CART Presents Dr. Adrian Parr at My Library U, August 23, 2016

Published August 3, 2016 | By Terrell Holder

CART’s next regularly scheduled meeting will be held August 10, 6:30 PM, at the Crescent Hill Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, basement meeting room. All meetings are open to the public.

CART has been advocating for Louisville’s transit development since 1992 and this program continues our long history bringing relevant and timely information to forefront of the pubic consciousness. Our advocacy led to the TARC T-2 Study for Louisville’s first Light Rail Line in the 1990’s. That study was shelved to fund the Bridges Project.

Even though the Bridges Project will consume most of Louisville’s transportation dollars for the next 40 years, there is much that can be done to improve transit, mobility, and air quality for our community. But to do that will require persistent and coordinated work with other citizen groups and government agencies.

As a result of CART’s research, transportation emissions and energy demand affecting climate change have become our focus. Whether Louisville ever adopts and builds efficient mass transit systems, the community is now entering a period of dangerous climate change. Both developed and developing nations have loaded the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and continue to release high levels of fossil fuel emissions.

CART’s work to advocate for low emissions, energy efficient mass transit is now more relevant and more necessary than ever. However, if transportation policy does not change in our community, there is still a critical need to advance the education on the looming planetary emergency of climate change.

JOIN CART and work with others who clearly understand the need to reduce fossil fuel emissionsand adopt sustainable energy use cultural and infrastructure changes.

(click image above to download flyer)

Suburban Walmart Design on West Broadway

Published June 12, 2014 | By Terrell Holder

Big Box Retailer Wants Suburban Big Box in Traditional Workplace Form District

After months of speculation, intrigue, rumors and political controversy, Walmart is now preparing to build a super store in West

Washington DC Area Urban Walmart (Photo: Courtesy of Ed McMahon, Senior Fellow, Urban Land Institute. )

Louisville. The Walmart property located at the corner of 18th (Dixie Highway) and Broadway falls within a Traditional Workplace Form District, a designation defined by Louisville’s Land Development Code. According to the LOJIC Online Map, this Traditional Workplace is adjacent to the Broadway Traditional Marketplace Corridor and in close proximity to the Town Center Form District centered at 28th and Broadway and Traditional Neighborhood Form Districts both north and south of the Traditional Workplace. The Traditional Workplace Form District is described as follows:

“The Traditional Workplace Form District applies to older established industrial and employment areas that contain primarily small-to-medium scale industrial and employment uses. These uses are often historically integrated with or adjacent to residential neighborhoods, especially traditional neighborhoods. District standards are designed to encourage adaptive reuse and investment in these areas while ensuring compatibility with adjacent uses and form districts, to ensure adequate access and transit service, and to retain distinctive land uses and patterns such as connected street grids.” (LDC 5.2.5)
Continue reading →

CART to Present Oral Arguments in Bridges Case

Published June 2, 2014 | By admin

The following is a guest post from Clarence Hixson, CART’s Legal Counsel. Oral arguments appealing the 6^th District’s dismissal of CART’s law suit will take place before the US 6^th District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on June 25^th. We asked Mr. Hixson for a status report and asked him a couple of key questions. Below are his responses.

Why did the Appeals Court agree to hear oral arguments?

The final decisions of Federal District Court, ( in this case Judge Heyburn’s Final Order earlier this year dismissing all 20 of CART’s claims made in the Complaint) can be appealed to the Court of Appeals as a matter of right. The appeal has to be taken in compliance with federal civil Rule 4 and other rules providing a time limit for filing. CART’s appeal is not frivolous and states the jurisdiction and cause of action under the Administrative Procedures Act, NEPA and Title VI. Generally, the Appeal alleges that Judge Heyburn committed error in dismissing all the NEPA Claims and in denying the Motion for a Trial on the issue of intentional discrimination on the basis of race
by the decisions the states made and the subsequent project approval by FHWA.

All through Judge Heyburn’s Opinion he referred to the LSIORBP as an exceptionally significant project: The Court had serious questions as to CART’s standing through member Mattie Jones to make discrimination claims, but, “Again, due to the public nature of this suit and the import of CART’s Title VI claims, the Court will nevertheless address their substance.” Continue reading →

Houston Transit Plan: A Model for Louisville?

Published May 13, 2014 | By Terrell Holder

The Houston bus transit system is being redesigned to take advantage of inefficiencies in the system. The project is supposed to result in a system that reaches more people, increases headway on more routes and can be accomplished at no additional cost. Can the same be accomplished in Louisville? Is our bus system redundant and are their glaring inefficiencies? Read this article and let us know what you think.

(Images from Jarrett Walker at Human Transit)

Houston Before…

…And after redesign