by Jeremy Dyer

The Urban Design Studio held its 9th Sustainable City Series May 26th.  The turnout was tremendous and the growing public support for the Series required the movement of the event to a larger space upstairs in the Glassworks Building. Well over 260 event-goers attended the Series on Transportation. The contributing sponsors and volunteers, once again, made this event a success. To learn more about the sponsors, click on the links on the Sustainable City Series page .  

The movement of people is an ongoing and ever increasing topic of concern for urban societies world-wide. More efficient transportation methods are needed for real sustainability. Two leading authorities on transportation in the Louisville area were invited to inform the crowd about some of problems and what is being done to fix them in our city.  

Barry Barker, Executive Director of the Transit Authority of River City, started off the forum by saying he has a problem with the word sustainability. He said, “What we are doing in public transportation is pursuing what is currently an unsustainable model.” He added that some changes are needed to improve transportation. On the bright side he announced three more hybrid buses were added to the TARC fleet, the same day as the event, to cut down on impacts and dependency on fuel, which are some hold-ups in the struggle for better public transportation.

Increasing ridership is another way Barry believes we can move toward more sustainable transportation. TARC is currently trying to do this through improvements to bus stops and making it easier for customers to plan trips using technology. He displayed pictures that were taken of various stops, good and bad, to identify ones in need of improvements. The more safe and connected people feel the more likely they are to ride. You can already plan routes online, but the ultimate goal is to provide texts to alert customers of route times and even bus tracking, to provide real time location identification to customers online. All of these measures are being taken to get people on the bus and out of the car. TARC estimates 50,000 people use TARC every day equating to 42,000 automobiles taken off the streets. These statistics speak to the importance of public transportation in reducing emissions and traffic congestion.  

Mr. Barker also discussed some alternatives that TARC has either worked on previously or is currently working on that could improve transportation in the River City area. The infamous T2 light rail project is still sitting on a shelf “wrapped in plastic” just waiting for renewed interest. A Bus Rapid Transit line has been discussed for the current Dixie Highway/Preston Highway route.   They are even considering taxi service for feeder lines to the busier lines such as Dixie/Preston. Mr. Barker advised the crowd to stay tuned to see if any of these ideas come to fruition.
    

Our other guest speaker was Mr. Dirk Gowin, Transportation Planning Administrator of Bike Louisville, a program of Louisville Metro Government. Mr. Gowin started his speech with a few questions to gauge the transportation habits of the crowd. He asked first how many rode their bike to this event. Only two or three raised their hands. He then asked how many walked and got the same response. Last he asked how many drove their cars and everyone else raised their hands. He almost shamefully admitted to being included in that demographic. His point was well taken: its difficult to get around on bike in Louisville, but not impossible. He claimed to ride his bike about a third of his trips, which is impressive considering his home is in St. Matthews and he works downtown.  

He discussed how the Bike Louisville program is broken down into five E's of: Education, Enforcement, Encouragement, Engineering, and Evaluation. He spoke about a few of these in relation to promoting sustainability. Within the Engineering part, which is admittedly his background, he listed and discussed several projects in the works to improve the state of bicycle transportation in Louisville.  

Early in his speech he also mentioned his job is concerned with pedestrian movement as well as bicycling. He mentioned this as a way to emphasize how the interconnectedness of all forms (biking, walking, mass transit, etc…) is key to improving the sustainability of our overall transportation system. Another point was that the complexities of the transportation system make it a difficult problem that cannot be solved overnight.  

Some of the plans he mentioned, and the granting of some federal stimulus money do offer some promise however. The passing of a “complete streets policy” in Louisville is also a step in the right direction. This means any new road project must look at pedestrian and bicycle travel along with the automobile.  

Mr. Gowin says his number one concern is for safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. This is obviously a major concern in the fight for better transportation. It was evident from the statistics Mr. Gowin provided and some questions and comments from the audience that Safety is a major barrier to more sustainable transportation in Louisville.  

We hope the audience gained some insight that will help them to continue their efforts of promoting more sustainable transportation in Louisville. The next Sustainable City Series on Community Gardens is coming soon, so keep checking this site for details.