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____________________________________________________________ You may recall seeing this letter drafted by a group of citizens concerned about HRM's strategy for transportation in the region (The Interim Regional Transportation Strategy), a few weeks ago. Regional Council was supposed to vote on whether to accept the Strategy, but it has not yet made it on to a council agenda. When it does, we would like to present the case that the strategy is flawed, as was the process for consulting the public. We are asking the council to put sustainable transportation measures in place while holding off on any roadway changes until an endorsed Regional Plan is in place. We feel as a group of citizens concerned about the impact that transportation has on our lives, that the HRM strategy is not reflective of what citizens would like and is devoting far too many resources to road building and expansion. WE ARE ASKING WHETHER YOU WILL SUPPORT OUR COMMENTS IN THE LETTER BELOW BY AGREEING TO SIGN ON TO THIS LETTER. If you would like to add your community group's name or your name as an individual to the letter, simply respond to <trax@istar.ca> with your community group's name, or your name (and title, if you wish) as an individual supporter. We will then sign the letter on behalf of all those who support our concerns, and present it to the Mayor and councillors next week. Please forward this to others who you think may also support our request. Sincerely, Sue Watson on behalf of the Transportation Issues Committee (and others) Ecology Action Centre ________________________________ Halifax, September 4th, 2000 Halifax Regional Municipality P.O. Box 1749 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3A5 Subject: Interim Regional Transportation Strategy Dear Mayor Fitzgerald and Councillors: We have reviewed the December 1999 draft of the Interim Regional Transportation Strategy which, we understand, will be presented to you shortly in a revised version for approval. While we have not seen the revised version, we concur with your vision of a sustainable transportation system for HRM and congratulate you for adopting the vision for urban transportation of the Transportation Association of Canada. We thank you for taking into account issues of environmental protection, human health, social equity, choice and the overall quality of life within our neighbourhoods. However, we are concerned that the content of the Strategy does not reflect the values and principles upon which it claims to be based. We are writing today to share the numerous and serious concerns that we have regarding the proposed Interim Regional Transportation Strategy. They include: · Process: the consultation process around the December 1999 version of the Strategy was flawed on several fronts, particularly in its design. The Open House sessions were not well advertised and were therefore not well attended. The process did not seem to allow for public input to be taken seriously into consideration. Furthermore, you will be asked to approve a revised version of the strategy to which the public will not have had access. HRM residents cannot support a strategy that they have not seen and which will so greatly impact their quality of life. · Regional Planning: Many HRM residents have invested considerable efforts and hope in the recently undertaken and very valuable HRM Vision 20/20 exercise. We understand that progress is being made and that you should be presented with a final version of the Vision and some values shortly. We would argue (and experience shows) that a transportation strategy, given its long-term implications on land-use patterns, cannot be separate from nor precede an approved Regional Plan, something that, we assume, will likely emerge out of the HRM 20/20 exercise in the next 12 to 18 months. We fear that an approved Transportation Strategy outside the context of HRM 20/20 will have very negative impacts on the overall perceived value of participating in public processes within HRM. · Scope: We do not consider that an effective transportation strategy for HRM can be developed by solely considering the urban and sub-urban areas of the municipality. The strategy needs to be comprehensive and encompass the entire HRM in order to be able to bring into the discussions important questions such as the construction of a commuter rail between Sackville and Halifax, a crucial element of a sustainable transportation system. In their book on overcoming automobile dependence, Newman and Kenworthy conclude: “…any city seriously wishing to move toward sustainability by changing the private car-public transportation equilibrium in favor of public transportation, must move in the direction of electric-rail-based transit systems. Only in this way can a city begin to compete with the car in the most basic travel choice factor of all: relative speed. ” · Content: We recognize that there are transportation issues within HRM that need to be addressed but do not feel that the proposed course of actions will solve them, prevent new ones and/or help achieve the vision of the strategy. The proposed investment ratio of roadway changes to demand management activities will not allow the HRM to meet the vision, fails to respect the social equity principle and will not significantly increase transportation choices for HRM residents. The fact that effective and significant investments in transportation demand management measures could reduce the need for roadway changes, as could the recently observed increase in gas prices, have not been assessed. The vast majority of the $225 million, the significant recommended investments of taxpayers’ money, is to be allocated to roadway changes (construction, twinning, expansion) to facilitate car flow, even before all the options have been explored. This is a false premise on which to build the transportation strategy; studies show that it is at best a temporary solution and that it leads to other negative consequences such as air pollution. “…increasing travel speeds only increases the amount of travel .. and that the associated increase in traffic … will mean an overall increase in fuel and emissions. … People do not save time when a city builds in car travel infrastructure that enhance speed – they just travel further. ” We are concerned that the long-term impacts of the proposed strategy have not taken into account effects on land use patterns, on air quality (and associated human health problems) or on commitments of HRM to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ 20% Club, for instance. For all the concerns pertaining to process, regional planning, scope and content of the proposed Interim Regional Transportation Strategy listed above, we would recommend that you put a hold on any roadway changes until the above concerns can be addressed and until an endorsed Regional Plan is in place for HRM. Having said this, we would like to see HRM move ahead in putting in place measures (investments and policies) that will help transportation become more sustainable in our city, mainly the objectives comprised under Chapter 5 of the document (though we would argue that expenses for educational and marketing purposes might be better spent elsewhere until transportation choices have been improved on several fronts). It is imperative, for instance, that the second track of rails be preserved to keep the option of a commuter rail system open. We would also suggest that you include Metro Transit within the HRM Traffic and Transportation Services to help plan for the transportation system more effectively. Finally, the proposed sustainable transportation measures could be further supplemented bysupporting initiatives such as the implementation of a car-share program within HRM. As citizens concerned for the long-term quality of life within HRM, we thank you for taking our concerns and recommendations into consideration. Sincerely, (Footnotes referencing quotes will be included in the letter) -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on Sustainable Maritimes (sust-mar) -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- TELL A FRIEND! The more people who join sust-mar, the more interesting and diverse views we'll see ... and more people to read *your* messages. So ... pssssst! Pass it on ... 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