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PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION The Current State of Transportation for People with Disabilities in the United States A national study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2002 found that 6 million people with disabilities have difficulties obtaining the transportation they need. Research in the year 2000 conducted by the Harris Poll and funded by the National Organization on Disability established that nearly one-third of people with disabilities report having inadequate access to transportation. Behind these statistics are many personal stories of lives severely limited by the lack of transportation. Some people with disabilities who are willing and able to work cannot do so because of inadequate transportation. Others cannot shop, socialize, enjoy recreational or spiritual activities, or even leave their homes. And some individuals with disabilities who need medical services must live in institutions due solely to the lack of safe, reliable transportation to needed medical services. This paper analyzes existing transportation systems in the United States with the acknowledgment that these systems are inherently inadequate due to a chronic lack of funding. As the United States focuses its resources on travel by automobile, all other modes are neglected in comparison. To read the full report please click here This report is also available in alternative formats and on the National Council on Disability (NCD) Web site www.ncd.gov Strategic Regional Transit Visioning Study "20/20 Vision" Eastern Corridor Transit Study/Airport Multi-Modal Corridor Major Investment Study (MIS) This study is undergoing a final edit check by the staffs of Port Authority and SPC. It is anticipated that the Transit Vision reports will be completed by the end of the year. The Vision will incorporate the findings of the Eastern Corridor Transit Study and the Airport Multi-Modal Corridor Major Investment Study (MIS). TLC and Sustainable Pittsburgh will continue its efforts to have the study released in concert with its public meetings for releasing the Citizens’ Vision. For
further information see: http://www.spcregion.org/trans_2020.shtml
STPP has identified a study prepared by the Sierra Club called "Missing the Train". The report speaks both to the role of public transportation in supporting our workforce needs and to the need to prevent the increase of local match from the current 20% to 50% for transit capital projects such as the North Shore LRT. The
report is available at: www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report04 STPP's analysis of ten years of federal spending, titled "The $300 Billion Question: Are We Buying A Better Transportation System?" is available on www.transact.org. A press release was prepared by David Ginns who serves as coordinator for the Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Project. The Transportation for Livable Communities Project is a partnership of Sustainable Pittsburgh and the Surface Transportation Policy Project serving to advance transportation reform in southwestern Pennsylvania. Link
to the full text of the press release here. The Port Authority and Southwestern PA Commission, along with Westmoreland County Transit Authority are undertaking a year-long planning effort to identify transportation needs and potential public transit improvements within a study area that extends from Downtown Pittsburgh to Greensburg and from the Allegheny north shore northeast to New Kensington and to the south shore of the Monongahela southeast to Clairton. The agency team recently met with the Urban Cycling Committee to gain input relative to non-motorized priorities. The Cycling Committee's recommendations are found here. Sustainable Pittsburgh releases Sustainability Assessment of Mon Fayette Expressway Click here to read a Post-Gazette article regarding the report. Click
here to read the Assessment. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed)
The national Surface Transportation Policy Project has recently released and invites organizations to sign-on in support of The Alliance for the New Transportation Charter. This is a broad-based coalition working to make transportation better serve communities. The Alliance seeks to affirm the successes of ISTEA and begin to articulate needs for reauthorization of the federal transportation law, TEA21 in 2003. The charter features principles describing the many ways in which transportation investments are a means to achieve broad public objectives and community economic, social, and environmental outcomes. To view the charter and the principles being articulated, click here To view a list of Alliance endorsers of which Sustainable Pittsburgh is one, click here |
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