TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

1) Rural microtransit should be encouraged by making it easier to get passenger authority and receive STOA funding in NY, and wherever else it makes sense, by allowing smaller vehicles to become recipients without needing an exemption. Small vehicle operators will be crucial to improving rural transportation. 2) Electric light rail but especially heavy passenger rail needs to be a bigger part of the discussion. If the argument is that the ROI doesn't justify the expense, then the arguer is not thinking broad enough or long term enough. Much of economically struggling NY state, not to mention NE/Central East PA is within 2-3 hours of the NE Corridor, a super-region with the GDP roughly of Germany. Making connections to Philadelphia and NY via rail would have an enormous impact. A study was done a decade ago on connecting Binghamton to Scranton and to NYC with rail, and that has gone nowhere. 3) NYS needs to offer sustained funding for innovative mobility concepts already doing this work.

It is essential that all sectors of our society act to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Because transportation is so important, we need to address the impact and minimize its effects on the climate crisis.

I will soon be leaving Massachusetts where I’ve lived for 62 years. I can no longer abide by the wanton disregard that our corrupt politicians have for the people they are supposed to serve. this new “gas tax” is only the latest example of their disdain for working people. I pity those that don’t have the choice to leave or stay.

I am forever against any increase in the gas tax heist proposed by Republican (fake) Baker. Stop trying to take more money out of my pocket to fund a non existing crisis. Baker must be a liberal Democrat disguised as a Republican. Tax and spend doesn't sit well with me.

As a resident scientist in PA, I submit that reducing pollution from transportation is a key component to reducing Pennsylvania's air-pollution emissions. As one of our leaders, I ask that you choose the most aggressive greenhouse-reduction target that climate scientists urge us to adopt. We must do this as the clock is ticking. Public policy must also prioritize clean investments in areas, particularly our cities, that are overburdened by pollution and/or for those communities that don’t have access to transportation choices like mass transit. I believe that public transit investments should be made with TCI proceeds.

I cannot think of a more important issue than taking every path to lower emissions in our very "at risk" State of NJ! Please do whatever is possible to see this is done in the transportation sector of this extremely populated state.

We need an improved transportation system to reduce noise and pollution, especially in our cities, but everywhere. We need the improved health that cleaner air and water will bring. We need the improved quality of life that quieter streets will bring. Most importantly, we need the reduction of global warming that using much less fossil fuel for transportation can bring.

Only a major shift can bring the degree of change necessary. I urge you to develop more rapid transit, and make it powered electrically, so green energy can be the source, not fossil fuels. The amount of wind and solar power generation must be increased rapidly, along with the distribution system to move the power to where it's needed. The distributed nature of renewable sources means some of the generation will be nearer the suburban and rural places where it is used, which should improve the reliability of the power grid and lower overall cost.

I urge more charging locations be built for electric street vehicles. I urge electrifying all rail operations in the region, with the possible exception of branch lines with less than one train a day. Electric railways have been practical for a century or more. We dismantled some electrical rail systems in the Rocky Mountains, instead of adding more miles to them. Diesel locomotives seemed the cheaper, more flexible choice, but have helped bring us to the current, unsustainable situation we are in. It's time our transportation systems were modernized to be as good or better than the Europeans' and Japanese'!

Thank you

As a coastal state with water on 3 sides, it behooves us to change the character and emissions standards of our transportation system. We absolutely need more mass transit and more EVs to do our part in keeping down the rising sea levels. The Bergen Record had an article this last summer that put a possible more than 26 Super Storm Sandys by 2100. Investment now, by comparison, looks cheap.