by David Kooris, Connecticut Director, RPA
In this Wednesday's State of the State address, Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut announced that the state would be dissolving the Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) into two new departments: one dedicated entirely to highways and the other to public transportation, airports, and ports.
It may come as a surprise to some of our readers from New York and New Jersey that ConnDOT is even one entity in the first place given the independence of NJ Transit and the MTA. But despite having one of the largest commuter rail systems in the nation and a state-operated bus service that covers many of its largest cities, transit planning and operations have all fallen under the same umbrella as highways and have inevitably not gotten the attention they deserve.
One need only compare a ride on the 35-year old New Haven line rail cars to the new ones being operated on the Hudson Valley or Long Island lines of the MTA. To the Governor's credit, new rail cars are scheduled for delivery in 2010 and we can only hope that a dedicated department tasked with managing the state's transit assets would expedite such transit initiatives as this.
While RPA has advocated for creating a transit agency in public statements delivered over the past few months, we feel that there are certain questions that deserve discussion as the state embarks on this monumental bureaucratic reorganization.
A clear set of mobility priorities for the state need to be articulated and should govern the direction of both departments. It should include acknowledging the effect of transportation decisions on land use, and that traffic flow alone is not an adequate measure. While conceptually and theoretically it makes some sense to keep a unified Department of Transportation, practically speaking, putting transit, ports and airports into a separate department could help insure they get the attention they need. And an overarching mobility strategy for the state would ensure that both departments work towards a common objective while enabling their independent staff and management structures to work on the modes they know best.
This mobility strategy, which should include a strong public involvement process, would also have to factor in the fact that transportation financing in the state is not working right now. Revenue sources are declining while maintenance, operations, and new project costs continue to rise. The entirety of transportation financing needs to be reexamined in order for the state's balanced mobility system to be sufficiently maintained and upgraded. Innovative revenue raising strategies such as variable time of day electronic tolling on the state's most congested highways should be on the table in the context of this restructuring. Coupled with a clear set of overall mobility goals for the state, modernized financing will ensure that these two departments do not ceaselessly compete for their slices of a constantly diminishing pie.
Finally, every effort must be made to ensure that these two departments work together closely on the increasing number of projects that involve the inter-modal connections between the state's public transit and highway systems. Specifically, projects like the New Britain to Hartford busway which runs in part on the Interstate 84 will require intricate cooperation between these two new departments. Similarly, every commuter who drives to a parking lot along the New Haven line knows that the state's road and transit resources are interrelated.
Connecticut's residents deserve every option in their daily commute and travels. We laud the Governor's willingness to take fresh look at how mobility is managed in the state. This is the correct conversation to be having at this time and a robust, public, and open-minded dialogue is what is now needed to ensure that these new departments rectify the problems that currently plague ConnDOT. This is a once-in-a-generation restructuring; let's all help ensure that we get it right.
In this Wednesday's State of the State address, Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut announced that the state would be dissolving the Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) into two new departments: one dedicated entirely to highways and the other to public transportation, airports, and ports.
It may come as a surprise to some of our readers from New York and New Jersey that ConnDOT is even one entity in the first place given the independence of NJ Transit and the MTA. But despite having one of the largest commuter rail systems in the nation and a state-operated bus service that covers many of its largest cities, transit planning and operations have all fallen under the same umbrella as highways and have inevitably not gotten the attention they deserve.
One need only compare a ride on the 35-year old New Haven line rail cars to the new ones being operated on the Hudson Valley or Long Island lines of the MTA. To the Governor's credit, new rail cars are scheduled for delivery in 2010 and we can only hope that a dedicated department tasked with managing the state's transit assets would expedite such transit initiatives as this.
While RPA has advocated for creating a transit agency in public statements delivered over the past few months, we feel that there are certain questions that deserve discussion as the state embarks on this monumental bureaucratic reorganization.
A clear set of mobility priorities for the state need to be articulated and should govern the direction of both departments. It should include acknowledging the effect of transportation decisions on land use, and that traffic flow alone is not an adequate measure. While conceptually and theoretically it makes some sense to keep a unified Department of Transportation, practically speaking, putting transit, ports and airports into a separate department could help insure they get the attention they need. And an overarching mobility strategy for the state would ensure that both departments work towards a common objective while enabling their independent staff and management structures to work on the modes they know best.
This mobility strategy, which should include a strong public involvement process, would also have to factor in the fact that transportation financing in the state is not working right now. Revenue sources are declining while maintenance, operations, and new project costs continue to rise. The entirety of transportation financing needs to be reexamined in order for the state's balanced mobility system to be sufficiently maintained and upgraded. Innovative revenue raising strategies such as variable time of day electronic tolling on the state's most congested highways should be on the table in the context of this restructuring. Coupled with a clear set of overall mobility goals for the state, modernized financing will ensure that these two departments do not ceaselessly compete for their slices of a constantly diminishing pie.
Finally, every effort must be made to ensure that these two departments work together closely on the increasing number of projects that involve the inter-modal connections between the state's public transit and highway systems. Specifically, projects like the New Britain to Hartford busway which runs in part on the Interstate 84 will require intricate cooperation between these two new departments. Similarly, every commuter who drives to a parking lot along the New Haven line knows that the state's road and transit resources are interrelated.
Connecticut's residents deserve every option in their daily commute and travels. We laud the Governor's willingness to take fresh look at how mobility is managed in the state. This is the correct conversation to be having at this time and a robust, public, and open-minded dialogue is what is now needed to ensure that these new departments rectify the problems that currently plague ConnDOT. This is a once-in-a-generation restructuring; let's all help ensure that we get it right.
@RegionalPlan
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