Trains, Walking, Bicycles
The ability to get around freely is one of our fundamental freedoms as Americans. And while our access to transportation affects our quality of life, the way we get around may be the biggest single factor in how our communities look, whether they are compact and walkable or sprawling and covered in asphalt.
For example, if at the time a community is built the main way to get around is transit or trains, then the community tends to be compact, walkable, and beautiful, often preserving well constructed houses and commercial buildings from an earlier era. This is the case in downtown Staunton, built for an era of horses, streetcars, and rail. Because modern planners have preserved the historic street grid, today downtown residents have many transportation options: they can drive, but they don’t have to. They can also bike, walk, or even take the free Staunton green trolley.
On the other hand, if our communities are designed around cars, our towns will become sprawling behemoths covered in parking lots, strip malls, and lookalike McMansions. In outlying neighborhoods of Staunton and in many parts of Augusta County, a low-density, suburban style of development has given people little choice but to drive everywhere.
You can save $10 every day by commuting 10 miles round-trip by bicycle instead of car. (Source: PeopleForBikes.org)
We believe that people should have transportation choices. That’s why we support development that is friendly to walking, biking, and transit. At the same time, we recognize that building smart transportation projects like modern streetcar lines (which raises real estate values near the tracks) can encourage denser development. And to prepare for higher energy costs, we need to start building more transit now, as it is many times more energy efficient than personal cars.
