Kudos to Virginia Clarke for Circ Op-Ed
Virginia Clarke -- former long-time town of Richmond representative on the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization -- prepared an excellent Op-Ed that ran in the Burlington Free Press on October 26. Virginia succinctly captured the essence of the concerns of those opposed to the limited access Circ Highway. Here's what Virginia wrote:
"When the new proposed costs of the Chittenden Solid Waste District landfill were recently revealed to be $90 million, people began to wonder if perhaps more recycling and less trash might be a good idea. There's nothing like contemplating a huge expenditure of (your) money to sharpen your appreciation for alternative solutions to a problem.
With that model close at hand, it was all the more surprising to hear little outcry when reminded in the recent environmental impact statement hearings that Circ Highway Section A-B was projected to cost in that same $90 million ballpark. And that's only before the cost overruns. Despite the fact that this invoice will be shared by local, state and federal taxpayers, it is still our money. So, why not ask the same question? Perhaps we could solve the problem by reducing the demand on the facility, i.e., by driving less. Creating a costly new piece of infrastructure does not have to be the answer to every problem, especially in transportation, when we cannot even afford to take care of our existing roads and bridges.
In addition, this expenditure siphons off resources in exactly the wrong direction relative to the most significant of our environmental concerns -- climate change. We know that we will need to transition to alternative transportation as it becomes more and more urgent to reduce greenhouse gases (some think it's already urgent, others think it's too late and others just hope the whole problem will go away), so spending $90 million-plus on the Circ won't leave many transportation dollars for anything else.
Demand-reduction strategies and a rapid, timely, attractive public transportation system are congestion-reducing strategies that build toward rather than away from a sustainable environmental future, so let's spend our money on these if we must spend it. Rapid-transit buses on the highway, shuttles looping the neighborhoods, vanpooling to shared employment destinations, incentives for not filling the streets with single-occupancy vehicles at peak travel hours, and provision of walking and biking facilities will all help move people around with clear consciences.
The Circ is no longer the appropriate response to congestion. Even in the few years since Judge Sessions ordered the environmental impact statement, most people have become aware that global warming is not only a reality, it is happening at an accelerating rate. It's not going to be all that easy to change our extravagant vehicular habits, but it will be even harder if we've already spent all our money going down the wrong road."
