Overview:

In an effort to inform voters, the CRBC recently put the following questions to local candidates up for election.  As this survey was put out only very recently, the lack of a response by an individual should not be interpreted as a lack of interest on their part...We will add additional responses as we get them, up until election day.

 

Survey Questions:

1. Describe your vision of the present and future of transportation in the Centre Region, paying particular attention to the role of non-motorized alternatives such as bicycling.

2. Describe your views about how the construction and maintenance of bicycle paths, lanes, and parking facilities should be funded.

3. Describe the role you feel that government should play in encouraging the use of non-motorized transportation alternatives.

 

Elizabeth Goreham, State College Borough

1. Traffic in the next three years is expected to rise dramatically, with:

o More traffic coming into State College and congestion from I-99

o More pressure on neighborhood streets from West Campus development, commuter traffic

o New roadways bring increased potential for pollution from cars, storm water runoff, urbanization.  Additional roads must be planned with neighborhoods and air quality in mind, to avoid unwanted noise and traffic impacts.

 

What can the Borough do?

o Build and maintain bike paths. Every 500 bicyclists who commute downtown is equivalent to a $5 Million parking garage.

o Aggressively protect Borough streets from congestion and cut-through traffic by developing comprehensive traffic mitigation strategies for each State College neighborhood, and implementing them early.

o Analyze how to meet downtown parking needs without creating more congestion.

o Encourage and support a borough-wide fare-free bus zone

o Make our downtown more pedestrian friendly including increased Pedestrian Walk time at stop lights.

o Make it easy and cheap for downtown employees to use Park N Ride or bus; for every 500 employees parking outside of town we save a $5 Million parking garage.

 

During my first term on Borough Council I was greatly involved in the formation of a Transportation Commission, to handle all parking matters and develop strategies to reduce parking demand and traffic congestion downtown. If re-elected, I will devote much time during my next term to bring these not-so lofty as-they-once-seemed goals objectives into being. Now, new paths must be constructed at the expense of the discrete local municipality, even though the path's benefit may be as a critical link between two other municipalities.

 

2. I support funding the construction and maintenance of bike trails to be shared by the community as a whole. Centre Region Council of Governments (COG) is the logical entity to manage bikeways for our region.

 

3. Local governments must work together and assume a leadership role on behalf of non-motorized transportation.  The COG Transportation Committee, which now only considers roadway construction, should be charged with the responsibility to develop programs which explore non-motorized transportation - including funding - to handle a minimum of 15% of anticipated demand. 

 

Jeff Kern, State College Borough

I ride my bike to work throughout the summer.  I use a bike for exercise and recreation.  My family of 3 owns 7 bikes --3 touring, 3 mountain and one jewel of a bike for me (a Lemond racing bike).

I have worked during my years of service on the Pedestrian Traffic Safety Commission for the development of bike paths, bikeways, and bike lanes.  I have worked for and encouraged the Borough to develop better bike parking facilities and provide a bike crossing light at Atherton and Nittany (its in the budget).

My vision for transportation for the center region involves encouraging the use of feet, bikes, buses, etc.  Biker paths must be interconnected.  More importantly, bike lanes must be designated on certain streets to allow for safe passage through town.

My pessimistic view is that the construction of multi-100 million dollar highways only encourages more vehicular traffic and more congestion.  I don't believe that any highway ever really ended congestion.  I do believe that smart land use planning and effective provision for alternative modes of transport can cut down on traffic - and encourage a cleaner healthier environment.  Its also cheaper to build bus lanes, bike lanes, good sidewalks and good crossing systems than to build highways.  Any new highway, street, or road construction should be required to include provisions for pedestrians, bikers, and buses.

 

Justin Leto, State College Borough

1. I'm a big fan of alternative means of transportation. I intend to address the transportation issue by addressing the housing issue. We need to have more people living inside the borough of State College. We need to pressure the university to build more dorms. By housing more people close to campus, we will reduce the number of cars on the road and make it safer for the bikers to ride on the roadways, and alleviate the pressure so to allow bike lanes to be built.

