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GUEST COLUMN |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State Rep.
Joseph Markosek |
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Jan. 6, 2009
Pennsylvania's transportation plans must protect the environment
Transportation is evolving. The means and modes to move goods and people change over time. From foot-powered, to horse-powered to fuel-powered, the way we travel from here to there follows the course of technological progress, but inevitably, must be rooted in reality.
The recent dramatic run up in fuel and commodity prices has challenged an assumption that the United States could continue basing transportation decisions on the expectation that fuel would remain cheap and resources plentiful. Reductions in our consumption of foreign oil and the introduction of renewable non-fossil fuels into our economy further erode traditional funding sources, such as the gas tax. Choices made in the mid-20th century to focus on individual vehicles and the infrastructure to accommodate them, in the 21st century, now seem less sustainable.
Pennsylvania faces an $11 billion backlog of unmet bridge maintenance needs. From a land-use perspective, it is increasingly difficult to reclaim or redevelop within urban cores and to preserve land for worthwhile environmental initiatives. The hollowing out of once desirable towns and cities across the state are just two bitter fruits of a consuming drive to build, with bigger and faster as the overriding transportation goals.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is undertaking a new initiative focusing on the development of cost-effective, sustainable transportation solutions. Called "Smart Transportation," this approach is a significant break from the traditional considerations for transportation improvement projects used over the last 50 years.
In terms of an approach to projects, it means more creativity and less cost, more flexibility and fewer design constraints, more listening and fewer conflicts, more community building and less sprawl. At the heart of this endeavor is building partnerships and coordinating land-use and transportation decisions, which are not easily achieved outcomes because responsibility for each is divided between municipalities and the state, respectively. Since May 2003, the Rendell administration has worked on building a framework to improve land-use and transportation integration. The Keystone Principles and Criteria for Growth, Investment and Resource Conservation provides a foundation for the follow-up strategy and how state agencies are making different investment decisions.
To that end, Pennsylvania joined with New Jersey and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission to publish the March 2008 Smart Transportation Guidebook. A winner of the Federal Highway Administration’s and Federal Transit Administration’s 2008 Transportation Planning Excellence Award, the guidebook sets forth six guiding principles:
· tailor solutions to the context;
· tailor the approach;
· plan all projects in collaboration with the community;
· plan for alternative transportation modes;
· use sound professional judgment; and
· scale the solution to the size of the problem.
Using Smart Transportation principles, PennDOT is delivering a $200 million, 8.4-mile Route 202 Parkway in Montgomery and Bucks counties to deal with long-standing congestion issues. The parkway approach was built on extensive consensus building with the communities along the corridor after it became apparent PennDOT could not afford the decades-old, original plan for a $400 million-plus, four-lane expressway. The proposed parkway will provide a meaningful transportation investment that will enhance mobility but with a far smaller footprint with better pedestrian and biking amenities and at a savings in excess of $200 million.
Smart Transportation asks that the impacts of transportation decisions be carefully weighed. Will these decisions help create great places to live or will they encourage sprawl? Will they help a municipality achieve its economic development goals? Does the project fit with the community’s vision? Building towns, not sprawl, is integral to the success of Smart Transportation. This means ensuring that transportation decisions help to create communities with a strong sense of place that respect unique historical or cultural contexts and that have a high quality of life. It means avoiding projects that create development patterns that look like "Anywhere, Pa."
However, Smart Transportation is only one part in achieving a long-term solution. We must better examine the way land-use decisions are made at the local level and how public investments are made at the regional and statewide levels. Furthermore, true energy independence means we will fuel automobiles and trucks with something other than gasoline; we must create a new user fee that is based on mileage driven on our system rather than fuel consumed.
If a local or regional area determines they would like to have development occur in core areas and in-fill rather than see continued sprawl, developments in new transportation systems are necessary. Investments in and innovative development of transit will create development patterns conducive to transit ridership, thus ensuring that transportation investments support and are supported by land use.
If transit is not an option, pricing a highway network will be a new option, such as charging higher rates during peak travel times. This incentive (or perhaps disincentive) will provide a better regional perspective on land-use objectives and tying transportation investments to them -- two very important planning decisions.
We must work for an integrated transportation system that conserves and protects our energy resources and is sensitive to the environment. Now is the time for Pennsylvania to finance our transportation system and meet this generation’s stewardship responsibility.
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State Rep. Joseph Markosek is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Additional information on Smart Transportation may be found on PennDOT’s Smart Transportation website, http://www.smart-transportation.com