| September 9, 2005 A Million Trips A Day The Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan by Brian Yanity, insurgent49  Why is
transportation planning important?Because it directly affects: - Where you live - Where you work - Where you shop - Where you or your children go to school - Where you take vacations - And anywhere else you need to go Democratic transportation planning is crucial for the quality of life of present and future generations. The strengths and weaknesses of the Anchorage environment pose a stark contradiction. Particularly illuminating is this quote from the Rough Guide to Alaska, pg. 195: Flying
into the Anchorage Bowl –the region encompassing the city and its
immediate surroundings- you’re instantly struck by the majesty of
the setting, seated at the foot of the snowcapped Chugach Mountains on
the edge of a great wilderness and girt by the shimmering water of Cook
Inlet. Trouble is, the civic planners seem to have turned their backs
on the location and managed to produce a replica of just about any
American city west of the Great Plains: a couple of clusters of glass
office blocks set in a fabric of shopping malls, all cemented together
by fast food and family restaurants. “Condensed, instant
Albuquerque,” John McPhee called it in his 1977 classic Coming
into the Country, and that’s probably truer today than it was
then.
So why is traffic, planning, and architecture in Anchorage so terrible? Because of too much dependence on the private automobile. Even on the UAA campus, supposedly the best place for bus service in Anchorage, there is a bad congestion and parking problem during the day because too many UAA students drive to school. I am guilty of this crime myself. Most of Anchorage as we know it today was planned and laid out hastily during a fifteen year period: between 1970 and 1985, with the planning decisions mostly made by private developers. Today, Anchorage needs an aggressive plan to help relieve traffic congestion, pollution and noise. As the 21st century progresses, more emphasis must be placed on mass transit, not on new roads and streets. The advantages of public transit include, but are not limited to: reduced air pollution, increased energy efficiency, and less traffic congestion. And now for a shout out to all those who claim that they will never abandon their SUVs for the daily commute: effective public transit can reduce the amount of traffic congestion, and speed up those commuting by private automobiles. Public transportation, or transit, includes buses, subways, light rail, commuter rail, passenger ferryboats, trolleys (streetcars), and even inclined railways and aerial tramways. Spending three weeks this part summer in my former home of New York City gave me some perspective on the issue. Public transit there is effective in the sense that a huge proportion of people getting to their jobs don’t need cars. In fact, big cities like New York could not even function without efficient mass transit systems. For example, Grand Central Station is the busiest train station in the world, but remains one of the most beautiful public buildings in the country. I still think that the New York City subway system is our nation’s greatest public work. When I left Anchorage, I was excited to get back to a place “where you don’t need a car,” and couldn’t wait to leave. However, when I returned three weeks later from the concrete jungle, Alaska’s largest city seemed better than I remembered. As my friend drove me through midtown, it felt more green and natural feeling than ever, and the Chugach Mountains looked grander. The Anchorage 2020 Comprehensive Plan was approved in 2001 by the municipal assembly. The 2020 plan emphasizes more compact urban development. That is: grow up, not out; protect neighborhoods and open spaces; improve air and water quality; reduce reliance on the automobile, improve transit and make it safe and easy to bike and walk. From the website of the Anchorage Citizens Coalition (http://www.accalaska.org/2020plan.html): Now
Anchorage is developing its Long Range Transportation Plan, a
“key implementation tool” of Anchorage 2020. It is
essential that transportation programs and projects fulfill Anchorage
2020 by building the urban core into an active city center with
sidewalks full of people going to work, shopping and to the park.
Cars will move slowly though downtown, and transit is fast and
convenient. Neighborhoods maintain their value as good places to
raise children, and neighborhood centers attract families walking to
convenience shops and businesses. Transit provides a true
alternative to driving, and children walk safely to school.