2. It certainly should be funded by local municipal governments. Unfortunately, there are separate townships and boroughs each with authority over their particular area. This requires regional cooperation in planning and funding for bike lanes to be built included in regional planning.

3. First they have to stop outlawing them. In State College, skateboarding and roller blading are prohibited in most parts of the downtown. These ordinances have to be repealed. Bicyclists should be able to secure their bikes on bike racks instead of trees, benches, and streetlights. Bike racks should be provided by the borough. The borough should improve the pavement on Calder Way, add lighting, and encourage its use as a bike friendly alternative to college and Beaver Ave. The borough should play an active role in planning for bike lanes in new road construction while investigating ways to add lanes on preexisting roads.

 

Bill Welch,  State College Borough

1. Transportation, including non-motorized alternatives, in the Centre Region suffers from fragmentation of the  community among several municipalities. As it would for streets and highways, consolidation would improve our  chances of creating a better network of safe and  well-connected bike routes.

 

2. Bike paths and lanes should be built and maintained year-round by local governments, with state and/or federal money as it can be obtained. Bicycle parking facilities should be funded by user fees, as most motor vehicle lots and garages are.

 

3. Government should seek a balance among various modes of transportation, with non-motorized transportation alternatives receiving a "fair share".

 

Jack Jenkins, College Township

1. I favor an interconnecting system of bikeways, walkways, and extended bus service.

 

2.  Funded by available grants and regional taxes designated for this purpose.

 

3.  By maintaining existing walkways and bikeways, and advertising their availability to all segments of the public.

 

Elliot Abrams, Patton Township

1. It should be possible to cycle anywhere in the region without fear of imminent injury. Interconnected bikeways should be the norm. Bicycle "racks" on mass transit vehicles should have enough capacity so that a rider can expect to be able to place her/his bike onboard. By providing safe travel routes and adequate capacity on mass transit facilities, we will encourage the use of bicycles as a transportation alternative. Emphasis should be placed on enhancing commuter bicycling within several miles of the University first. For Patton Township residents, it would be important to serve the large number of students living in apartments near WalMart. As long as economics prevent large numbers of the region's employees from living closer to town, automobile transit will be the most used form of transit. There should be incentives to use lots peripheral to campus.  I wonder if people would be interested in leasing/renting bikes at these lots like they do at seashore resorts. If this was easy and quick, a fair number of people might choose to ride from the peripheral lots to their destinations. I doubt people would want to store their own bikes at the lots.

 

2. There should be enough government funding to ensure safety on existing routes. Whenever a new road is built, a companion bicycle route (and hopefully walking trails) should be part of the project. When old roads are rebuilt, bicycle transportation should be protected and enhanced. Example: when the high curbs were installed on Circleville Road south of Park Hills, it made bicycle riding on that road virtually impossible. Fortunately, there is a nearby bicycle path very nearby where there is no competition from motorized vehicles. Bicycle organizations should monitor local and regional government meeting agendas to make sure that bicycle issues are not "forgotten" when projects are planned and executed.

 

3. In order to encourage non-motorized transportation, adequate, safe facilities must be in place or under construction first. I am opposed to trying to restrict motorized transportation (auto, bus, etc) by restricting road access or by failing to provide adequate parking facilities until there is something to replace what is blocked or prevented. Some call this "demand management" (make a current action so unattractive people have to change their ways). However, for this to work, there must first be a viable alternative to what people were using for transportation. Without this, all you get is congestion: too many people trying to jam into inadequate facilities for which no viable alternatives have been set up.

I encourage bicyclists to contact me with their suggestions. Send your thoughts to eabrams@lazerlink.com Thanks.

