The agenda for this conference looks very encouraging. Note the discussion of
moving beyond the usual DOT "public participation," e.g., open houses.
Tom
Subj: thinking beyond the pavement workshop
Date: 00-11-14 10:23:34 EST
From: [log in to unmask] (Ken Hughes)
Sender: [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on
Transportation Issues)
Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Sierra Club Forum on
Transportation Issues)
To: [log in to unmask]
The Path We'd Like to Take
Are traffic jams a regular part of your life, or can you walk or bike to your
work or to school? Is the grocery store so far away you must drive several
miles for that quart of milk? Has your quiet country road been turned into a
high-speed racetrack?
A two-day workshop on December 4 & 5, 2000, will bring together people who
would like to get state highway and transportation departments to think
beyond the pavement and to become more community- and
environmentally-friendly. The workshop will be held at Plaza Resolana in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is free to Sierra Club members.
Meeting environmental concerns is a major challenge for highway and
transportation departments. Decades of building new highways has become
addictive; the environmental consequences of this obsession are too many to
be ignored:
Urban sprawl is created by new or "improved" highways linking stand alone
subdivisions in the woods to our cities;
Spending on mass transit, bike paths and sidewalks is negligible;
Many highway projects are built without adequate environmental reviews or
investigation of alternatives;
Forcing us to drive everywhere we go damages human health, quality of life,
trees, crops, buildings, and wildlife.
You will learn:
1. How to influence local and regional road planning
2. Where highway department money comes from
3. Which laws you can use to fight against traffic problems
How to formulate a project proposal and get it funded
Where efforts have paid off in getting a DOT to think beyond the pavement.
Speakers from across the nation will help us craft solutions to our traffic
mess. Confirmed speakers to date:
Michael Replogle, Transportation Specialist, Environmental Defense,
Washington DC;
Pat Gallagher, Sierra Club Attorney, San Francisco;
Ken Ryan, Transportation Chair, California Chapter, Sierra Club;
Hank Dittmar, Las Vegas, New Mexico, founder, Surface Transportation Policy
Project.
To register: Rio Grande Chapter, Sierra Club, 202 Central Ave. SE #101,
Albuquerque NM 87102; 505-243-7767; [log in to unmask]
To reserve a room: Plaza Resolana has rooms set aside for the workshop at
$80/night for double occupancy, and $70/single. Contact them at 800-821-5145
or www.plazaresolana.com for information plus a map of downtown Santa Fe.
For more information: Ken Hughes, Transportation Chair, Rio Grande Chapter,
Sierra Club, 505-474-0550; [log in to unmask]
Agenda
December 4, 2000
Am Registration, Preview and Introductions
9-10:30 DOTs and Highway Departments: The Ideal and the Real
Hank Dittmar, Las Vegas, New Mexico, founder, Surface Transportation Policy
Project
What could a state agency actually be like in the ideal world?
How do they actually function?
Where does all the money really go? Where could it go?
10:30-10:45 Hallway Time
10:45 * 12:00 Role of the Public in Reform
Hank Dittmar and Michael Replogle, Transportation Specialist, Environmental
Defense, Washington DC
How can we go beyond typical public participation methods (e.g. open houses)
toward meaningful involvement?
What leverage can be brought to bear on DOTs to open up the process?
Are there successful public campaigns that have brought about change?
Are there good investigative reporting that have worked to make for better
agency responsiveness?
Noon * 1:30 Lunch and Santa Fe Time
1:30 * 3:30 Thinking Beyond the Pavement
Michael Replogle
What turned around Maryland*s Department of Transportation?
What worked in Georgia?
What other examples can be pointed to in getting DOTs turned around?
3:30 * 4:00 Hallway Time
4:00 * 5:30 Successes and Challenges
Ken Ryan, Transportation Chair, California Chapter, Sierra
Club
What strategies have worked in places around the USA?
Where have challenges not met with success can we learn from?
5:30 * 6:30 Santa Fe Time
6:30 * 7:30 Dinner at the Santa Fe Cohousing Community, 2300 W. Alameda
St.
Agenda
December 5
8:00 * 9:00 Review of Lessons Learned from Day 1
Michael Replogle and Ken Ryan
9:00 * 10:30 Laws You Can Put to Use
Pat Gallagher, Sierra Club Attorney, San Francisco
TEA-21
Title XI, Civil Rights Act
Clean Air Act
NEPA
Other
10:30 * 10:45 Hallway Time
10:45 * Noon Laws, Part Deux
Pat Gallagher
Noon * 1:30 Lunch and Santa Fe Time
1:30 * 3:00 Putting It All Together
Pat Gallagher, Michael Replogle, Ken Ryan
How can we formulate a project proposal and get it funded?
Which legal strategy can work in which circumstance?
What is the best use of our limited resources?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]
</XMP>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT
to [log in to unmask]
|
