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Friday, April 20, 2012
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From WaytogoVT.org
Authority seeks Burlington transit mall site
From Burlington Free Press
A proposed “transit mall” on St. Paul Street between Pearl and Cherry streets in Burlington has emerged as a favored replacement for the downtown bus terminal, officials say.
An enclosed structure, sited within the short stretch of roadway, is a “quite promising” option among a list of nine possible sites, Chittenden County Transportation Authority Assistant GeneralManager Aaron Frank said Thursday.
The site has drawn support in part because it would not take property off the city’s tax rolls, as would some of the alternative locations.
“It would use public space for a public purpose,” Frank said.
Furthermore, that stretch of St. Paul Street hardly qualifies as a crowded thoroughfare — it T-bones into Cherry and Pearl — “It’s a short segment that doesn’t connect with any longer segments,” he said.
Frank emphasized that the search remains open, and will remain open to public input until June, when the CCTA board is expected to announce its choice.
The public can join the proceedings May 8 at back-to-back meetings. The first, a meeting of the CCTA Transit Center Advisory Committee, takes place at 3:30 p.m. at Fletcher Free Library. It will be followed at 6 p.m. with a forum hosted by the committee at Contois Auditorium.
The CCTA website documents dozens of previous informational and deliberative meetings. A funding source, secure through the summer, has quickened the vetting process for a final site.
Frank estimates the project’s cost at $9.8 million, of which 83 percent has been secured through Federal Transit Administration grants; the remainder from a combination of state and local funding.
An enclosed structure, sited within the short stretch of roadway, is a “quite promising” option among a list of nine possible sites, Chittenden County Transportation Authority Assistant GeneralManager Aaron Frank said Thursday.
The site has drawn support in part because it would not take property off the city’s tax rolls, as would some of the alternative locations.
“It would use public space for a public purpose,” Frank said.
Furthermore, that stretch of St. Paul Street hardly qualifies as a crowded thoroughfare — it T-bones into Cherry and Pearl — “It’s a short segment that doesn’t connect with any longer segments,” he said.
Frank emphasized that the search remains open, and will remain open to public input until June, when the CCTA board is expected to announce its choice.
The public can join the proceedings May 8 at back-to-back meetings. The first, a meeting of the CCTA Transit Center Advisory Committee, takes place at 3:30 p.m. at Fletcher Free Library. It will be followed at 6 p.m. with a forum hosted by the committee at Contois Auditorium.
The CCTA website documents dozens of previous informational and deliberative meetings. A funding source, secure through the summer, has quickened the vetting process for a final site.
Frank estimates the project’s cost at $9.8 million, of which 83 percent has been secured through Federal Transit Administration grants; the remainder from a combination of state and local funding.
Is bigger better?
The downtown transit center is a separate project from another transportation-related project in the works — the park-and-shuttle facility proposed at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington.
While both aim to reduce regional congestion, the downtown Burlington terminal is designed exclusively for CCTA buses.
A replacement to the open-air terminal on Cherry Street, which opened in 1981, has been under discussion for many years.
Ridership on the CCTA has increased by more than 60 percent since 1985, Frank said. That boom came at a cost. Chief among them is the buses’ interruption to pedestrian traffic at Church and Cherry Street streets.
The current search retains much of the original, underlying premise: To be successful in reducing regional car trips and congestion, a transit hub must be located within a critical mass of jobs, shops, homes and other attractions, all within walking distance of a bus stop.
While both aim to reduce regional congestion, the downtown Burlington terminal is designed exclusively for CCTA buses.
A replacement to the open-air terminal on Cherry Street, which opened in 1981, has been under discussion for many years.
Ridership on the CCTA has increased by more than 60 percent since 1985, Frank said. That boom came at a cost. Chief among them is the buses’ interruption to pedestrian traffic at Church and Cherry Street streets.
