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Transportation Achievements and Fiascoes" is to be
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2002

CONTACT:
Nathaniel Garrett, (415) 977-5627

    Sierra Club Map Highlights Transportation Achievements and Fiascoes
  Features 49 Local Projects Across the Country that Reduce or Encourage
                        Traffic, Pollution & Sprawl

San Francisco, CA-With the average American spending 55 workdays a year
stuck in traffic, the Sierra Club released a report today to help
communities tackle their transportation challenges.  The map, "Smart
Choices, Less Traffic," highlights the best and worst local plans for
alleviating traffic congestion and air pollution.

"Visionary communities across the country are demonstrating that we can
save commuters from traffic jams and air pollution by giving them sensible
options for getting to work," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club's Executive
Director.  "The twenty good projects highlighted in this report illustrate
that there are creative and effective ways to reduce traffic, pollution and
sprawl."

Each of the twenty showcase projects provides an innovative solution to
local problems.  Portland's Flexcar offers an efficient car-sharing program
for residents who need a car, but only sporadically.  Cities like Richmond,
Virginia and Denver are restoring their downtown train stations, developing
them into modern transportation centers that will spur economic
development.  Houston, Honolulu and Charlotte are all looking to light rail
or modern bus systems to relieve congestion and offer choice to their
commuters.

Unfortunately, many public officials continue to support an anachronistic
and unbalanced approach to transportation planning.  Expensive and
inefficient projects receive the lion's share of taxpayer funding.  "Smart
Choices, Less Traffic" highlights 28 nearsighted projects, such as
construction of Houston's fourth beltway, Kentucky's I-66, Georgia's
Northern Arc, and Raleigh's Outer Loop, which all threaten to increase
rural sprawl and generate traffic without reducing congestion problems in
the core communities.

"We shouldn't spend billions of taxpayer dollars on new highways that will
be far from existing communities, gobble up farmland and open spaces, and
create new traffic corridors," said Pope.

The map also highlights one project whose fate has yet to be decided: the
redevelopment of the transportation system in downtown Manhattan.
Visionary plans call for a new station near the World Trade Center that
would better connect subway lines to improve access, efficiency and
convenience for the millions of daily commuters and tourists.  Competing
plans call for only repairing what was destroyed.

"New York, like many cities, is facing an important decision about how to
redevelop their transit system," said Pope.  "We hope they follow the
example provided by these 20 good projects and not only redevelop but
improve their transportation system."

Transit ridership in the U.S. has increased by 21% in the last 5 five
years.  According to a 2001 National Association of Realtors poll, 62% of
Americans would try rail or train service if it is convenient, accessible
and safe.  Nonetheless, public transit projects receive merely 1/5 of the
federal funding that highways get.

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The "Smart Choices, Less Traffic," transportation map is available online
at: http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report02




Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
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