TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Throughout Fairfield County,the school buses are prevelant on our back roads and towns..and they also emit the most toxic black fumes..our children are breathing in those fumes and those fumes are polluting our air.Connecticut needs to phase out the old school buses with clean and green technology!

Clean Transportation is a must both for climate mitigation and human health. We have to act now to curtail planet warming otherwise it will be too late. Additionally CT residents suffer from a number of lung diseases secondary to pollution from transportation.

I think this initiative is very important, and I am proud and gratified that my state is part of this New England alliance to take meaningful and needed action against the growing climate crisis. I urge my state politicians, regardless of their affiliation, to support this initiative wholeheartedly. I realize on such initiatives that some politicians may resist such initiatives primarily on the basis of cost, and I urge them not to. When there is important needed action, cost should not be an issue. State legislatures find ways every year to found any number of actions. Politicians who do not want to support an initiative like this one aren't really saying that the state can't afford to fund an initiative like this one, they are saying that they would prefer not to fund an initiative like this one, that they would rather spend the money on something else. That should not be an option. "Climate change" is really "climate crisis." Humans have been seriously harming our Earth for some time now, and our Earth, in turn, is now starting to hurt humans. This situation will only get worse unless we work aggressively against it. The consequences will be dire. I urge all state politicians to support this initiative.

As someone who owns two plug-in cars (one of them fully electric), the number of charging stations in CT is woefully inadequate. Further, the existing charging stations are often in disrepair. Without working charging stations, people will never get out of their gas guzzlers.
Next, affordable mass transit should be broadened, and where it exists, the service could be better. Give people an option to get out of their cars.
CT does need to charge tolls on major highways just like most other states in the Northeast--mid-Atlantic region.

Please do not include road widening projects in the transportation bill. The focus should be on public transit and making towns more walkable and bike-able. We need to take real and meaningful steps to combat the climate crisis and putting more cars on the road is not a means to that end. Thank you for all your hard work on this and other issues.

I think that it is very important to modernize and build new public transportation throughout the state of Connecticut. Many of the current transportation systems in place are old and inefficient. Constructing new transportation that prioritizes efficiency, especially in terms of energy, will be extremely important during a time of growing climate crisis. Good public transportation helps those who are unable to afford vehicles have greater access to jobs and opportunity, stimulating economic growth. When a public transportation system is modernized, people will be more likely to use it, generating revenue for the system and cutting down on emissions from cars. Most importantly, implementing public transportation that runs on clean energy will be an extremely important step towards reducing environmental impact in the current environmental crisis. Improvements to public transportation should include: an expansion of charging stations for electric vehicles, electric buses charged by solar power, and an increase in public railways to connect parts of Connecticut while reducing carbon output.

I support moving our regional transportation network to cleaner fuels, but especially support investments in public transit, separated and safe bicycle routes (e.g. bicycle lanes with physical barriers, not painted lines), and urban walkable street design. Encourage fewer short car trips with alternatives that actually work, not poorly funded public transit used as a last resort or dangerous bicycle lanes that only the foolhardy will ride. The fewer cars and trucks on the road, the fewer investments we need to expand highway and road infrastructure.
Modeling should also address low-income disparities in polluting effects. When averaging air quality improvements over a county or region, these disparities don’t show up. Improvements to benefit low income neighborhoods are few and the last to be implemented. For example, few people in low income areas can afford a car, and the cars purchased are usually second-hand—not the cleaner and more expensive electric vehicles. Coupled with the fact that many low income neighborhoods are located in areas with other air quality impacts (industrial and power facilities, highways and shipping terminals); models that show regional improvements gloss over the fact that there are local areas not experiencing improvements. Please model the “polluted hot spots,” and ensure that funding and improvements go to where it’s really needed.

Please help make Connecticut a leader in transportation and climate. The youth will respect you for trying.

Please move forward on this initiative since we have little time to mitigate the worst consequences of planetary warming!