The current search retains much of the original, underlying premise: To be successful in reducing regional car trips and congestion, a transit hub must be located within a critical mass of jobs, shops, homes and other attractions, all within walking distance of a bus stop.
What about cars?
In studies by Boston-based consultants Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, each of the nine finalists for the new terminal exhibits downsides.
Building a transit mall on northern St. Paul Street would result in the net loss of 19 parking spaces, for instance.
That loss shouldn’t discourage proponents of the site, wrote Burlington Director of Planning and Zoning David E. White in an April 2 letter to the city’s Public Works Commission.
“Given that current on-street parking in this part of the downtown is operating at only 41-57% occupancy, we see no negative impacts associated with a potential net loss of on-street parking associated with several of the proposals,” White wrote.
White’s assessment resonates in the business community.
The trade-off in parking spots at St. Paul Street is “well worth the sacrifice,” states a letter written Wednesday from the Church Street Marketplace Commission to the Public Works Commission.
Late last month, Marketplace Commission Chairman Jeff Nick wrote a letter of endorsement for the St. Paul Street plan, stating that it “represents a good balance between the use of public space and supporting the essential public service that CCTA bus service represents.”
CCTA board of directors approval for that site — or any of the nine finalists — will constitute a major step in a long process.
It won’t be the last one, cautioned Public Works Director Steve Goodkind in an email Thursday afternoon.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved such as traffic impacts and impacts on neighbors,” he wrote.
More information about the proposed downtown transit center can be found at the CCTA website: www.cctaride.org.
Contact Joel Banner Baird at 660-1843 orjoelbaird@burlingtonfreepress.com. Read his blog athttp://bit.ly/BairdsEye and follow him on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/vtgoingup.
Building a transit mall on northern St. Paul Street would result in the net loss of 19 parking spaces, for instance.
That loss shouldn’t discourage proponents of the site, wrote Burlington Director of Planning and Zoning David E. White in an April 2 letter to the city’s Public Works Commission.
“Given that current on-street parking in this part of the downtown is operating at only 41-57% occupancy, we see no negative impacts associated with a potential net loss of on-street parking associated with several of the proposals,” White wrote.
White’s assessment resonates in the business community.
The trade-off in parking spots at St. Paul Street is “well worth the sacrifice,” states a letter written Wednesday from the Church Street Marketplace Commission to the Public Works Commission.
Late last month, Marketplace Commission Chairman Jeff Nick wrote a letter of endorsement for the St. Paul Street plan, stating that it “represents a good balance between the use of public space and supporting the essential public service that CCTA bus service represents.”
CCTA board of directors approval for that site — or any of the nine finalists — will constitute a major step in a long process.
It won’t be the last one, cautioned Public Works Director Steve Goodkind in an email Thursday afternoon.
“There are a number of issues that need to be resolved such as traffic impacts and impacts on neighbors,” he wrote.
More information about the proposed downtown transit center can be found at the CCTA website: www.cctaride.org.
Contact Joel Banner Baird at 660-1843 orjoelbaird@burlingtonfreepress.com. Read his blog athttp://bit.ly/BairdsEye and follow him on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/vtgoingup.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Public forum on Burlington transit hub set for Thursday
From the Burlington Free Press
A plan to erect a park-and-transit center at Vermont’s busiest intersection is making slow and steady progress.
Unlike the often-agonizing pace of traffic at Williston Road and exit 14 of Interstate 89, cautious momentum for the proposed facility is by design, officials say.
The transit plan would give Burlington-bound motorists the option of parking near the junction and shifting to shuttles, carpools or bicycling and walking paths. The proposal takes another modest step forward at a public forum set for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington.
The meeting’s location is appropriate to the discussion: A two- or three-story garage might rise within the footprint of the conference center’s parking lot at the hotel’s northeast edge.
The purpose of Thursday’s meeting is to gather new information and to share a study of existing conditions in the area commissioned by the Winooski-based Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission.
