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Ready to Go, Aquidneck by David Stookey, Sierra Club member and founder of Cool Aquidneck Island As part of a new $500,000 transportation study, the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission held a 3-hour public workshop to ask residents of the three island communities what they envision for a 21st century transportation system. About 80 citizens used electronic clickers to produce instantaneous answers to 20 survey questions posed by AIPC and its consultants. The results indicated a strong preference for reducing the use of automobiles on the island. In fact, fifty-one percent of the participants thought that environmental protection was the top priority in redesigning the Island’s transportation system. This community preference coincided with the stance the Sierra Club had developed at a recent local house party held in conjunction with Cool Aquidneck Island, a local energy-conservation group. Half a dozen participants in that gathering stood up and spoke at the workshop, asking the AIPC for study recommendations that will curb automobile travel, add bus and local rail service, and reduce both greenhouse gases and the smog and ozone that have kept Rhode Island from meeting safe air quality standards for many years. Aquidneck Island holds some advantages in adapting to a 21st century transportation system. For one thing, such modern techniques as re-establishing the old single-route rail service, or changing zoning to encourage transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods where homes, shops, and businesses are mixed together will work to reduce automobile travel. In addition to these ideas which have reduced “vehicle miles traveled” in other towns across America (a good measure of greenhouse gas emissions), workshop participants had lots of other ideas, from more no-left-turn signs to stop lights that turn green whenever a public transit vehicle approaches, to more and safer bike paths. Participants were handed Post-It Notes when they arrived and by the end of the evening six easels were pasted over with specific suggestions. Although the Scope of Work for the Aquidneck Island Transportation Study does not mention climate change or greenhouse gases or even vehicle miles traveled, there are encouraging signs that these planners will not produce just another batch of accommodate-the-automobile ideas. Tina Dolen, in addition to her work on planning projects, has taken the lead this past year in pulling together a three-community alliance with the “goals of measurable energy conservation and limiting greenhouse gases.” It is difficult to imagine her presiding over a transportation analysis that does not call for significant cuts in global-warming emissions. After all, Transportation is the biggest single source of climate-change pollution in the state. At a moment when the energy legislation agenda in Washington is sliding into next year, and the average citizen places global warming dangerously low on their list of concerns, it is good to think that three towns in southern Rhode Island are looking down the road 20 years to see how they can protect their fragile seaside environment and low-lying infrastructure. Figuring out what combination of transportation policies and investments can quickly and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions can provide an example for other communities as they too wake up to the threat posed by climate change. Get involved! We urge all Sierra Club members to go to the Aquidneck Island Transportation Study’s website, complete the online survey, and submit your comments demanding clean, affordable transportation choices that will help solve global warming. Visit: http://www.vhb.com/aquidneck/.
Providence 2020: Transit
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