CART Newsletter, Spring 2008
Announcments
CART Quarterly Meeting Next Wednesday!
CART will hold its quarterly meeting on March 19th at 6pm at the Clifton Center (directions).
We will discuss the possibility of renaming CART.
The featured speaker will be Dr. Ted Grossardt, who will discuss new public participation technologies. Dr Grossardt is a member of the Community Transportation Innovation Academy and the Transportation Systems Management Graduate Certificate Program at the Kentucky Transportation Center.
This meeting is free and open to the public.
Relaunched CART Website - cartky.org
Check it owwwt! The CART Website has been redesigned so that you, yes you, can now participate there. That's right, engage us on transportation, energy policy, urban design, bridges, whatever, now you have a place to do that. For example, click on the links after the editorials to give us a stern talkin' to!
Talk by John Cullen This Wednesday
"Better Together – The role of Social Capital in Building Prosperous and Sustainable Communities. How do development patterns and transportation play a role in the ethics and economics of this issue?"
CART has nothing to do with this, but it looks great. It's Wednesday at 6:30pm, in the Dining Room of Highland Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Highland Avenue and Cherokee Road.
This meeting is free and open to the public. More info here.
How Do I Stop Courier-Journal Yard Litter?
You know those advertisements that the C-J drops in your front yard whether you subscribe or not? Call 582-2211 and they will delete you from their list.
Pedestrian Summit Planning Heats Up
Louisville Metro is deep in planning for the pedestrian summit, and is soliciting advice from citizens. For more information visit the city's pedestrian summit page.
Transit Needs Your Phone Call for Kentucky Legislature Funding
The proposed state budget calls for a 30% decrease in funding for public transportation. The three large urban transit systems in Kentucky -- Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky -- testified before the House Transportation Budget Review Committee that $4 million is needed each year of the biennium to avoid service cuts and fare increases.
Action Needed:
One quick call today to your representative in the House. Your one phone call makes a difference. Call toll-free on the Legislative Message Line: 1-800-372-7181. Ask the operator to leave a message for your representative. If you don't know who it is, look it up at www.lrc.ky.gov/Legislators.htm.
All you have to say is: "Please increase funding to public transportation in the Louisville Metro area."
Local News
Ohio River Bridges Under-Financed, Fight Moves to Tolls
From KTAP, the Kentucky Transportation Action Partnership (ktap.org):
KY Transportation Cabinet released the Six Year Plan on February 13. The 2009-2010 Louisville Bridges budget request is $175 million. The Initial Financial Plan had budgeted $345 million for 2009-2010. The only construction money included in the $175 million is about $50 million for repairing the I-65 overpasses downtown. Most of the balance is for the Kennedy Interchange design and the Eastern Bridge right-of-way. Talk in the halls of Frankfort referred to this request as "the life support budget". ... The Six Year Plan is posted on the KYTC website http://transportation.ky.gov.
The next step is determining how the bridge tolls are going to be to pay the shortfall. You can read CART's position on the bridges in the editorial later in this newsletter...
Mr. Theo & The TARCettes Perform Musical Bike Rack Demo
http://www.ridetarc.org/rider-information/bikes-on-board.asp
Editorials
Are you more mobile than a 14 year old girl?
by David Morse
I admit it. I'm spoiled. I'm a middle-aged American, and therefore I should be among the most mobile people on the planet. But it's just not true. None of us are. Even with our cars and 5 expressway spurs leading into Louisville, we're less mobile than people in other countries. This has huge consequences for our economy.
I got to see the film "Whisper of the Heart" over the weekend, which is about a 14 year old girl growing up in Tama New Town in Western Tokyo. The film is a window into life in the city's urban design. What struck me was the incredible mobility of the people in the film. It's not just that the main character is a child and yet can go most places, but that she can go anywhere she can imagine, at any time. She mixes travel modes - she walks, she takes transit, she gets rides from friends (bike-rack and car). This is not a movie about transit. This is just how these people live. It's an unremarkable background that only appears because it's slightly more interesting to the director than having the characters seated on sofas.
