As it turns out, several years' worth of substandard air quality may be good for our region's health, at least in the long term.
In its proposed new five-year plan, the Genesee Transportation Council has included $7 million worth of bicycle and pedestrian improvements. That's five times more money for those improvements than in the last plan. The new plan also includes money for service stations that would provide fuel such as ethanol for government vehicles. The service stations would likely be operated jointly by the city, the city school district, and the county.
The $220 million plan, called the Transportation Improvement Program, is a detailed list of projects that will receive funding through the Council, which distributes federal transportation aid. It also includes $101.9 million for highway work, $47.5 million for bridge work, $43.6 million for public transportation, and $7 million for transportation-related technology and initiatives.
Public comments on the plan are being accepted through April 6.
The bulk of the highway, bridge, and public transportation projects would receive funding between 2010 and 2012, says Richard Perrin, the council's executive director.
In addition to the green fueling stations, the plan provides for new RTS buses and new batteries for the hybrid models in the fleet. It also includes funding for a plug-in hybrid vehicle charging station in the city.
As Perrin describes it, the increasing focus on bicycle and pedestrian projects represents a "broader view of transportation." In the Rochester area, 80 percent of trips are not work related, he says. And two-thirds of trips are for 5 miles or less.
"You don't need to get into cars to do these things," Perrin says. He's not saying people have to get out of their cars, he adds, but the Council is trying to give people transportation choices.
Here's where the congestion mitigation and air quality-related funding come into play. For the past three years, the Rochester region has not met EPA standards for ground-level ozone. The American Lung Association, in recent years, has given Monroe County a failing grade on its air-quality report card. (No New York counties earned higher than a C in 2006.)
The air-quality issues, combined with the Council's "broader view of transportation," qualified the area for funds to help lower the ozone level. And those funds allow for bicycle and pedestrian projects, as well as green-fuels projects.
"It's a public health issue," Perrin says.
Whether the projects make a difference remains to be seen. Studies have found that the nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds that combine to create ozone blow in from Canada and the Midwest, Perrin says. In fact, when the Nanticoke, Ontario, coal power plant goes offline in 2009, that may ultimately have a greater effect on our air quality, he says. The plant generates volumes of the materials that contribute to ground-level ozone.
The bicycle and pedestrian projects are transportation oriented, says Perrin, though they have recreational uses, too. He views major trails, such as Genesee Riverway Trail and the Lehigh Valley Greenway trail, as expressways for cyclists.
The largest path project, a multi-use trail in Greece connecting the Canalway Trail to the Route 390 bike path at Route 104, would use $4 million in federal funds and $1 million in state and local funds.
The plan also includes extending the Erie-Attica Trail to Avon; completing the Genesee Riverway Trail in the city, connecting Corn Hill Landing to the Lower Falls park section; and creating neighborhood connections to the Riverway Trail.
A copy of the 2007-2012 draft Transportation Improvement Program is available at the Council's website. For more information, the Genesee Transportation Council can be reached at (585) 232-6240.