News and Updates

This message was delivered live to the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization on 17 January 2007 at the Contois Auditorium in Burlington, VT.

As we talk about consensus on growth and development in Burlington and Chittenden county – I feel that from a youth perspective - that there is a disconnect between the goals and vision of the future between the generations. I see too often that many do not want growth and development, especially here in Burlington. I think is short-sighted.

It is the youth that will be saddled more and more with the responsibility of the State economy as the aging population moves out of the workforce. Already, education and social services are chewing up 68% of our state and local revenues. As our population ages, the education costs may decrease slightly, but increasing costs of social services that we provide will require a greater share of the revenue. All this leaves less money to do other things with, especially fund transportation –

The most fundamental way I see to decrease transportation costs is to build denser.

The benefits of an urban environment are plentiful and go beyond simple definable costs – cities reduce emissions by reducing vehicle miles driven, reduced overall pavement miles, increased transit, increased walking and biking, and increased mobility for those without an automobile, an important consideration as the population ages.

If mixed-use urban centers become a goal rather than a byproduct – more trips can be made without the use of the private automobile. With fewer private autos – there should be less congestion leaving more room for transit and other modes of travel.

The MPO should lead the charge by encouraging the formation of innovative incentive mechanisms through transportation to develop dense, compact urban centers.

Today at the Leahy ECHO Center on the Waterfront a collection of heavy hitters in the energy field came together to talk with the general public. The meeting was not given a clear focus, but it provided a good overview of how Vermont ties into the larger nationwide energy debate. Bernie Sanders, along with Dan Ricter (sp?) from New Capital Energy Corporation gave the major presentations of the night. All in all a good presentation. One issue I thought that was oddly not discussed was the RGGI (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative), especially since Vermont was the first of the 7 states to pass the necessary legislation.
After Dan was done the discussion began to focus a bit more on Burlington, and how the City can become more sustainable in its energy practices. My focus was largely on Scott Johnstone. He brought up some great points on how transportation systems have been funded, and why it is clear that pavement and vehicle transporation projects have been funded versues rail or other infrastructure projects. The pay off time and depreciation rates simply mean that the costs versus the benefits of these projects have a much higher per year ‘benefit’ than the same amount of cost for rail for instance. The only way forward on this is to put a long planning horizon on these projects - requiring a 50 to 100 year planning horizon instead of the traditional 20 year.

Scott also mentioned that other initiatives such as Way to Go Week have been amazing successful, but must be carried further into real like long term changes in travel habit. We need to have “TDM on steriods.”

As the City moves forward into the Burlington Transportation Plan it becomes even more necessary to integrate land use, economic growth, transportation into a systems approach by understanding that all impact each other. The need now comes to study things not in a vacuum, but in a holistic ‘total systems’ analysis way.