Citizens rejected sprawl when they developed Anchorage 2020, and this Transportation Plan promotes a phased approach to infill and redevelopment to restrain sprawl and demonstrate the benefits of compact, transit oriented development. Without “phasing,” Anchorage does not have enough population growth to turn any one part of town into the vibrant, transit oriented, walkable community described in Anchorage 2020. Even with phasing, experts from cities that have already begun this journey towards compact development say it will take 10 years before noticing a difference, and 20 years before change is apparent. The Municipality’s Long Range Transportation Plan next draft is already out in early August. From http://www.muni.org/transplan/LRTPLANC2020Plan.cfm: Anchorage’s
adopted comprehensive plan (Anchorage 2020), among other things, seeks
to provide more travel options that make it easy and safe to get
around. The plan calls for a more compact urban
environment, both downtown and in areas called “town
centers” to enable more people to live closer to their jobs and
other walkable destinations. It also advocates denser development and
pedestrian amenities along certain “transit corridors” to
reduce driving and make People Mover service more accessible and
attractive.. The Anchorage 2020 Plan is all about guiding future growth
to make a more livable and attractive city. Transportation that
enables easy mobility, convenient access and safe travel is an
important part of the plan.
Now is the time for the average citizen to get involved with this planning process, because the LRTP will be used to build the foundation for individual projects for a 20-year span until 2025, thus the transportation planning decisions made by the citizens of Anchorage now will be felt decades from now. Take pride in your public works, a city cannot be truly great without great public works. And great public works are paid for by all of society because they benefit all of society. The response of the mainstream media in Anchorage has been mixed. “Transit plan tackles future traffic jams” by Melissa Campbell in the July 25, 2005 edition of the Alaska Journal of Commerce, mentions transit in one short paragraph near the end of the page-long article. In the August 12, 2005 edition of the Anchorage Daily News, the article does not state how much money there should be for public transit or commuter rail. Two paragraphs near the end of this article mention transit, including more frequent bus service. The draft of the 20 year transportation plan lays out $3 billion in proposed capital expenditures, of which freeways and expressways take up $1.3 billion. It also calls for the addition of 40 miles of new streets and roads to the existing 1000 mile network. Interesting facts from the LRTP: About one million passenger-trips are taken through Anchorage each day, and this number is projected to increase to 1.4 million by 2025. Of the ‘million trips’ daily: - 67% on the cars on the road have only one person in them: the driver - 22% of vehicles are used in car pools - only 1% of city residents ride the People Mover - only 1% of city residents ride bicycles for transportation - of the 64,000 acres in the Anchorage Bowl, more than three quarters was already in use by 1998. Only about 14,300 acres (22%) remains undeveloped now The Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) was a focus group created in 1976 by both the federal government and the municipality. According to AMATS, in 2000 the average passengers per vehicle in Anchorage was 1.2, well below the average in other U.S. cities the size of Anchorage. The four sections below correspond to public comment categories for the Long Range Transportation Plan. For three of the categories relating to public transit, a tally is given on the public comments for each category. The vast majority of public comments were positive and supportive of the need to increase public transit in Anchorage. This already is a victory for the public transit movement here in Alaska. In terms of public comments to important transportation plans, our batting average is very good. 1. Highway Construction The LRTP identifies more than 60 new road projects. These include making the Seward Highway entirely a limited-access freeway through Anchorage with a $575 million underground Seward-Glenn interchange proposed, with a new park covering the freeway. This could end the division of the Fairview neighborhood, but highway construction could also cause problems for Fairview. Traffic on the Seward and Glenn Highways in Anchorage is predicted to grow to 100,000 vehicles a day. Possible benefits of the underground interchange proposal include the reduction of traffic on city arterial streets by 100,000 vehicles a day, as well as improving the efficiency of freight and goods movement. Noise-reduction measures are needed for new freeways, and possibly in the future, pollution control devices. One action rejected by the planners was that of the adding of lanes to the Glenn highway: One
more lane each way on the Glenn Highway from Muldoon to Birchwood would
cost $200 million to build and without changing our travel habits, it
would likely be filled with single-occupancy vehicles like the existing
lanes. The project team feels the emphasis should be to reduce the need
for additional lanes by promoting more commuter use of buses, carpools
and vanpools.
