| Issue 309 | March 19, 2001 |
At
a state capitol press conference last Thursday, transportation reform advocates
launched the Connecticut Transportation Choices Coalition. The coalition,
founded by the CT Fund for the Environment and the Tri-State Transportation
Campaign, released a 20-page "green
paper" outlining a comprehensive transportation reform program
for state agencies, municipalities and metropolitan planning organizations.
"Transportation reform is clearly on the table in Connecticut," said Connecticut Fund for the Environment Senior Attorney Curt Johnson. "The Transportation Choices Coalition will be a major presence in the state-wide discussion about where to take the transportation system."
'The Green Paper is the first comprehensive transportation policy reform package to emerge since September's transportation summit," said Jon Orcutt, Associate Director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "Its recommendations encompass public concern about traffic congestion, municipalities' arguments about funding, safety and local infrastructure and business groups' calls for better mass transit."
The position paper urges fresh thinking about transportation policy. Its recommendations are built around the arguments that road expansion will never solve traffic congestion, and that re-oriented public investment and better local planning can make mass transit work for many more people.
The paper's 30-plus policy recommendations are grouped into five sections:
Among
other measures, the paper calls specifically for development of a commuter,
light rail and dedicated busway transit network in the Hartford
region, more investment in the New Haven Line and Shore Line East
and for the state to build on strong bus ridership with more and cleaner-fueled
service. It recommends a moratorium on highway expansion in state preservation
and conservation areas, more local aid for infrastructure repair, joint
municipal-state planning in congested corridors, incentive programs for
traffic calming and transit-oriented development, more bike-friendly planning
and design guidelines. It also calls on ConnDOT to obtain FHWA congestion
pricing study funds in order to investigate strong highway demand management
policies, and for CT's state and congressional leaders to back plans for
a NY cross-harbor rail tunnel.
The Transportation Choices Coalition is made up of 14 pro-transit, environmental and other public interest groups representing over 50,000 residents across Connecticut, including the Connecticut chapter of the Sierra Club, the CT Transportation Institute, the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, the CT Bicycle Coalition and the CT Coalition for Environmental Justice. Full text of the "green paper" and a full list of coalition members are available at the CT Fund for the Environment's and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's web sites: www.cfenv.org, www.tstc.org.
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