Transportation Reform: The Ticket Back to Town

Urban Sustainability Forum

November 19, 2009

6:00- Reception

6:30- Program

Academy of Natural Sciences
19^th St and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia

As we have followed the interstates and built new communities farther and farther out we have been forced to build thousands of miles of additional roads, highways and other infrastructure. Some of the financial resources needed for this expansion have been transferred from our older cities and towns. This pattern of development has left brownfields, decaying infrastructure, communities isolated from opportunities, and has destroyed the farmland, forests, and fields that define our countryside.

There is a better way.

James Corless is the Director of Transportation for America, a coalition of over 250 organizations working to promote a new national transportation policy that’s smarter, safer, cleaner and provides more choice. At November’s Sustainability Forum, Corless will discuss how regions can acquire additional tools to build more sustainable communities through the federal transportation reauthorization bill that is now being formulated in Congress. In addition, he will share his experience in California as a transportation planner who successfully advocated for a state law which requires transportation planning to incorporate sustainability measures that reduce green house gases and energy use.

Barry Seymour, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, will provide an overview of regional planning in Southeastern PA followed by a local panel of regional officials which will be moderated by Rachel Weinberger from the University of Pennsylvania. Represented on the panel will be Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities Rina Cutler, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, and an elected official from one of the first suburbs surrounding the city.

Register here and add your voice to the conversation!