TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

No tax increase for this! You get enough money from
Hard working American citizens. Stop wasteful spending.
Stop releasing people here illegally who commit crimes.

The earth has had warmer and colder seasons always. Check with the Univ of Maine and their core samples from Sebasticook Lake in Newport. They concluded that the earth was hotter and drier than now 6000 to 8000 years ago. God is in charge of the climate/atmosphere/universe and He would never allow us even the smallest charge over it. Please keep in mind while you are reducing carbon use that everything on earth uses carbon dioxide and it is necessary for life.

I am a citizen concerned with climate change, our existential crisis that needs immediate action. Transportation is the biggest sector that is creating emissions in Maine. Yet transportation has been the sector that has been all but ignored in our state action plan to address climate change. Why do I say that when the plan does posit that electric cars and more electric charging stations are in the plan? Because both are solutions that only the wealthy can afford at this time. They are not practical solutions . We need to provide solutions that can be implemented right now. It is not a matter of people becoming aware. We are aware. We need to do steps right now. Public transportation needs to be electrified, expanded and improved immediately. People have shown they will use it if it is reliable, affordable and easy to use. The Downeaster is expanding, the Breeze works. But we need much more geared to commuters. I use it in Europe where it is easier to use than a car as it is frequent and there are no parking problems. Maine used to have trolleys. What about trams, light rail? buses? We do not need to reinvent the wheel. I can walk faster than my local bus which is from the dinosaur age in terms of being consumer friendly. Having an app doesn't change the fact that the bus takes so long and does not run when people want and need it. There are too many bus stops and not enough routes. The buses are old, have no digital readouts showing the routes or the stops so a newcomer can navigate them. There are no schedules posted and no bus shelters with readouts showing the bus times en route. There has been no state plan to coordinate public transportation to address climate change and no financial backing from the state. Public transportation also is part of social justice. Low income people and seniors cannot afford uber rides. It is necessary for seniors to be able to remain in their homes. It helps with congestion and with health as people walk more. It helps with isolation and can create community as people meet on the same routes. We can start by working with large employers to provide public transportation convenient to their schedules. High schoolers can ride the buses to save money and not duplicate resources as electric buses are expensive but worth it. We have many examples of how to do this. Lets get going. I will ride if it is available in South Portland as I do everywhere else I go. Please give me the opportunity to do so while helping our climate.

I’m great with this if we can get high-speed rail to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh to start. Honestly I should be able to get on a train and be to Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, DC and New York in a shorter amount of time than driving - but Pittsburgh to Philly will be a good start and the state would benefit greatly. The toll is literally almost $40 to go across the state DRIVING ONE WAY. We should also use it to extend the T to southpointe in washington county with a park and ride, and T line to the airport and East Liberty/Oakland.

I am a proud young resident of Massachusetts. I have lived all across the Northeast, in Southern Vermont, Saratoga Springs, NY, and now Boston. Transportation has looked incredibly different for me in each place I've lived, from car travel to bus travel to walking to the oldest public transit system in the Northern Hemisphere. As the biggest source of emissions, transportation is a clear lever we have as a state to make huge changes while also bringing in capital for investing directly in our transit. I'm incredibly grateful to Governor Baker for his bold leadership and support regarding TCI, as it would provide a clear path towards both positioning Massachusetts as a forward thinking leader in the Northeast as well as in the United States on the whole. I respectfully urge Massachusetts to formally join the initiative and that we pursue the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets. All the science tell us that we need this, for the good of our planet and in order for young people everywhere to hope for a livable future. I would also emphasize the importance that the policy prioritizes clean investment for communities that bear a disproportionate burden of accelerating pollution as well as for areas where people are unable to access public transportation, such as my extremely remote home state of Vermont where viable options are largely unavailable as well as in low income communities, the children of which have been found to have comparatively high levels of asthma (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740858/). I know that a better future is possible, and I believe TCI is one of the best options we have to drive forward serious change. Thank you for your consideration.

Do you have what it takes to inspire and initiate change, to save the sole capsule that has kept our ecosystem balanced, providing the one thing to ALL that realy matters? Life.
Forget money, status, religion, freedom; without healthy planet, we have and will be nothing. Let's fix it for all.

Reducing pollution from transportation is a key component to reducing Pennsylvania's emissions. Public transit investments that could be made with TCI proceeds would be valuable. Please choose the aggressive greenhouse gas reduction target that the most recent climate science tells us we need. Policy should prioritize clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don’t have access to transportation choices.

Too many of our public buses and trains run on dirty energy and contribute to air pollution and climate change. Many trains, buses, and stations haven’t been retrofitted in decades. For many people in rural parts of our states, there are zero viable public transportation options, which forces them to drive.

By making polluters pay and creating a dedicated source of funding through TCI, we’ll finally be able to move our state to a 21st-century regional transportation system that is cleaner, more reliable, more accessible, and more affordable. We’ll see less traffic, thousands of new jobs, and less dangerous air pollution. All communities — whether urban, suburban, or rural — will benefit.

Our air is making too many of us sick — and if history is a guide, it’s not going to get better on its own. We need to take bold and concerted action to reduce the carbon impact of our transportation system, and TCI’s combination of using pricing policies that discourage polluters and modernizing our public transportation system will do exactly that.

I live in Bedford, MA and am a member of Mothers Out Front, actively working to fight climate change for the future of our children. This measure must set a price high enough to effectively reduce emissions according to the latest science. It should also have a strong component of social equity and be fair for rural or low/moderate income people. I greatly appreciate that this is a bipartisan effort.

It is vital that our transportation policies reflect the reality of our world. The transportation sector is a major contributor to climate change and to air pollution. There have been many days in southwestern Pennsylvania in the past few weeks with air quality alerts, and vehicles are a significant contributor to that problem. We owe it to our residents in Pennsylvania to solve these problems by taking action on transportation infrastructure and on transportation policies. I, for instance, intend my next vehicle to be a plug-in electric car (I currently drive a hybrid). But, I do worry about the infrastructure that would make that choice easier. Charging stations are few and far between in Pennsylvania. Long distance travel is a problem! I have solar panels on my house, but the electric grid generally in Pennsylvania needs to move faster toward renewable sources and away from fossil fuel generation of electricity so that charging an electric vehicle truly is a environmentally better choice no matter where it is charged. And finally, we need to move away from fuel taxes as the major source of funds for the transportation sector. As electric vehicles become more common (and they will!), revenues from other sources will be needed to support our transportation system. Let's move forward with intention by planning for a new, clean transportation system in Pennsylvania.