Baltimore, Maryland

Many Rochesterians are concerned about the environment in Monroe County. Agricultural land and open space are being consumed at a record pace by suburban sprawl. After significant improvements in air quality in the early 80's, our air quality has failed to improve further despite improvements to industrial emissions and auto emissions.

Despite the fact that Monroe County's population has remained relatively stable, auto trip-miles have climbed dramatically in the 80's to the point where many of our roads are nearing capacity.

What can be done about this? Rail transit has a proven track record in other cities of aiding in the control of suburban sprawl, thereby slowing increases in traffic congestion. By controlling future increases in auto traffic, rail transit can also reduce the emission of air pollutants and conserve fossil fuels.

The main reason for proposing rail transit as a viable transportation alternative in Rochester is to influence land use in a way that will preserve and enhance our quality of life.

There is a very close relationship between land use and transportation. Transportation systems are the greatest influences on urban form-- the way that a metropolitan region is developed.

Our existing transportation policies encourage suburban sprawl that drains the tax base of the city, chokes the suburbs with over-development and threatens rural areas with expanding suburban development.

Several cities have introduced new rail transit systems only as a last ditch effort to relieve chronic traffic congestion problems. However, forward-thinking cities, such as Portland and Sacramento, have used rail transit in conjunction with cooperative land-use planning to direct development in environmentally sensitive ways that enhance the quality of life.

Sprawling development patterns have very high social costs associated with the resulting decay in the inner city. In addition to the social costs, there is a high environmental cost to sprawling land development. As greater Rochester sprawls, we use up increasing amounts of land to support a flat population level. Open space, wildlife habitats and wetlands are all impacted by the present development patterns. Parking lots for suburban commercial developments have greatly increased the surface area of non-permeable surfaces. Salt and oil run-off from roads and parking lots contribute to water and soil pollution. The more that residential areas spread and the more that commercial areas decentralize out of downtown Rochester, the more that auto trip mileage increases and the greater the level of air pollutants and the greater the consumption of fossil fuels.

A commute by rail cuts hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by more than 99% and nitrogen oxide emissions by over 60% compared to commuting by car. According to an EPA report, motor vehicle emissions account for 43% of the nitrogen oxides, 31% of the hydrocarbons, and 66% of the carbon monoxide emissions in the US.

Rail transit uses an average of 639 Btu's per passenger kilometer, and buses use 691 Btu/Passenger-km, compared to a whopping 4,576 Btu per passenger kilometer consumed by single-occupant autos. Motor vehicles account for 22% of all energy used in the US and about half of the oil consumption. Over two billion gallons of fuel are burned in traffic jams each year in the US. If we are to get serious about the environment, we simply must rely more on mass transit.

While Rochester does not have chronic traffic problems today, that may change if we do not balance our transportation policies. The Genesee Transportation Council predicts that traffic volumes in Rochester will increase 3% a year, doubling in 24 years. Future increases in road capacity are not expected to keep pace with the increases in traffic volumes. Furthermore, the costs of adding more capacity to our highway network are growing well beyond the point of diminishing returns. The project to add one lane in each direction to I-490 between Linden Avenue and Washington Street on the east side will cost $19 million per mile. Several hundred million dollars will be spent on transportation capacity increases in the Rochester area over the next several decades. Will we spend all of those funds on a self-defeating effort to widen roads? Or will we invest in balancing our transportation systems?

The benefits of rail transit have been demonstrated and proven in a number of cities that have built new rail lines in the 80's. If we build a strong foundation of support for mass transit in Rochester, a rail transit system in conjunction with co-operative land-use planning will help provide for our future transportation needs with less burden to the nvironment and the taxpayer while creating fundamental change in regional development patterns that will revitalize the city and preserve the character of our suburban and rural areas.