Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Job markets are regional. So in order to serve a metropolitan region’s workers and by extension the local economy, transit must also be regional, seamlessly serving both central cities and their suburbs, whose share of employment has grown. Almost everyone recognizes that.

Suburban voters in Ohio, Michigan and Maine showed their support for transit Tuesday. Photo: Toledo Blade

That’s why for decades, the nation’s cities have been combining agencies and expanding tax districts to create regional transit systems. It’s gotten to the point now where the only major city in the country that still lacks a regional transit system is Detroit — and officials from the Federal Transit Administration are leaning hard on state and local officials to remedy that.

Which is why a handful of Balkanizing ballot initiatives in suburban communities in Ohio, Michigan and Maine this election were so alarming. Voters in four suburbs in these states were asked if they wanted to opt out of regional transit systems in greater Toledo, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan and Portland, Maine.

Luckily, voters saw through those proposals. All four of those communities rejected the proposals, choosing to remain a part of their regional transit systems — and all by fairly wide margins.

In Walker, Michigan, 73 percent of voters weighed in in favor of remaining in Grand Rapids’ bus system. A similar referendum in Falmouth, Maine failed, with 70 percent of voters electing to remain part of Portland’s METRO.

Meanwhile, in the Toledo, Ohio suburbs, Sylvania and Spencer Townships rejected the idea of withdrawing from regional transit by about a 60-40 margin. That was very good news for Toledo’s regional transit system, TARTA, which lost the suburb of Perrysburg to an identical ballot measure this spring.

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For six years, retiree Don White has been representing the town of Camden as part of a committee working to preserve the character of rural communities along Route 1 in Mid-Coast Maine.

Volunteers like White, from some 15 towns from Brunswick to Stockton Springs, have been collaborating to produce a corridor action plan that would tame traffic, limit sprawl and preserve the beautiful vistas that make this area an important summertime tourist destination. Last year, their efforts had earned the praise of the EPA, who recognized the Gateway 1 Corridor Planning project for Smart Growth Achievement.

Maine's Route 1 runs through dozens of towns where preserving the rural character is an economic imperative, thanks to the importance of the tourism industry. Photo: People.Maine.Com

Then on Monday — without warning — White received an electronic copy of a letter from Maine State Department of Transportation saying the Gateway 1 planning process had been suspended. White was informed that the state’s new administration, led by Republican Governor Paul LePage, wants to shift its focus.

“Given the significant and growing fiscal constraints under which we are operating, our top priority must be to focus our time and scarce resources on existing short-term critical infrastructure needs — roads and bridges primarily,” said David Bernhardt, commissioner of the State Department of Transportation in the letter.

In an interview Wednesday, White, who is the chairman of the Gateway 1 Steering Committee, said he still hadn’t received a paper copy of the letter.

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When Don White was young, his dad would drive him from the Boston area to Blue Hill, Maine up coastal Route 1. “In those days,” he reminisces, “the road wound through little, small towns. And some of that has been bypassed.”

No wonder the residents of mid-coast Maine don't want traffic and sprawl to dilute this view. Image: Outside

The bypasses have been “hugely controversial, hugely disruptive, hugely expensive,” according to Kate Beaudoin, Chief of Planning for Maine DOT. She worked with local residents like White on a new corridor action plan to keep the small-town quality intact among the communities along Route 1.

It’s not just for nostalgia. Allowing Route 1 to be overwhelmed by traffic and sprawl would be detrimental to the tourism economy and the local culture. So a steering committee, made up of representatives from each of the 20 communities along a 100-mile stretch of the corridor, developed a plan to reduce traffic congestion.

The plan was recognized by the EPA yesterday as one of five winners of the agency’s annual awards for “Smart Growth Achievement.” It’s the first time the EPA has presented an award in the category of Rural Smart Growth.

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