South Burlington, VT - Public transportation in Northwestern
Vermont could be significantly expanded and improved in the future
if a new action team achieves its goals.
The Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization (CCMPO)
and the Chittenden County Transit Authority (CCTA) have announced
plans to collaborate to establish a new regional public transportation
district to improve the way public transportation service is provided
and funded in the region. Bill Knight, CCMPO Executive Director
and Chris Cole, CCTA General Manager, will lead the effort.
Bill Keogh, the CCMPO representative from Burlington, will chair
the team.
"
Our purpose is to improve economic development in the region, and
to improve mobility and the quality of life for the people who
live, work, and recreate here," Keogh said. "Our current
public transportation services are antiquated in their funding
and governance and are unable to meet the needs of our citizens.
Our commuting patterns and travel patterns have changed over the
last thirty years but our public transportation system hasn’t.”
Keogh said the committee will be comprised of members of the CCMPO
and CCTA boards as well as other community representatives. These
will include the business and industrial communities, senior, disabled
and environmental communities, representatives from institutions
of transit users such as the University of Vermont and Fletcher
Allen Health Care, and other stakeholders.
The group will work with the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
The CCMPO is Vermont's only federally funded and locally controlled
metropolitan transportation planning organization. CCTA is Vermont's
first and only transit authority, providing bus service to several
cities and towns within the region.
The task force will meet on the first Monday of each month at CCMPO
headquarters at 30 Kimball Avenue, South Burlington. Meetings are
open to the public and held in facilities that are wheelchair accessible
and reachable by public transportation.
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