In this state of ours where you can't get there from here, transportation is one of the most urgent policy issues. Not so long ago, business leaders were forecasting a catastrophe in which Connecticut, with its clogged interstates and meager public transportation systems, would become an “economic cul-de-sac” that would drive out business. All those dreams of becoming a biotech center would go out the window. The New Age would pass Connecticut by.
But
the matter faces two dangerous
foes: short attention spans and the state fiscal crisis, both of which
threaten to delay a $5.5 billion plan to
build a modern system for moving
people around more efficiently. The problem is a sleeper issue
lurking
in this summer's special budget session. A
Democratic bill before the General
Assembly calls for tax increases to begin financing several of the
projects
proposed in the state Transportation Strategy Board's plan.
The
measure gradually would increase
the state tax on gasoline to an earlier level set before the
legislature
slashed the levy by 7 cents in the 1990s, and impose a temporary
surcharge
in the corporate income tax. The money would enable the state to
start on public transportation plans, including improvements to the
Shoreline
East and Metro North commuter lines, establishment of train service
connecting
New Haven, Hartford and
Springfield and transit service
between New Britain and Hartford.
The
bill has led to more skirmishing
between the Rowland administration and the Democrats. Rowland
budget
chief Marc Ryan accused House Speaker Moira Lyons last week of crafting
the bill in secret and suggested she's crazy to take up the measure in
the middle of a state budget crisis. Lyons points out that she
has
been up front from the beginning about her views on the importance of
getting
to work on the strategy
board's plan now rather than later
despite the state's financial difficulties.
The speaker may be somewhat challenged at collegiality, but she's also right. The principle she espouses of getting behind the strategy board's plan right away and not let it lose steam ought to be embraced as well by Gov. John G. Rowland, who along with Lyons convened the transportation group.
Lyons expressed her views on the issue clearly in January. She told the strategy board then that the state needs to begin establishing a funding source for the proposed transportation improvements and that the business community ought to share in the costs because it would be a principal beneficiary of better roads and transit services. She was only stating an obvious and well-documented point of view when she said that correcting the state's serious highway and public transportation shortcomings is critical to the state's economic development. The gridlock on Interstate 95 and the inaccessibility of whole regions of the state by decent highways and public transportation are as serious impediments to future growth as the high costs of doing business and living in Connecticut.
She also might have pointed out they are major contributors to the continued impoverishment of the state's decaying old cities, where urban workers can't get to jobs in the suburbs and suburban industries are deprived of a substantial work force. In fact, the state's rural northeast is at a similar loss to accommodate commuters to Hartford, Storrs and other centers of white-collar employment.
That having been said, however, even members of the strategy board agree there may be merit to taking up the matter in the next session, after the legislature presumably has dealt with balancing the two-year budget plan that's before it. Implementing a transportation plan ought to be the focus of the new session. That would permit a more thorough and open discussion than what has taken place thus far over how to pay for the proposed transportation improvements. That would give the legislature a chance to revisit the possibility of reestablishing tolls to help pay for the improvements.
Tolls were taken off the Connecticut Turnpike when they were cumbersome and unsafe. But technological advances in the methods of collecting highway tolls make this a very attractive alternative today. Waiting this short period of time would also allow a more thorough airing of the timing of projects. And by next year, it should be clearer what Congress intends to do regarding federal transportation funding.
Meantime the governor and speaker ought to have a joint press conference to reawaken the public (and the press, which also has a short attention span) to the issue rather than take potshots at one another over the timing. They should make it clear that the question is not whether or not to do all this stuff but when to implement the transportation strategy board's plan and how best to pay for it. Lyons is right in her effort to keep this issue from slipping through the cracks.
I don't know what roads Marc Ryan takes. But driving home from New York earlier this summer, I noticed the gridlock on Interstate 95 hasn't let up out of consideration for the budget crisis.
New Mission Statement from CBC
Date: 9/26/2001 1:02:19 PM Eastern
Daylight Time
The Board of Directors of the Connecticut Bicycle Coalition has changed the "mission" of the organization..
The new mission statement is: "The Connecticut Bicycle Coalition promotes bicycling and walking through advocacy and education." What has changed most importantly the broadening of CBC's constituency to include pedestrians. The new wording implies:
"What
works for pedestrians works
for cyclists; what works for cyclists works for pedestrians. We
further
belive that good facilities for cyclists and pedestrians depend
on the existence of good communities.
