Tacoma’s forward thinking Green Ribbon Task Force recently released their draft recommendations to the city. There are a lot of very thoughtful and aggressive recommendations on this list. Considering that 45% of our state’s emissions come from transportation, it is fitting that a large part of the report is dedicated to “Moving and People and Goods More Efficiently”.

The task force will be presenting their recommendations to the public at various forums around the city. I highly recommend that all local enviros, community activists, urbanists and transit geeks attend one of these events, this is exciting stuff.

Here are the public forums. Practice what you preach and try taking the bus to the meetings, all of these locations are very transit accessible (I added the info on routes):

• Wednesday, April 9, 6 pm - Landmark Convention Center, 47 St. Helens Ave. (Take the 11 or 13 )
• Thursday, April 10, 6 pm - Kilworth Lounge (Kilworth Chapel) at University of Puget Sound on N 18th St. (Take the route 16 )
• Wednesday, April 16, 6 pm - Allen Russell Building, 1321 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (Take the high frequency number 2 or 26)
•Thursday, April 17, 6 pm - South End Neighborhood Center, 7802 South L. St. ( I don’t get our to South Tacoma enough and had to look this one up, it looks like the 48 runs right there and the 45 is close as well)

A few of my initial reactions on the “Moving People and Goods More Efficiently” section

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• These recommendations are very progressive and forward thinking policies. They are bolder than anything we have seen out of the city council so far. I hope the council picks up the ball and keeps it rolling.
• T-6: Increase use of transportation modes through one-on-one outreach. This is a great idea. For a city of our size, Tacoma has a great bus network that connects major destinations and makes downtown very transit accessible. A public awareness campaign and increased use of the great system we already have is probably the most cost effective way of reducing transportation related emissions.
• T-1: Car sharing…I love it. People are going to use transit when it’s convenient. Simply put, car sharing makes transit more convenient for commuters and gives transit dependent urbanists a huge incentive to get rid of their cars permanently.
• T-4: More high frequency routes bus routes on city arterials. This is right on. People will switch to transit when its easy to use and efficient, high frequency routes have proven successfull.
• T-5: Construct an initial phase of a streetcar system. Yes, yes, and yes! You already know how I feel about streetcars. This will attract choice riders, encourage dense neighborhoods, and attract new businesses.
• T-7 Biking is good and we need more bike and pedestrian friendly streets and neighborhoods.
• Parking: Reduce parking requirements on new developments and charge for parking for employees. Parking has to be part of the transit discussion and the commissions’ recommendations are very good. Encouraging people to take transit requires incentives (like subsidized bus passes) and disincentive. Charging employees the real cost of parking is the easiest way to disincentivise single occupancy vehicle use. In terms of the parking requirement for new residential development, reducing it is good. I would encourage them to take it a step further and eliminate it. Let the market determine how much parking is needed, not 1970s auto-centric city ordinances.

Thank you Green Ribbon Task Force for all of your hard and thoughtful work! See you at one of the forums.