Evan, I think your friend's article raises a good point - thinking about mass transit does raise key zoning questions that also need to be addressed. Thanks!
However, while we need to answer the long-term sustainability problems of our transportation infrastructure, I also think we need to be creative about how to get there from here. In other words, changing zoning laws and land use patterns over the next few years won't convince people to assume the inconvenience of mass transit (in the very specific form of TCAT route 14) today. They'll stick with cars. As a result, TCAT will be used less, becoming more inefficient and expensive, and we all lose. Perhaps the best way for West Hillers to interact with TCAT today is to look at the map a bit and try to find the best, centralized locations for bus stops. I suspect that this is what the TCAT route planners already do in their route planning work. A park-and-ride kind of facility (aka nodal development) does make a lot more sense to me than a long out-and-back routes, but the route in question serves West Hill, an Ithaca neighborhood that isn't a long out-and-back route like those that serve Groton, Newfield, Dryden, Lansing and Trumansburg. That is to say, I wholeheartedly agree - we need to incorporate long-term sustainability goals in our region's planning. Meanwhile, what sort of creative, inexpensive things can we do with TCAT to encourage people to take the step of using mass transit more than their cars here in town? Thanks for the discussion, everyone! Ben On October 21, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Evan Wray wrote: > A friend wrote this article which gives a quite different view. > > > Time for TCAT to wield its claws > > In light of all the recent discussion about TCAT, I would like to offer the > following, which was originally written in response to Maria Coles > article in the Journal that kind of started this whole debate about the > towns supporting TCAT financially. Equitable funding is definitely an > issue, and would provide a smidgen of additional resources to maintain > service levels to the outlying towns, but the elephant in the room is > town land-use policy. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