Last but certainly not lease is the proposed Knik Arm Bridge (aka Don Young’s Way), costing a minimum of $600 million. We could spend all day taking about wasteful road construction spending in Alaska, but the purpose of this article is to focus on positive alternatives to building so many more roads. 2. Commuter Rail LRTP public comments: 16, negative: 1 Commuter rail, Alaska Railroad Corporation proposal connecting Anchorage with Mat-Su valley. Commuter Rail Service could complement other options for travel along the Glenn Highway. Operation of commuter rail service on the Alaska Railroad tracks would necessitate multi-jurisdiction agreements and operating dollars from a Regional Transportation Authority. Commuter rail is cheaper than building the silly Knik Arm Bridge project. The few opponents of Mat-Su commuter rail say that there is not enough density in our metropolitan region to justify rail transit. However, many of these same people will turn right around to say the booming population of Anchorage requires us to spill over into Mat-Su and build the Knik Arm Bridge. You can’t have it both ways. According to an article in the August 14, 2005 edition of the Alaska Journal of Commerce, commuter rail could be online in as short as two years. A passenger rail system must get Wasilla to Anchorage travel time to less than one hour to be competitive, with a planned service capacity of 40,000 passengers per week, 4 trains per hour, for 12 hours a day. The Alaska Railroad’s track-straightening project between Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley is presently underway at a cost of $77 million, paid for mostly by federal money. A new rail depot is in the works for downtown Anchorage, costing $70 million. The proposed station will be an intermodal center for trains, buses, cars/taxis, and perhaps an electric streetcar system in the future. This project has the potential to become the Grand Central Station of Anchorage. Also, the Diamond Center rail station received $3 million in the recent transportation bill passed by Congress, and a Wasilla intermodal facility is planned. One of my favorite ideas is a weekend ‘ski-train’ to Girdwood as part of special ski lift ticket/train ticket combination deal, not unlike the present offer with the Alaska State Fair. 3. Making it Easier to Walk and Bike Through Anchorage LRTP public comments: 105, negative: 1 Anchorage needs mixed use development to encourage walking, transit use, and carpooling. A more attractive, “livable” city and neighborhoods, is not complete with safer streets for pedestrians. A good first step would be sidewalk and bike path improvements. Our pedestrian facilities need to be tailored specially for Northern conditions. Also in the works should be an Anchorage Bicycle Plan, including a commuter bike plan. The article “E Street Changes Aimed at Walkers”, in the August 30, 2005 Anchorage Daily News, describes a $10 million pedestrian-only street project being promoted by the Alaska Railroad Corporation. The plan calls for a covered and protected pedestrian walkway extending from the train station to Delaney Park. Due to recent planning changes in Muldoon area, the Creekside Town Center is a new development slated to be a pedestrian-friendly. New zoning and planning regulations area needed to improve pedestrian access, the city must be able to resist pressure from private developers and real estate interests. 4. Creating Better Transit Service LRTP public comments: 83, negative: 4 First step: more frequent bus service on existing routes, at least every 15 minutes during rush hour on peak routes. The LRTP calls for expanding municipal support to transit to $20 million a year. Proposes a 20 year capital cost of transit of $135 million, a bargain compared to the proposed $1.3 billion 20-year capital cost for new freeways. In the near future, 80% of the money for new Anchorage buses will come from federal sources. One of the easiest proposals is a fast-bus on the Glenn Highway, or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which is one way of making transit competitive with the private car. It is also possible to dedicate special lanes for buses so they can bypass traffic. Light rail transit, electric streetcars in the Anchorage bowl should be looked at for the future. Increased transit use by working people mitigates parking needs for Anchorage employers. Pricing incentives and tax benefits can also help get more commuters on buses. Here are the four negative public comments, repeated in full: - Buses will never work. Too many free or reduced fare riders, buses are never full except 1-2 hours each day and only from Downtown area (page 1) - It may not be feasible, but I think the problem could be solved with a multi-faceted approach. Build the Knik Arm Toll Bridge, add Eagle River and Anchorage by passes to the road system, and introduce a commercial valley commuter train. Also, the People Mover needs to be commercialized. It needs to stand on its own or fold. We can not continue to throw good money after bad. I have never seen a bus more than 25% full. The money saved by dumping