Discovering Transit in Montana

Denver - This morning on KCFR, Colorado’s all news NPR station, Ryan Warner spoke with Colorado Governor Bill Ritter about the precarious state budget on his show, Colorado Matters.  While much of the program (which you can listen to by clicking the “Denver” link) dealt specifically with Colorado state budget issues, a key topic of discussion was the Federal Highway-User Trust Fund.

This trust fund will be in a deficit position in 2009, according to the Secretary of Transportation.  This fund is a key source of state transportation dollars, so a deficit in this fund is a major problem for large, mostly rural states like Colorado and Montana, which must maintain a massive transportation system with relatively small populations.  In other words, we can’t pay for tens of thousands of miles of highway without outside help. Governor Ritter’s Blue Ribbon Committee on transportation funding calls this a “quiet crisis,” a description that is well applied in my opinion.

Everyone complains about the state of our transportation system, whether it be potholes and congestion, to a lack of sidewalks and transit.  Even though people complain about such things almost as often as the weather, most people do not realize that rural states like Montana are in a constant struggle to gather enough funds to maintain the existing system.  So when roads reach their carrying capacity, like Russell and Reserve Streets in Missoula, dollars that would normally go to maintaining the entire system for 10-20 years must be diverted to meet the new demand.  With the trust fund reaching a deficit, future expansion/improvement projects will be difficult to fund.  Lets not even go into the increasing construction costs, we all know about that.

So what happens when you don’t have the dough to build an engineer’s dream roadway?  You probably already figured out where this is going, but the only way to add carrying capacity to a roadway without an expensive project is to add transit into the mix.   Transit is a far less expensive way to add capacity compared to cementing more lanes, plus it has all those great perks, like less pollution etc…  Montana towns and cities will have to rely a great deal more on mass transit to meet future road demand.  This time transit is essential not just because its a good thing to do, but also because it is the only thing the state, cities, towns, and taxpayers can afford financially.

- Benjamin

Atlanta - This morning’s NPR Morning Edition told the story of an Atlanta family that has taken advantage of new community design to reduce their energy use and emissions.  Atlantic station is just one of many new developments across the country that are oriented around alternate forms of transportation and convenience.  In this sort of development, proximity to work, home, recreation and retail is the priority.  One only has to walk minutes from bed to office, office to food aisle, and from dinner table to theater.  Should one want to travel, most developments of this type are located on rapid transit lines that whisk residents to downtowns and airports.  Most of these developments have so far been only as infill developments inside large cities, like Atlanta and Denver.  However, small cities like Missoula are also ideal for green community design.

The Key Word is Small

Cities like Missoula, and the smaller towns that dot the landscape nearby, are like tiny islands of urban density surrounded by seas of wilderness.  Realistically, if one wants to get from one island to another, or even within Missoula during certain times (night time and Sundays), the car is the only choice.   Certainly there is limited regional bus service on Rimrock Trailways or Greyhound, but these services are not convenient for the commuter.  What Missoula and surrounding communities lack in regional transit, they have as an asset in their size.  Missoula is the size of a single, large Denver neighborhood.  I know, I lived in one for two years, and my University/Washington Park neighborhood was remarkably Missoula-scale.  This size makes it very easy to travel without a car compared to large, sprawling cities where one finds these new green communities.

In Stevensville, my residence is a three minute walk from the grocery store, ten minutes from the Olde Coffee Mill, two - ten minutes from most churches, ten minutes from the local Stevensville Playhouse, six minutes from the school, and a similar walking distance from every part of Stevensville’s business district.  Sound familiar?  The green community in Atlanta is not a new idea, but a reinvention of how towns, cities and neighborhoods were once built.  Stevensville and Missoula, being small towns and cities, have the advantage of missing the large scale sprawl that most of America have fallen victim to.  This means we have the ability to adapt our communities to be green far easier than Atlanta, Denver or any other sprawlopolis can.

We Have a Choice

We have the walkable, cyclable and busable size these new developments seek, but we are missing the  necessary infrastructure.  Stevensville is small enough to walk to every corner of it in less than fifteen minutes, but it lacks a non-car connection to nearby communities.  Missoula has a decent bus system and trail system, but it could be more convenient. Combined with the smart move closer to one’s job,  investment in alternative transport infrastructure will make Missoula and the surrounding towns model green communities.  Think about this when we’re all pumping $4/gallon gas this summer, and imagine that money invested in better communities.

- Benjamin