 

Julian Heicklen, Patton Township

1. All forms of transportation will increase in the Centre Region in the near future.  This can lead to more congestion, pollution, and expenditure of energy.  In order to alleviate these problems, we should encourgage taxis, mass transportation, and non-motorized transportation where feasible.  Bicycles, both motorized and non-motorized, appear to a very efficient way to reduce the above-mentioned problems.

 

2. I favor including bicycle lanes on or adjacent to arterial highways.  More effort needs to be given to safety considerations for bicycle lanes on highways.  The government entity responsible for the roads in question (state, county, or municipality) should be responsible for building and maintaining the bicycle paths. As far as I know, in Patton Township, there are no municipal parking lots.  At present, I do not see the need for any, since the shopping centers provide their own parking.  Hopefully they will include parking spaces for bicycles.  I would hope that organizations such as yours, as well as the township council, will encourage them to do so. Private groups have been successful in getting a shopping center to plant trees.

 

3. Though I generally oppose taxes, I believe that an increase in the gasoline tax is warranted to discourage private car use and encourage car-pooling or other forms of transportation.  However I think that this taxation is not feasible at the municipal level.  It probably has to be done at the state level. In Patton Township, I think that safety on the Fox Hollow Road bicycle lane needs to be improved.  Bicycle lanes on or adjacent to Martin Street and Valley Vista Road should be considered.  Atherton Street probably is too congested to introduce a bicycle path.  However bicycle a path down Allen Street with a connecting lane between State College and Ferguson Township could be considered.

 

Kevin Abbey, Ferguson Township

1. As former General Manager of CATA and a long-term transportation professional, I advocate a comprehensive transportation network with balanced air, rail, road, transit, bike and pedestrian linkages.  It is absolutely essential to the efficiency of our transportation system and our quality of life in the Centre Region that alternatives to the single occupancy vehicle (SOV) be strongly promoted.  Bicycling and walking have low environmental impact and high physical/spiritual benefit.

 

2.  Because non-motorized transportation is critically important to the Centre Region, bicycle and pedestrian facilities should be incorporated into roadway, transit, parking improvements and commercial developments wherever possible.  In Ferguson Township, I will recommend that a portion of the soon-t0-be-enacted transportation fund tax increases be earmarked for non-motorized facilities.  Maintenance of such facilities should be incorporated in a routine fashion in the operating budgets of PENNDOT, Penn State and local municipalities.

 

3. A look at my life-long commitment to such alternatives answers this question most directly.  As Executive Director of the Transportation Committee in the Pennsylvania Senate, I helped create and served on Pennsylvania's Pedalcycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. As CATA GM, I helped change PA law to allow "bike racks on buses" and secured funding to make them a local reality.  As Chairman of the CRMPO Technical Committee and once in the PA Senate, I served on the Transportation Enhancement Advisory Committee and endorsed funding for scores of rails-to-trails and bike path projects throughout the state.  

 

Richard Mascolo, Ferguson Township

1.  Ferguson Twp Supervisors have been promoting bike trails in the township & I also agree with expansion of this program.

 

2.  Funding should be from land developers and also from township funds.  State & County governments do not seem to be willing to fund some of these smaller programs.  Maintenance of existing trails is a township responsibility but should not be done during winter when usage is low. 

 

Richard Wade, Ferguson Township

1. Growth in the Centre Region has been rapid and will continue to be so, and traffic will increase even more rapidly.  Whatever mode of transportation can remove vehicles from the roads will make it that much less difficult to provide sensible transportation for all.  While non-motorized alternatives simply are not practical for most trips by most people in Centre Region, any obstacles that prevent people from using these alternatives should be minimized if possible.

 

2. It makes sense for local governments to use taxation to pay for transportation improvements that will benefit the taxpayers.  It is important for the cycling community to demonstrate that cycling-specific improvements benefit more that just the immediate users of those improvements.

 

3. Local governments can work to assure that a network of useful bike paths is part of long-term planning, for example as part of an Official Map.  In some cases, unneccesary obstacles to cycling might be removed by direct government action.