TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

We have to get the cars off the road. We need bus lanes. We need better public transit. Poor people cannot afford cars. Congestion by autos is taking it's toll on every part of our lives. We need to keep the Koch network out of the Mass. economy.

I support this initiative 100%. The major avenue to reducing our carbon foot print is to have more transportation options beside a fossil fuel private vehicle. As a professional vocational rehabilitation counselor I also recognize the importance of bringing transportation options to people with disabilities and people living in rural areas that need reliable transportation to employment locations. Additionally, many youth are ready to live without cars but the public transportation system in our small cities and towns are not feasible options to get them to work and life events, grocery stores etc.

Mass Transit.
Mass Transit in many more locations.
Mass Transit with vastly more runs. Mass Transit powered by electricity....renewable sources, available battery infrastructure.
The cost would seem daunting, but so are the costs of ignoring the carbon contributions to worsening conditions even in Massachusetts. Again the costs would seem daunting, but so are the costs of keeping roads and bridges functioning....in the landscape of no political will to increase gasoline taxes.
Some day really soon, I hope the big thinkers take a serious look at the monorail concepts (Transit-x, JPod, maybe others) which are comparatively inexpensive to build, privately funded, dependent on municipalities granting less intrusive rights-of-way, modest fares, frequent pods, convenient locations, good for radial lines from local transit hubs, good for main lines from major cities/towns to boston, good along the entire mass pike (thank you to the late chris walsh, state representative from framingham), also good for some freight. (Check the analogous build out of the regional trolley car systems throughout the northeast before and after 1900!)

Through my work at 350 Vermont, with the Vermont Wilderness School, and as a parent of young children, I am committed to cleaner transportation future for Vermont. Vermont’s largest source of carbon pollution comes from the transportation sector, accounting for 44% of Vermont’s climate pollution. That is unacceptable.

I urge Vermont to participate in the Transportation and Climate Initiative so that all Vermonters, including my young children, live in a world where they do not have to choose between being able to get where they need to go and polluting the planet irreparably.

Vermont, like other states, desperately needs additional funding to create innovative, equitable transportation options for all, including seniors/people with disabilities/people with low incomes, for whom transportation costs and accessibility are an added burden. TCI can provide this support.

As someone who works with rural Vermonters, I see the extreme need for increased accessibility. We might be a rural state, but that is no excuse for expecting people to rely solely on personal vehicles, which are costly to operate and have limitations for many, in addition to being high polluters. A lack of reliable transportation options can have a negative effect on entire rural towns.

As you know, Vermont’s participation in a cap and invest program is not new. Under Governor Jim Douglas, Vermont joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2008. This cap and invest program covers the electric sector in the Northeast, and it has proven very successful, reducing consumer costs and carbon pollution from the power sector by 40%.

Vermont has strategically invested the revenues raised from RGGI, directing the $2 million annually into weatherization programs that help Vermonters stop wasting energy and save money. We know this type of project works — there is no excuse not to adopt TCI as well.

TCI provides the opportunity to tackle the biggest problem of our day — climate change — by reducing emissions in our state’s most carbon-intensive sector, while diverting funds into much-needed transportation infrastructure that will benefit all.

We can either seize this opportunity to make monumental progress and have a chance to prosper in a clean energy future, or accept a status quo that is only becoming more and more difficult for Vermonters and more harmful to our environment.

I urge Vermont to formally join TCI so we can create a clean energy future that works better for everyone, especially our most vulnerable. Thank you for the work you’ve done so far to advance TCI across the region.

We've all known since he early 1960s, that global warming/climate crisis endangers all life, including Homo Sapiens (the top of the food chain), on Earth. I wonder whether lack of December 8,1941 action, continuously, to address the issue, is Mass Murder, or Mass Suicide. We've also known, since the '60s, the solutions to this potential 6th Major Extinction. Everything we can do to cut out CO2 from burning fossil fuel, and the faster, before we reach the "Tipping Point" the better. Keep up the good work.

We as a State cannot afford this. Gasoline is not a luxury for anyone in our State. The price of goods and services will have to go up due to the increase in gas price. Please do not do this to Maine People!!

This is a bad deal for Maine, people already struggle to put fuel in their vehicles, we NEED lower fuel prices, not higher!

I would like to see an efficient rail system linking Burlington and Montpelier, Burlington and Montreal, and Burlington and Middlebury. Also, affordable efficient rail between Burlington and Boston and NYC.

The traffic On Shelburne Rd. and Dorset Street is terrible. I would like to see more frequent and FREE bus service in Chittenden County that makes public transportation convenient and a good option for everyone.

Lastly, making bike lanes safe and apart from traffic is a must.