cycle track along approaches to an intersection.  Some tradeoff of parallel parking along one side of a street may be made to accommodate cycle track.

The safest environment for bicycling and walking can be found in “shared space” at the heart of retail districts—like the cross street intersections in Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace The new Burlington Marketplace/waterfront plan—PlanBTV—proposes a cycle track along Main Street connecting the Marketplace to the waterfront.  Shared space can be applied in a few areas and one of its features is providing safe access to all persons with a handicap.  

         The need today: “CPR” to revive downtowns as well as town and village centers

“CPR”—cycle track, passenger rail and transit, and roundabouts represent the three infrastructure and service challenges in Vermont requiring substantial investments so community transportation in all aspects can be brought to life.  These infrastructure needs require tens of millions of investments each year over a decade or so to begin to meet the needs throughout Vermont.  Yet the benefits of the first investments can be observed and measured from the completion of each project with the roundabouts in downtowns and village centers living proof of both the transportation and economic benefits.  Consider these investments—including intercity and commuter passenger rail—as bringing to the builtup areas of Vermont towns and cities the same scale of transportation change as engendered by the interstate highway system completed at the end of the 1970s.  Unlike the interstate system CPR leads to a sustainable transportation system and the substantial reduction in the role and usefulness of motor vehicles in the builtup areas and between population centers served by passenger rail. 

Each mode—walking, bicycling, motor vehicle and public transit—must be treated equally and each must be provided for—a community with equal treatment of all modes becomes one with cycle track on most of its busy streets, roundabouts at almost all its intersections, and commuter and/or intercity rail at either traditional and/or new station locations.  Passenger rail services fully integrate into an overall bus and rail based public transit network.  This completes a public transit system where the basic regional bus networks in great part already exist.

In sum, quality transportation in builtup areas in Vermont and throughout North America  (with some noticeable exceptions in isolated nodes, intersections, and areas) does not currently exist, mostly due to large deficit in infrastructure in one or more of the modes, primarily bicycle, walking, and rail passenger transit.   

Up to the advent of the roundabout and cycle track there existed appeals for integrated and balanced transportation in U.S. law and transportation policies—but just what integrated and balanced transportation looked like in real life was unclear.  With the magic of CPR—cycle track, passenger rail, and roundabouts--the vision of quality transportation for all modes becomes a reality.  The next steps involve using CPR to bring the current critically ill patient--transportation in built up areas--back to a renewed and vibrant life at a far higher level than ever achieved in the past.