<http://italy.indymedia.org/uploads/flyerchiodo2.pdf>
like cholesterol
these cadillac escalades
clog the midtown flow
http://www.honku.org
------------- Forwarded Message------------
FROM: Michael T. Neuman
4334 Waite Circle
Madison, WI 53711
SUBJECT: 2004 Dane County Budget
As a resident of Madison since August 1968, a home owner and father of 3,
I want to say I am deeply concerned about what I perceive as an obvious
decline in the quality living in Madison the last several years, brought
on, I believe, by the ever increasing amount of automobile commuting to
Madison. Additionally, I am just as concerned about the need to better
protect our land and water in Dane County, by maintaining conservation
fund money at the same or above level as 2003, with the same level of
staffing and planning.
Regarding the increased level of automobile commuting to and from
Madison, please consider the following statistics. According to Madison
Magazine(Apr. 2002), more than 50% of people who live in Dane County's 21
suburban communities commute by automobile to Madison to work. The
percent of the people who live in the rural areas of Dane County
commuting to Madison might even be higher.
U.S. census data shows 60,000 people commuted by automobile to Madison
from other areas of Dane County in 2000, with another 16,000 people
living in the counties outside of Dane Country commuting to Madison on a
daily basis to work.
The number of vehicles using highways in Madison increased from 225,000
to 255,000 per day from 1995 to 2000 -- a 14% increase in 5 years. The
number of vehicles using arterial streets in Madison increased from
130,000 to 145,000 per day, an 11% increase, during that same period.
These vehicle numbers have undoubtedly increased even more in the last 3
years, based on my perception as a regular bicycle and periodical transit
user living and working within the city of Madison for the last 30 years.
According to traffic counts, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation
recorded the total number of motor vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Dane
County in the year 1990 to be 3 billion miles traveled. Dane County's
VMT rose to 4.8 billion miles traveled in 2002, which amounted to an
increase of 60% over 12 years. What this means is that there were 60
percent more motor vehicles on Dane County's streets, roads and highways
in 2002 than in 1990.
This increase in the traffic in our city and county compromises the
safety of auto drivers in Dane County and Madison, but also the safety of
pedestrian and bicycle travelers in Madison; it congests our city's
streets and thoroughfares, it makes our air less and less healthy for
breathing, it increases noise throughout the city, kills trees
prematurely and adds to global warming and to Madison's "heat island"
effect, caused by having many acres of city property under concrete
pavement -- in the form of parking lots and wider and wider streets to
accommodate the increasing number of motor vehicles being driven in the
city, which absorbs heat more readily, as oppose to greenspace which
benefits cooling on hot days by providing shade and faster release of
heat during the evening hours.
There is a limit to the amount of automobile commuting that can safely be
accommodated within Madison and Dane County without causing human and
environmental health problems for both Madison and Dane County residents
alike. I request the Dane County Board of Supervisors to consider taking
the following actions in its deliberations on the proposed 2004 Dane
County Budget:
1. Eliminate expenditures on making major improvements to highways
located outside of Madison that will add to increasing volumes of traffic
in Dane County and Madison. Two projects that are in the budget that
should be removed include the CTH PB project from STH 92 to STH 69, at a
cost of $415,000; and CTH M from Middleton to STH 113, at a cost of
$230,000. There may be more.
2. The country should develop more effective programs to encourage
residents and families living in Dane County to drive less miles per
week, month and year, by whatever means they can achieve those results.
Paying positive financial incentives to people who drive their vehicles
less miles per year has been a strategy employed in the auto insurance
industry for years, whereby policy owners who drive their vehicle a
minimum amount of miles get a reduced monthly premium. Many auto
insurance companies are expanding these energy conservation/traffic
reduction program because of the additional saving in avoiding increased
risk of accidents caused by people driving too many miles per day.
3. I urge the Dane County Board to restore the funding for the new and
the original Conservation Funds. Remember that in 1999, 76 % of Dane
County's voters approved an increase of our taxes, if needed, to provide
$30 million over 10 years for the Dane County Park and Open Space Plan.
Restore staffing levels to accommodate and plan for those increases in
park and open space lands in Dane County is also the right thing to do.
Park and greenspace will help keep Madison and Dane County cooler in the
years ahead as global warming become more of a problem, especially in
summer, as the vast majority of world scientists predict.
________________________________________________________________
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