In a best-case scenario, the facility might be built in about five years, “give or take,” Bob Penniman, who chairs the project’s steering committee, said Tuesday. “It won’t take decades.”
But, he was quick to add, “It’s not a done deal. It will only happen if the political will is there — and the need.”
Chittenden County and the traffic it attracts from other northwest Vermont communities is ripe for at least two such “intercept facilities,” he said; another remains in the planning stages near the western terminus of Interstate 189.
Penniman is no stranger to traffic decongestion. He’s the executivedirector of the Campus Area Transportation Management Association (better known as CATMA), a group that has greatly reduced the demand for parking in Burlington’s Hill Section by its core members: the American Red Cross, Champlain College, Fletcher Allen Health Care and the University of Vermont.
Other local partners, including the city of Burlington, have embraced the model as a way to attract visitors, customers, clients and patientsThe feasibility of an exit 14 park/transit park is being studied actively by CATMA members as well as city planners in Burlington and South Burlington, the Burlington International Airport, University Mall and the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
The consensus: Funding for the project likely will come from public as well as private sources.
Some of the money is in place, Penniman said. A $7 million earmark, secured in 2005 by Vermont’s congressional delegation, will help: $3 million will pay for construction of the “missing lane” at the intersection near Staples Plaza; the remainder is approved for a southbound I-89 exit spur that would ease motorists’ entrance to the facility.
The underlying land at the site is owned by UVM; the Sheraton manages the existing parking lot under a long-term lease — and would retain its allotment of those roughly 425 spaces, Penniman said. The new structure might accommodate a total of 1,000 vehicles.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Walk and Roll to School on May 2nd!
From Local Motion
Join us in celebrating Vermont's inaugural Walk and Roll to School Day on May 2nd!
This day -- which complements International Walk to School Day, held every October -- is a great way to encourage positive changes in community culture, and to create environments that are more inviting for everyone, young and old. Here are some reasons to support walking and biking to school:
- To enhance kids' health through physical activity
- To improve air quality by reducing automobile emissions in your school zone
- To make the streets safer by relieving traffic congestion
We invite parents and caregivers to support their children in walking or biking to school on May 2.
Schools, this event is a great way to get started as a Safe Routes to School Resource Center Partner - or to move towards the next partnership level! Please see the State of Vermont's Safe Routes to School Resource Center for tip sheets and other program resources.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
South Burlington will test 'complete streets'
From the Burlington Free Press
South Burlington intends to transform a stretch of heavily-traveled four-lane Williston Road into a “complete streets” configuration of one lane in each direction and a center turn lane. Bicycle lanes will be added on both sides of the street.
Public Works Director Justin Rabidoux said the experiment, slated to begin later this spring, will last at least eight weeks.
The state’s Agency of Transportation plans to repave the street this summer and the complete streets lanes will be painted into place while that work moves ahead.
Rabidoux said the project gives the city a chance to assess the impact of the possible change on residents, commuters who use the road as a throughway to and from Burlington, as well as on bicyclists and pedestrians.
The South Burlington City Council authorized the experiment by a 4-1 vote March 26.
Traffic signal timing will be left as it is, at least initially, but “we’ll be prepared to make on-the-fly adjustments,” Rabidoux said. “We don’t want to presuppose an outcome.”
A Williston Road complete streets study is available on the city’s Public Works’ web page.
The state’s Agency of Transportation plans to repave the street this summer and the complete streets lanes will be painted into place while that work moves ahead.
Rabidoux said the project gives the city a chance to assess the impact of the possible change on residents, commuters who use the road as a throughway to and from Burlington, as well as on bicyclists and pedestrians.
The South Burlington City Council authorized the experiment by a 4-1 vote March 26.
Traffic signal timing will be left as it is, at least initially, but “we’ll be prepared to make on-the-fly adjustments,” Rabidoux said. “We don’t want to presuppose an outcome.”
A Williston Road complete streets study is available on the city’s Public Works’ web page.
Monday, April 2, 2012
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