Citizens' Transportation Policy for Metropolitan St. Louis
Written by Transportation & Smart Growth Committee of Sierra Club of Eastern Missouri et al

July 3, 2002
PURPOSE
This Citizens' Transportation Policy is intended to stimulate discussion of the principles currently guiding the allocation of transportation funds in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is expected to be used to evaluate transportation projects being proposed for funding by the metropolitan planning agency (East-West Gateway Coordinating Council), by local governments, and by private entities.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Transportation policy is frequently viewed as solving the problem of moving people and goods from one place to another. Transportation policy needs to be viewed instead from two broad perspectives.

First, transportation is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. The "end" is to provide access, i.e. to bring people, goods, services, ideas and materials into contact with one another to serve human purposes. Providing access is an important part of our economy.

•  Access can be accomplished through transportation (mobility), but it can also be achieved by proximity (locating things that need to be in contact close to one another) and by communication (movement of information rather than people or goods).
• Transportation planning must therefore be seen as an option within access planning. The key question is: how do we provide access? In seeking an answer, we must ask whether the need might best be met by a combination of transportation, proximity, and communication technologies rather than by transportation alone.
• Further, within transportation planning itself, modes of transportation besides the automobile, such as public transit, bicycles, and walking, should be serious options.

• Transportation consumes resources: raw materials for vehicles, fuels (primarily fossil) for energy, land for roads, parking lots, and other facilities. It also contributes to extensive air and water pollution and probably contributes to global warming. These are some of the reasons we should seek transportation options which minimize impact on the natural environment.
• Transportation systems have significantly affected the value of land and the way land is used. The value and use of land significantly affect the access that citizens have to opportunities, depending on their economic and physical condition. As with other things in life, the costs and benefits of transportation systems are not distributed equally among all segments of society. Though life is inherently "unfair," we should strive to reduce inequities, rather than magnify them.

• Motor fuel is heavily subsidized through the budgets of the USDOE (depletion allowances), USDOD (to maintain US access to foreign sources of petroleum), US Dept of H&HS and local health depts (paying for treatment of illnesses exacerbated by air pollution from autos).
• Large expanses of pavement for motorized vehicles are subsidized by residents through higher retail prices (in exchange for "free" parking), higher property taxes (to build and maintain local streets), higher sewer fees (to cope with water run-off and pollution), and higher federal income taxes (to reimburse flood losses, for example).

The costs of accidents caused by the speed and weight of motor vehicles are borne by the individual families involved and by all payers of health and life insurance policies.

National policies since the 1950s regarding housing finance and highway construction have also encouraged the decentralization of cities and the consequent creation of greater distances between people and the opportunities they need to access.
With distance has come the need or desire for greater speed. With greater speed has come less efficient use of fuel, greater dependence on motorized travel, greater danger for those who travel by car, but especially for those who travel by foot or bicycle. Thus, a vicious cycle perpetuates itself.

Local government structure has encouraged the decentralization of the St. Louis metro area by putting municipalities in direct competition with each other for tax base. To secure the greatest possible tax base, municipalities have enacted exclusionary zoning and have subsidized regional retail and entertainment developments to attract customers from neighboring communities.
Local land-use policies such as large-lot zoning and separation among land-use types have created greater distances between residents' homes, jobs and stores. Land-use policies such as requiring large parking lots but not sidewalks have further encouraged dependence on motorized transportation.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Transportation and land-use policies over the past half century have assumed that low-density, automobile-oriented development at the periphery of an urban area is the best way to achieve and assure "the good life." Citizens of all age groups and socio-economic situations are now rediscovering that higher-density, walkable urban neighborhoods can also provide the good life. In fact, there is a growing consensus that public policy (including transportation policy) should be revised so as not to defeat central city efforts to revitalize -- not only to preserve the utility of existing infrastructure, but also to preserve traditional urban neighborhoods, since these can provide an attractive and viable living environment.

The following Citizens' Transportation Policy responds to both the guiding principles and current policies and practices outlined above. These policies can be divided into three main categories: (1) health and environment, (2) economy, and (3) social well-being. Each of these categories has numerous, sometimes overlapping objectives.
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Health & Environment:
Improve Public Health
Improve Air Quality: Examples of ways this can be done:

• Educate public officials to recognize that St. Louis' air pollution is a serious problem requiring changes in transportation and land use policies.
• Support the substitution of fossil-fuel-burning vehicles with low- or zero-emission vehicles.
• Avoid "cold starts" and "hot soaks" associated with using a motor vehicle infrequently over a day's time by encouraging walking and bicycling for short trips. Where this is not feasible, encourage "trip-chaining" or the use of delivery services as a substitute for short single-purpose motor-vehicle trips.

•  Support lower speed limits to reduce the likelihood and severity of collisions between motorized vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians.
•  Install more sidewalks, with green strip and trees between walkway and road, where feasible.
• Allow more on-street parking, at least on one side, especially where collector and subdivision streets are 3 or more lanes wide, to buffer pedestrians from moving vehicles.
• Calm traffic by narrowing streets and intersections. Educate fire and police personnel to understand how narrowed streets can still provide access by large vehicles and security personnel. * [fn: Resources are available showing where these techniques have been implemented successfully.
• Create wide curb lanes to encourage and protect cyclists.
• Install share-the-road signs to remind car drivers that cyclists have an equal right to use the roadway.
• Install bicycle-safe sewer grates and rubberized railroad crossings to reduce accidents.
• Along limited-access highways in urban areas, install overpasses and underpasses at more locations for use by pedestrians and cyclists, especially where there are activity centers.
• Along urban arterials where traffic tends to be constant, install walk lights or pedestrian overpasses at more locations, especially at intersections, activity centers and bus stops.
• Design circulation patterns to shorten distances pedestrians must walk.

