Sustainable Suburbs

I have a fondness for bus and rail travel that is probably rare in these parts. More than the environmental benefits, or the desire to avoid scraping snow and frost off the car before white-knuckling over black ice, my affinity for mass transit comes from the decade I spent in the New York City area. I’m sure Rosie Colosie would agree that the subways and buses are the preferred ways to get around a major metro area.

So when I moved back here, one of the first things I did was go to the RGRTA website to plot my route to my new job. I had hoped to bring the usually casual, sometimes maddening experience of the passenger life back with me. But when I found that it would take two routes and more than an hour to go about 10 miles, I said “fuggettaboutit,” and resigned myself to a fact of suburban life: the car is necessary, at least for now.

This is not meant to be an indictment of the RGRTA. They provide an affordable, reliable service of which I would love to take more advantage. For many people, like those that work at the malls, it’s essential that they make that hour-long trip and make their connections to get to a $7.50/hr. job on time.

I know we’re in Rochester, not the Big Apple, and this area has been rated with one of the best commute times in the country. But we’re a city of single-passenger commuters.

Gov. Cuomo recently announced the allocation of $100 million to build a new I-390 interchange at Kendrick Road. Good news for people who work at the University of Rochester, who might be able to shave a few minutes off their commute time.

However, a real opportunity to impact carbon emissions comes from taking mass transit. So there’s good news in the $5 million slated for an indoor transit hub downtown, as well as an $800,000 grant for another hub in the proposed college town area also not far from the U of R.

Now consider that when one person switches to public transit, it can reduce daily carbon emissions by more than 4,800 pounds in a year (source: publictransportation.org). Imagine if more of us got on board.