This weekend I was snowed in, so my normal modes of travel were cut to just walking. I had a lot of time to reflect on my mobility; I found that it's not that good compared to the Japanese girl's. There are plenty of trips that I defer or don't consider due to stress, distance, traffic, weather, or time. Licensed motorists in America aren't just beaten by the mobility of a 14 year old Japanese girl, we're lapped by her. It's no contest.
We owe it to ourselves to get our butts in gear and create alternatives to driving. We need to rally for smart land use. The status quo is not just hurting children, the poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities, but it's also hurting "average" motorized adults. Because every Louisvillian deals with stress, traffic, weather, and crime, it's easy to grow desensitized. Check out the movie, and re-sensitize yourself!
Twenty First Century Reality Check
by David Coyte, edited for length & flamebait by David Morse
Our business community needs to take a deep breath and face the economic realities that now, and for the foreseeable future, will grip our economy. It is time to detach ourselves from the obsolete policies of Greater Louisville, Inc. (GLI) and examine what will truly serve us in this century. No where is this more important than in our consideration of the Bridges Project.
...
Today’s message from the international stock markets and our own economic forecasters is that the United States is an economy on the brink of disaster. A pivotal weakness in our economy is the inefficiency and oil dependence of our transportation sector. Americans use twice as much energy per capita as Europeans. This wasn’t a big deal when oil was $20 per barrel. It is a very big deal now. Transportation consumes 2/3 of the oil we use and this is the sector where we have the potential to dramatically change our oil consumption levels and reduce our staggering infrastructure costs, and improve our international competitiveness. The next three statements summarize our problems:
- Planes and trucks are the most inefficient means of moving goods.
- Planes and cars are the least efficient ways of moving people.
- Interstates are the most expensive transportation infrastructure to build and maintain.
State and Federal governments are looking at significant raises in the fuel taxes and tolls to pay for highway upkeep. This is not a solution. Rising tolls and taxes will result in less driving and more efficient vehicles. This translates into less revenue and the tax and toll cycle continues until no one can afford to drive.
We must recognize the foolishness of investing in infrastructure that is so costly to maintain, so expensive to use, that promotes oil dependence, is usable by fewer and fewer citizens, and contributes significantly to environmental degradation. The Bridges Project and other highway mega-projects are obsolete. There is absolutely no way we can sustainably expand the automobile/trucking economy of the 20th Century. Attempts to do so will further erode our wealth and independence. But we must insure the mobility of our population and the flow of goods. Fortunately there are viable alternatives and they are being touted by the most unlikely sources.
There's More ... Share Your Thoughts ...
World Beat
Americans Prefer Transit to Roads
From the press release:
WASHINGTON (October 24, 2007) – Three-fourths of Americans believe that being smarter about development and improving public transportation are better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads, according to a survey sponsored by the National Association of Realtors and Smart Growth America.
The 2007 Growth and Transportation Survey details what Americans think about how development affects their immediate community, and traffic congestion was a top concern. Nearly half of those surveyed think improving public transit would be the best way to reduce congestion, and 26 percent believe developing communities that reduce the need to drive would be the better alternative. Only one in five said building new roads was the answer.
... "With increased traffic congestion and longer commutes, Americans are receptive to new ideas for handling growth, such as better transit or mixed-use walkable communities that allow people to cut down on their driving, as this survey shows."
Americans give their communities high marks when it comes to providing good public schools, parks and open space. Respondents were less optimistic about their local community’s ability to provide practical and convenient transportation and manage growth and development. While one-third approve of growth in their local area, the percentage of those who disapprove of local growth has doubled since 1999, from 10 to 20 percent.
This is a big deal because the NAR has been a traditional road-and-pavement outfit. We're welcoming their conversion to multi-modal transportation.