Public transit to outskirts needed for fewer villagers on roads

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Capital Times on September 20 ran the following letter to the editor from frequent blog contibutor Hans Noeldner:

Dear Editor: When it comes to motor vehicle "runoff," Fitchburg is "downhill" from Oregon. Many Oregonians frequently drive on Fitchburg's roads and highways, but few Fitchburg residents reciprocate. The burden is almost entirely one-sided, so Oregonians may not care to think much about the effects of their vehicle travel.

And what about Madison? With few exceptions (Middleton), the bedroom communities and towns surrounding Madison impose far more traffic on Madison than vice versa. We arrive from our suburbs and exurbs and formerly independent villages, and Madison had better make room for us to drive and park. Too bad if people in the neighborhoods through which we drive don't welcome the pollution, hazards, and unpleasant side effects.

Do the municipalities that surround Madison have any obligation to restrain our generation of Madison-bound traffic? We have grudgingly formed a Capital Area Regional Planning Commission to limit storm water runoff, but we reject any limits on the motor vehicle runoff we generate by driving wherever, whenever, and as much as we please. Not that the county, state and federal government are doing anything significant to restrain us.

The whole situation among municipalities is grossly unfair and unjust. Even worse, our fierce determination to drive at all costs is exacerbating our addiction to oil, morally and economically bankrupting our nation to import the stuff, accelerating climate change, and rapidly suffocating a once-verdant Dane County under asphalt.

Leaders in smaller municipalities need not do a damn thing.

We can dismiss the worsening impacts of our driving: "Growth is progress, and more traffic is inevitable!"

We can justify the status quo: "People want to drive and we're just giving them what they want."

We can plead impotence: "Traffic problems must be dealt with at the county, state and federal levels."

Or we can point to vague promises: "Our new comprehensive plan includes our goal to 'minimize absolute reliance on the automobile.'"

Truthfully, we have scarcely begun. Even within this village itself, a tiny fraction of Oregon residents walk or bicycle for day-to-day errands, while at least 98 percent still drive.

The percentage of children who walk or bicycle to school has plummeted (nationwide, from over 66 percent in 1970 to 10 percent in 2003.) Streets near our schools and playing fields are so clogged with motorists that youngsters who still walk or bike are often endangered.

And month after month, more single-occupancy commuter vehicles head north from Oregon to Fitchburg and Madison every morning.

We must do far better - we must lead! Establishing public transit in the Oregon-Stoughton-Evansville area will be an excellent start.

Hans Noeldner
Oregon trustee