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"We want to be the greenest state for transportation," says MassDOT Deputy Director of Planning Clinton Bench in the UMass Amherst Magazine for Summer 2011.
Bench is one of several transportation experts and UMass Amherst alumni featured in the article about the UMass Amherst Transportation Center entitled, "Keep On Moving On." The Center works with faculty, students, and transportation stakeholders on current and future issues surrounding the movement of people and goods across the Commonwealth and the nation.
Bench focuses on the importance of strategic planning and community involvement in the process of making transportation investments, along with MassDOT's "GreenDOT" priority of healthy and sustainable options.
"We want to make transit improvements that will encourage people away from automobiles to mass transit," says Bench. "We want to move transporting goods from truck to rail, and we want to be green in how we do business in the department."
Check out the entire article on transportation in the UMass Amherst magazine on the web at http://www.umassmag.com/
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How does this fit in with the indefinite delay of the Green Line Extension?
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While the Patrick Administration can provide pages of excuses for why it can’t meet it’s legal, court-mandated obligation to complete the Green Line by 2014, the fact of the matter is those in position to make it happen on time are not interested or invested in doing so. This is a huge mistake on the Administration’s part, economically, environmentally, and politically. I wonder what the DOT’s plan is for when the Federal goverment pulls all highway funding from the state due to it’s failure to meet this obligation.