• Encourage policies that give equal treatment to employees and customers regardless of their mode of commuting. An example is the "parking cash-out" program for commuters.
• Support tax structures that charge auto users for the hidden and external costs of auto use.
• Support mechanisms that shift payments for the use of automobiles from fixed (based on ownership) to variable (based on use), so that people have an incentive to replace at least some single-occupant auto trips with walking, cycling, transit, car-pooling, or tele-communications. For example, auto liability insurance could be based on miles traveled rather than on a fixed semi-annual cost.
• Increase the average speed of transit services by installing signal preemption equipment which gives transit vehicles a green light under most circumstances.
• Improve the convenience of transit services by increasing its frequency, hours of service and geographic coverage.
• Promote methods to discourage crime in and around public transit vehicles, MetroLink stations and bus stops.

• Provide incentives for people to patronize shops and services closer to home.
• Provide incentives for people to choose jobs that reduce their commuting distances.
• Support lower speed limits for reasons of safety and motor-fuel efficiency. Slower speeds also provide an incentive for shorter travel distances.
• Provide transportation alternatives so that people can satisfy infrequent access or travel needs without owning as many motor vehicles. Examples of ways this can be done:
  • Provide a good network of public transit, including rail, bus, and paratransit -- both intra- and inter-city, and with good connections between rail, bus, paratransit and airports.
  • Help citizens create and join car-sharing cooperatives similar to those operating in many European and some American cities.
  • Provide incentives for stores to deliver goods to purchasers' homes and businesses.
    
• Promote Responsible Land Use
  Promote land-use policies that need less single-occupant motorized transportation and less pavement. Examples of ways this can be done:
  • Encourage developments to meet standards of design and layout that enable pedestrian, bicycle and transit access and circulation.
  • Encourage developments of more than 5 acres to include "mixed uses" so that trips for convenience goods can feasibly be made by bike or on foot.
  • Encourage high-density developments to locate along arterials that are served by transit or within walking distance of transit stations, to increase the convenience of transit services for large concentrations of people.
  • Encourage developers to locate land uses next to each other if their peak parking needs occur at different times of the day or on different days of the week, so that they can share the same parking facilities and thereby reduce the total area paved.
• Encourage developers to use narrow street designs where feasible.
• Encourage policies whereby motor-vehicle users pay for the land-use impacts of motor vehicles. Examples of ways this can be done:
  • Provide incentives for parking lot owners to charge parking fees that fully cover the cost of providing parking.
  • Charge prices for publicly owned parking to fully cover its cost and to achieve efficient use of space.
• Support enactment of toll authority and tolls on bridges and highways, especially during peak hours of use.

Economic Goals:
Improve Access to Jobs
Promote metropolitan job/housing balance to reduce commuting distances for all citizens. Examples of ways this can be done:

• Improve the economic vitality of the core of the metro area by locating new regional facilities there, and by preserving existing community assets, including architecturally or historically significant buildings.
• Improve the educational desirability of the core of the metro area by providing incentives for targeted public-private initiatives in education.
• Establish a regional affordable-housing program, and provide incentives for all municipalities to participate.

Improve public transit services so that citizens who cannot afford to own and operate a car or cannot drive one can still participate in the job market. Ways this can be done were discussed earlier, for example:

• Improve the frequency, speed, hours and geographic coverage of transit.
• Make transit safer, more convenient and more economically attractive to users.

Stimulate economic competitiveness
Lower the cost of doing business and the cost of living for residents. For example, promote land use patterns that conserve land and require less energy for access.
Encourage prudent use of tax dollars
Encourage land use patterns that require minimal public capital and maintenance costs. Examples of ways this can be done:

•  Design developments that need the least single-occupant motorized transportation and the least street and parking pavement.
• Design communities that need the shortest school bus, trash collection and mail routes and the shortest utility extensions.

Support transportation and land use investments that provide the most sustainable accessibility for the largest percent of the population and potential labor force per tax dollar spent. Besides other ways discussed earlier, examples of ways this can be done:

• Encourage high-density developments to locate along arterials that are served by transit or within walking distance of transit stations, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of transit services.
• Reduce pressures to add bridge and highway lanes that are needed only during peak hours, by enacting tolls on these facilities, especially during peak hours.

Social Well-being:
Improve Access to health care, recreation, education, cultural opportunities, markets & other necessary services. Examples of ways this can be done:

• Provide a meaningful choice among transportation modes for all residents.
• Provide transportation infrastructure and services responsive to seniors and people with disabilities. For example, improve frequency, hours and geographic coverage of public transit services so that citizens who cannot afford to own and operate a car or cannot drive one can still get around.
• Provide incentives to businesses and service providers to locate near transit nodes.
• Reduce or overcome the barrier effect of highways.

Promote community cohesiveness by enhancing opportunities for neighbors to talk with one another. Examples of ways this can be done:

• Make pedestrian access safe.
• Adopt land-use policies that make pedestrian access convenient.

Promote public participation in transportation and land-use decision-making.