Excerpts from Recommendations to the Rendell Administration on Environmental and Natural Resources Priorities

Transportation policy has repeatedly encouraged sprawl and operated at cross purposes with policies encouraging revitalization of cities and towns, environmental protection, and prevention of sprawl. This includes not only policies for building new roads such as I-99 or the Mon Expressway in the central and western portions of the Commonwealth. Proposed expansion projects, such as the Route 41 expansion project in eastern Pennsylvania, and local improvement projects, such as those for improving surfaces and widening small bridges on secondary roads, also have encouraged sprawl. Transportation policy should therefore be reformed by incorporating at least the following:

• Transportation planning should expressly consider sprawl and environmental issues. Where capacity expansion and new highways are proposed, approval and funding should be given only to the extent consistent with the designations of growth and non-growth areas shown in county plans, regional plans or statewide plans such as a revised State Environmental Master Plan or a Statewide Biodiversity Plan.

• PennDOT should increase the priority and funding commitment for public transportation and provide highest priority to fixed rail projects that tend to lead to more concentrated patterns of development.

• PennDOT should require access for non-motorized transportation by requirements for pedestrian access and bicycle lanes.

• The Administration should support use of the liquid fuels fund to fund non-highway projects which promote highway safety through traffic reduction.

• The Administration should support a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate any restriction on the use of gasoline taxes and license fees.