I wonder sometimes why what I read and hear about doesn't match what I experience. Much is being written and said about a decline in auto use and a significant leap forward in public transit. Yet, the amount of auto traffic I experience seems greater than ever.
There are a lot of new factors like bike-sharing and bus rapid transit that should result in much greater use of public transit with less dependence on the auto.
Urban areas are coming back in vogue. One can see this in the Capital Region. People are moving into downtown apartments and condos in Albany, Troy and Cohoes. While it is not yet happening in our downtowns, one can read about suburban retailers and food stores like Target and Whole Foods opening smaller stores in downtowns.
Two age groups are key to this transition. The millennial generation in their 20s is portrayed as not enamored with either the auto or the suburbs where they grew up. The aging baby boom generation may still love their automobiles, but as they age their driving skills deteriorate and public transit can be a viable option.
The Capital Region's pattern of development is well-suited for a major increase in transit use not only for traveling to and from work but for various other mobility purposes. We have corridors like routes 5, 20, 7, 9 and 32, among other smaller corridors, that are a good fit for public transit.
Public transit corridors can foster coordinated development; places to live can be well-situated for easy access to work, shopping and services like medical care and recreation. That is the case now with the Route 5 corridor with its innovative Bus Plus connecting Albany and Schenectady downtowns along with major hubs like Colonie Center.
We also have clusters ranging from neighborhoods like the Delaware Avenue and Madison Avenue neighborhoods in Albany, the Washington Park and Pottery neighborhoods in Troy and the Stockade neighborhood in Schenectady and small communities like the village of Waterford and cities of Rensselaer and Watervliet.
When the residents of neighborhoods like the Madison Avenue neighborhood in Albany join together, they can be a strong and effective voice and force for traffic calming and fostering pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Currently, this neighborhood is sponsoring an application to the state transportation improvement program for a traffic calming project that is called a "road diet" with pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
It is a great example of how far we have come from 30 years ago when state transportation engineers talked the city of Albany into removing traffic calming angle parking on Central Avenue (part of the Route 5 corridor) for the purpose of speeding traffic flow at the cost of pedestrian and bicycle safety and comfort. It was one of the final nails in the coffin for retail on Central Avenue.
Hopefully, with citizen leadership, there will be political leadership at every level of government to recast neighborhoods and cities so that they are walkable and have access to the kind of the public transit that allows working and living without the need of the auto.
I don't want to just read about transformations like new downtown retail in other places, I want to experience real mobility in my daily life without the need of an auto as I did when I lived in Boston, New York City and Rome, Italy.
Paul M. Bray's email is secsunday@aol.com.