Hi Mike,
One of the discoveries I made about 8 years ago was that when taking trips out west that going down Hwy 151 to Cedar Rapids then south on 380 to I-80 was 40 minutes quicker than going south on I-90 then diagonal on I-88 to I-80. That route continues to be improved.
If you are a trucker going from the Fox Valley to San Francisco the best route is via the Beltline to Verona Road. Perhaps some day there will be an Interstate named for the route through the Beltline to Iowa. All it will take is enough growth in interstate commerce in the Fox Valley.
Odd that if we tore up the Beltline and turned it into a gravel road the truckers wouldn't come this way. It's Human nature to take the path of least resistance. We predominantly take the path of least resistance.
Already there are routes where commuting by bike can beat the time by car. Push cars off of residential streets onto major conduits, create attractive alternatives to taking less car trips, shorter car trips, no car trips. Incentives not punitive measures can gain popularity.
Dave
"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
For your information, I delivered the following comments at the LRTPC's meeting last month, and in doing so, requested the city to include, within the City of Madison's comments on the project environmental impact statement (EIS), a recommendation that the EIS on the project include a "transportation demand reduction" (TDR) alternative, that is of sufficient scale to encourage significantly less auto driving into Madison everyday, as an alternative to building more highway capacity on Verona Road and the West Beltline.
A decision on the City's comments on the Verona Road/West Beltline highway expansion DEIS was deferred to the next committee meeting, scheculed for August 19th, 4:45 p.m., Room LL-110 MMB of the Municipal Building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Mike Neuman
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Testimony to City of Madison Long Range Transportation Planning Committee, July 15, 2004
Climate change is without question an urgent problem now -- for all governmental jurisdictions. Its impacts are already being felt by many jurisdictions, in the form of drought, flooding, deadly heat waves and rising seas.
Yet governmental leaders at all levels continue to delay action in confronting global warming's primary cause - too much fossil fuel burning by the human population.
Wisconsin is not immune from the effects of global warming. As columnist Bill Wineke states in today�s Wisconsin State Journal: �If global warming is manmade, or even man-influenced, the we owe it to future generations to try to reduce our production of greenhouse gasses.�
Today�s global warming is a consequence of the buildup of extra quantities of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other heat-trapping gases, in the atmosphere from humans burning fossil fuels for energy and transportation over the past century and one-half.
The earth has in fact warmed more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century, with most of that warming occurring toward the end of the century. It is forecasted to warm up by possibly 10 times more during this century than it did last century, unless major actions to reduce greenhouse gas production are taken all over and by everyone and every jurisdiction.
Emissions from motorized transportation constitute roughly one-third of the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel burning in the U.S.. The amount of driving done in Dane County, having increased at the rate of 3 times its rate of population, is not an insignificant contributor to global warming. For every gallon of gasoline burned in motor vehicles today and throughout this century, approximately 25 additional pounds greenhouse gases is sent to the atmosphere, where they will remain this century and into the next century, adding to the sol ar heat-trapping capability of the Earth�s atmosphere.
In 2000, I proposed a strategy that would pay financial incentives (monetary rewards) to households to reduce activities that lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions from public money proposed to be spent on widening roads, expanding airport capacity and in building power plants.
Such a plan is needed now than ever in Madison, Dane County and Wisconsin to encourage people to reduce their motor vehicle driving, jet travel and energy needs, because conservation of energy together with improvement in energy efficiency is the way to minimize the global warming threat the fastest.
Mike Neuman
Resident of Madison
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