The following area report was submitted by Erica Stanojevic after she attended a VTA public meeting regarding the Valley Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy.
I recently went to one of VTA's open house for their 2040 plan. The meeting showcased their wish lists of projects that they would like to complete. These projects are not prioritized currently. A list of these projects can be found at: VTP 2035 project lists (PDF). There seems to be little public comment regarding bikes/peds and so everything we say helps!
A couple of things I noticed:
1) There were multiple bike/ped projects listed! Fortunately, there is some separate, dedicated funding for these.
2) There is a bias towards car based projects. There were a lot of expressway projects, for example, which don't help local economies.
3) There is a bias towards higher socioeconomic areas getting projects. I mostly looked at bike projects, and there were hardly any projects slated for the east side.
Two things we can do:
1) Let our local representatives and transportation committees know which projects should be prioritized. The list of projects isn't up yet, but soon will be at http://www.vta.org/vtp2040/
2) Get to know the needs in lower socioeconomic areas, and support efforts to help people in these areas become leaders in their communities. These areas are underrepresented partly because people don't know there's a place for their voices to be heard.
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