America's dependence on oil is one of the many costs of our dependence on the automobile as the primary form of urban transportation, but we are well familiar in the Triangle with more immediate problems associated with it.
Sprawl, traffic and parking congestion, unsafe conditions and the degradation of the air we breathe are among these. It is well known that we can not solve these problems by building more roads, highways and parking lots. Instead, we must shift in the next few years to increased availability and convenience in alternative transportation services, including transit. Now we have in Chapel Hill a golden opportunity to do something about these problems.
In the coming Town Council election, there are three outstanding candidates who understand the urgent need for new transit infrastructure and services: Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt and Dorothy Verkerk. Votes for these candidates will make a real difference. They are not paying lip service to transportation reform; they believe in it. In the next five to 10 years we will see great changes in Chapel Hill as a result of the University's Master Plan and its designs on the Horace Williams grounds. Unfortunately, these plans lack the vision we will need to achieve genuine transportation reform.
As currently conceived, they will increase traffic congestion enormously. In the case of the Horace Williams grounds, for example, the plans call for building first next to Airport Road, rather than on the existing transit corridor that runs right through the grounds! We must have people like Harrison, Kleinschmidt and Verkerk on the Town Council to protect the community from this recklessness.
James Coley
Chapel Hill