the People Mover could be put towards a subsidy to a commuter train to the valley, Eagle River, etc. (page 2) - This is social engineering in attempting to put buses and trains ahead of what we know is the desire of most Alaskans: the personal vehicle. One can state that the price of gasoline, etc., etc. But the reality is that you cannot take the personal vehicle away from individuals (page 6) - Don’t know I fully agree with more “mass” transit as a solution (page 7) The comments of our friends on pages 1 and 7 are too short and stupid to worthy of discussion, but we will take a close look at the other two comments. The page 2 person obviously hates Anchorage, and loves Eagle River and the Mat-Su Valley. Dumping People Mover so that Valley commuters can have a rail line! The sounds like the most arrogant (and possibly racist) Remember, don’t “throw good money after bad”. As for the naysayer on page 6, if building a wasteful Knik Arm bridge to encourage low-density sprawl in the Mat-Su Borough isn’t “social engineering”, then I don’t know what is. It just happens to be the kind of social engineering that benefits big construction firms, developers, and real estate speculators. Transit-Oriented Development for a Sustainable Future A small grassroots urban planning movement already exists here in Anchorage. For example, the Anchorage Citizens Coalition has developed a Citizens Transportation Plan. Anchorage needs a bus rider’s union; Los Angeles and San Diego both have large transit rider unions are grassroots lobbying mechanism for better transit service. Thanks to the internet, we have at our fingertips a vast wealth of experience in public transit from cities around the world, including other Northern cities. We should also learn from the mistakes and successes of others. Improving traveling choices and options will help all forms of transportation become more efficient. According the LRTP, Anchorage transit riders in 2025 are projected to double the 2004 average daily ridership of 11,500. However, that is an overly pessimistic projection of around 2% of Anchorage residents using transit two decades from now. How about 80%, like in some European and Asian cities? That might become a reality once the price of gasoline hits $6 a gallon (in 2005 dollars). According to the Anchorage Citizen’s Coalition, it is entirely possible that 30% of downtown and U-Med area trips will be made by transit in 2015, and 50% by 2025. The most transit-friendly option is the so-called transit-supported development corridor, with dense and compact (high rise) housing built around rapid transit hubs. We need to live up to the promise of the Anchorage 2020 comprehensive plan, which aims to make Anchorage more compact, efficient development that it easier to serve by transit. For a livable future, we must implement the concepts outlined in the Anchorage 2020 Comprehensive Plan: - Clustering homes near jobs and other destinations - Higher density along transit corridors and in and around employment centers - Effectively combining transit use and walking - Reducing trip lengths as people live closer to their destinations So what is your role as an average citizen in our great city’s transportation planning process? For starters, you can: - Provide your input on transportation plans. This is a very easy form of direct democracy (see below). - Volunteer to serve on a citizen focus group or citizen’s advisory committee - Put your name on a mailing list to receive updates on the MOA planning process - Attend meetings of local transportation boards Long Range Transportation Plan Public Comment Deadline: September 25, 2005 For the Long Range Transportation Plan, there is a public comment deadline of September 25, 2005, so please comment on the LRTP and make your voice heard before September 25. Go to either of the web links below to make your comments: http://www.muni.org/transplan/2004LRTP.cfm http://www.muni.org/transplan For more information about sustainable urban planning and mass transit in Anchorage and beyond, check out the websites below: http://www.muni.org/planning/index.cfm http://www.accalaska.org http://www.alaskamobility.org http://ses.uaa.alaska.edu/Projects/ACT%20Project.htm http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/index.htm http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/pubinv2.htm http://www.fta.dot.gov/grant_programs/transportation_ planning/planning_environment/3854_8227_ENG_HTML.htm http://www.fta.dot.gov/3875_ENG_HTML.htm http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/html/TOD/index.htm http://www3.iclei.org/localstrategies/summary/curitiba2.html http://www.sustainableportland.org http://www.lightrailnow.org http://www.cnu.org http://www.livablecities.org http://www.smartgrowth.umd.edu http://www.pps.org Brian Yanity is a student activist and freelance journalist who resides in an undisclosed location in Southcentral Alaska. He can be reached at byanity@insurgent49.com. |
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Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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