America deserves high-quality rural transit. We can make it here in Centre County.
PennDOT is trying to build a highway which nobody asked for, endangering rural agricultural and forest heritage, entrenching car-dependency, and accelerating climate change.
Help fight back by promoting this alternative project.
Explore the plan for a better Centre County:
Car-dependency represents government overreach, forcing people to buy cars for daily errands, and taking away our freedom to travel how we want. PennDOT needs to provide sidewalks, trails, and transit, not another highway.
Centre County has a long history of railroading. By reusing historic railroad rights of way, but deploying modern technology, we can bring fast, efficient, and effective rail transit to Nittany, Penns, Bald Eagle, and Logan Valleys.
The planned highway involves massive environmental impacts, running a 170’ wide right of way through farms, properties, and forests. Train tracks and bike trails are a significantly less destructive 15’ wide, and using legacy railroad rights of way can further minimize demolition.
It has been known for over 100 years that building more highways doesn’t solve congestion. The only thing that can meaningfully improve road traffic is giving people a safe and convenient alternative to driving for daily errands.
Car-dependency is associated with obesity, poor diet, obscure diseases related to using stimulants to keep awake, and, of course, death by automobile accident. By contrast, active transportation and even transit lead to increased overall activity, without the need for a gym membership.
Building and maintaining roads and highways is one of the country’s highest expenses, but roads are incredibly inefficient at moving people. Transit and bikable alternatives are not only cheaper to operate, but also cheaper than car ownership for the average person.
Cars lead to a dispersal of economic wealth by making everywhere with a road equally drivable. Transit, bicycle trails, and walkability, by contrast, have been shown to increase property values and enrich communities, especially around stations or trail amenities.
Climate change is the greatest, most existential threat ever faced by humanity. Private automobiles are one of the largest source of carbon emissions. If just SUVs were their own country, they’d be the sixth-largest emitter of carbon in human history. Anything done to end car-dependency helps solve this enormous problem.
Currently, access to the outdoors is limited by car ownership to get to a lake or trailhead. This is inequitable for those wanting to explore the outdoors and a lost business opportunity those who could equip them for such. This could be solved by transit and trails to state parks.