Ecolibrium
In Ecolibrium we believe transportation is about getting people where they need to be as safely and quickly as possible. That is why we have incoorporated a train, free bus system, bike lanes, stop lights, crosswalks, and many other things designed to be safe, environmental friendly, and easy access for everyone. It's all part of creating a well working environment for our future and the future of others.
Transportation
Molly, Paige
When we started to think about transportation we thought everything was simple and easy. Without any background knowledge, we didn’t know of any alternatives that could be better for the environment and healthier for the people in the city. Before learning about city planning and going to conferences based on the growth of a sustainable city, we would have continued with the status quo. Now, with what we have learned, changing transportation habits are very complicated, but possible. We now know many other things that can be sustainable for the environment and easy for the people to.
Our primary objective was to encourage people to live and maintain a healthy life and environment. We thought the best way to do this was to promote bicycling and foot travel, but discourage automobile usage. We accomplished this in three ways. (Read below)
We increased the width of the roads to include bike lanes, pedestrian lanes, and vehicle lanes. For a two lane road we increased the width from 24 feet to 29 feet. For a four lane road we increased the width from 48 feet to 53 feet. We also included bike lights by every intersection for extra caution and clearly marked signs and pictures on the roads to serve as a reminder to the drivers on the road.
Public transportation is a great way to protect the area you live in by reducing the pollution that is put in the air by driving a car. Our town incorporated a train system. With the train system we are reducing traffic congestion and allowing visitors to come and visit without the necessity of a car. Once they are in our town they will have access to a free bus system that would provide them transportation without the use of their own cars.
“A ped shed is the area encompassed by the walking distance from a town or neighborhood center (http://pedshed.net/?page_id=5, May 26, 2012).” If people were to be more encouraged to walk, they would also have a healthier life style and environment. We believed an effective ped shed would enable people to reach any high traffic area within 20 minutes or less. With that we would reduce pollution, traffic congestion, and provide an incentive for people to walk rather than drive.
In many ways, by reducing the use of cars and encouraging the idea of walking or biking we are putting less CO2 in the atmosphere. The more CO2 there is in the atmosphere the bigger the Greenhouse effect will be. By keeping our town compact and efficient we would be reducing sprawl and preserving more green space. Preserving green space is important because instead of emitting the CO2 into the atmosphere the plants would be taking it out through.
We chose biking and walking as the main needs of transportation in our town because it is cheap, it gives people the incentive to live healthier lives, and it is environmentally friendly to the atmosphere and forests. By creating the opportunity for people to live in an environmentally sustainable town we hope to encourage people to adopt healthy and environmentally conscious values. We also believe that these changes would reflect positively on other aspects of the town like economy and recreation. We hope the transportation plan of Ecolibrium will serve as a model for other towns and cities all over the world.