Good communities look after the environment and promote wise land use.
Good communities provide open space and recreation opportunities. Good
communities have good facilities such as libraries, schools, and parks.
Good communities are built around people, not the automobile.
In short we are for that which creates livable communities because these communities are, by their very nature, walkable, bikeable communities."
There is hopeful news for those following the Stamford, CT Bike Racks on Busses issue.
The State of Connecticut has not been in the forefront on this matter. CT has lagged behind the nation in rack deployment on it's bus fleets. Last year $50,000 was committed to outfit all of CT Transit's Stamford busses with racks. Racks offer those individuals who encounter the "last mile" obstacle to transit use an alternative to walking and enhance the flexibility of the transportation system.
Making the connections between types of transportation used has always been a problem in achieving good intermodal access. The Stamford project is an opportunity and its success will help to ensure similar actions elsewhere in the State. Connecticut Bike Coalition (CBC) commends CT Transit and ConnDOT for their leadership on this issue and we are looking forward working with all of the parties involved on this and many other projects.
CBC
met Wednesday, August 22 with
CT Transit to discuss the marketing plan and the kick-off
activities.
Two routes are to be completely equipped for the inauguration of the
program
by mid-September and all of the racks will thus be installed and in
service
by the first week of November. Stay tuned for more
information from the CBS on-line.
In 1999, the year of the Columbine massacre, 28 students nationwide were killed in schools; that same year, 840 children were killed when struck by cars as they walked, often to school.
Though school shootings spark a national outcry and tremendous prevention efforts, street-crossing deaths draw no notice and little action. With street crossing accidents a leading cause of injury and accidental death for school age children, the Connecticut Bicycle Coalition, with support from the Hartford Courant Foundation and the Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Foundation, is kicking off a major statewide safety initiative.
Safe Routes to School is a new program of the Connecticut Bicycle Coalition (CBC). Its goal is to improve the environment for children walking or bicycling to school, reducing injuries, fatalities and accidents while encouraging more walking and bicycling.
We've always supported safety programs for children, said CBC President Ken Krayeske. But, the focus was usually on modifying the behavior of the victim. Teaching the Rules of the Road and promoting helmet use only solves half of the problem. Until our neighborhood streets are redesigned to enforce acceptable vehicle speeds and allow safe crossings, we will continue to lose lives.
The hazards that contribute to these accidents are wide streets that promote unsafe vehicle speeds and poorly designed or inadequate crossing areas. CBC's Safe Routes to School program works by bringing together concerned stakeholders, including parents, planners, police and school officials to identify traffic hazards and poorly designed streets. Through a series of workshops, routes to schools are mapped, hazards are identified and traffic calming plans are adopted to improve the environment for bicycling and walking.
At Connecticut SAFEKIDS, we take this issue very seriously. As a vital part of the communities we serve, Connecticut Safe Kids wants to make sure that our children and motorists understand the importance of pedestrian safety, said Eileen Henzy, Director of Connecticut SAFE KIDS, a program designed to reduce unintentional injuries in children. Keeping children safe while walking or bicycling to a school, playground or just around the corner should be a priority for everyone.
Traffic calming is a set of street designs and traffic rules that slow and reduce traffic while encouraging walking and bicycling. Behind traffic calming is the belief that streets are valuable public spaces that should be shared equally by all users. Traffic calming devices are simple, inexpensive, self-enforcing and easily accommodate emergency vehicles, garbage trucks and buses.
Street design and traffic calming workshops will be conducted by Francesco Gomes, an expert in community planning. Mr. Gomes holds Masters degrees in Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and is the author of The Urban Street: Defining, Planning and Designing Successful Urban Streets.
Applications and information about the program will be mailed out to all of Connecticut's public schools during the month of June. Applicants will be screened for need and finalists will be subject to a site audit and interview. Funding is limited, and in some cases geographically restricted. A sliding scale will be used to determine the degree to which schools receive financial assistance.
-end-
The Connecticut Bicycle Coalition was formed in 1977 to promote bicycling and walking through public education, advocacy and programs. CBC is at the forefront of debates on smart growth, traffic calming and livable communities in Connecticut.