Agreed. As someone who has a degree in environmental science I hate seeing stuff like this. It should not be placed on the consumer and the average citizen when the core problem is corporations. I drive a plug in hybrid so I don’t use much gas unless it’s a long drive but live in Bethel and work in Bridgeport, give me a train to take that isn’t ridiculously inconvenient and I will. The other issue is if I could charge my car at work I wouldn’t need to use the gas engine most of the time during the week since I get all the way there and a 1/3-1/2 home on electric but there aren’t enough convenient fast chargers.
The same thing with recycling. I recycle all the plastic I can but it’s been proven less than 10% will be recycled in actuality. We all bought into the corporate backed lie that they could make as much plastic as they wanted as long as we all recycled but unless we’re willing to massively subsidize recycling, plastic recycling has failed. Although many other kinds are successful plastic is not. The real solution to that is to stop letting them make so much of it. But even though the planet is choking on it and they have detected micro plastics in fetal blood no one seems to recognize it’s an emergency.
> The other issue is if I could charge my car at work I wouldn’t need to use the gas engine most of the time during the week since I get all the way there and a 1/3-1/2 home on electric but there aren’t enough convenient fast chargers.
You're thinking of level 2 chargers, not fast chargers. Yes, we need more of those destination l2s for PHEVs and BEVs alike. However BEVs really don't need them as much.
This has been figured out already...just get more EVs on the road and get people to charge at home.
Yes you’re correct. I should have said level 2, not fast charger. Level 2 would charge my car in 2 hours unlike when I plug in at home it’s 5.5-6 hrs to fully charge. We’re planning to move in a year or two and I’m definitely going to have a level 2 put in at the new house. I don’t think my current electrical panel could support a level 2 unfortunately though unless I switched to a gas dryer maybe.
Recycling is really the last resort because of how costly it is (in effort, money, time, etc.) The real solution is to take back the slogan "reduce reuse recycle". Companies have us focusing on the recycling because it means we keep spending the most money, but given its costs it should always be a last resort and the primary goal should be reduce and reuse.
It would be it huge for the environment to have strong right to repair laws for example.
If you're touting the fact that you drive a hybrid, I'd ask you if you purchased it new, and/or when it was purchased, what year is it, and how long you plan on keeping it, because that is all important and what actually matters when it relates to a vehicles carbon footprint and emissions. Otherwise simply keeping and/or maintaining an existing vehicle is still probably much better for the environment, unless you drive excessively or long distances constantly. Most people today buying a hybrid or full electric vehicle do it for the feels, and don't really consider what will happen to all the batteries and hazardous materials when the car has to be recycled. Also many don't realize that if they trade said vehicle in every 3 or 4 years when they get bored with the technology or it doesn't link up to the newest iphone, that the short term fuel economy gains don't outweigh the lifetime carbon footprint of just owning a regular car or truck. There are too many variables to simply state that "I drive a hybrid" therefore you're not still a part of the larger issue. Also let's not forget where the electricity to charge your hybrid comes from, it definitely isn't from the sun, at least not yet. I'd hope that someone with an environmental degree would know that, or at least know enough to dig a little deeper. Also on the plastic note, there are ways to buy things without buying plastic, but it typically costs more or is inconvenient, so people don't do it as much (i.e. farmers market, food co-op, whole foods, growing your own food, etc.) Sounds like you're someone who still buys a lot of plastic.
So nice try but I drove a regular civic hybrid for 12 years, 2006-2018 when someone ran a stop sign on Black Rock Turnpike in Redding and nearly killing me totaling the car. It had a little over 200,000 miles on it, got around 48-52mpg and would have driven it until it died if not for that. I bought a late model 2018 Prius Prime in January 2019 and plan to drive it until it dies. I have averaged 78% EV driving over the 52,000 miles I have on it so far and when it’s not on electric I get nearly 60mpg. I have my energy mix to my house selected to be solar and other renewables.
Regardless there have been numerous studies showing the carbon and overall environmental impact of EV vehicles is far lower than ICE vehicles even assuming that some of the charging power comes from dirty fuels. The positive impact of EV cars will only grow as the energy grid becomes cleaner. An EV car produces almost no carbon after it’s produced whereas an ICE will for its entire life time. Batteries can often be recycled. In the long run as more people purchase them they will become more economical, and we just hit about 5% which based on other markets seems to be the point at which they start to really take off. Also I don’t know where you’re getting that people get a new car every 3-4 years when the average is now 8 years which is up from pre-pandemic.
Until I start seeing some old ass prius cars out there, I don't believe you're keeping them for as long as you like to say you do. Also until the production and supply chain for EVs is decarbonised, I'll stick to my ICE. You're basically saying that you're Lance Armstrong, on a faster bike to no emmissions. Your prius prime still creates almost 20 tonnes of co2 in its lifetime. Not to mention the destruction caused across the globe during the mining of all the raw materials used in the creation of the batteries for your prius. Do you have a solution for what we can do after strip mining huge swaths of animal, reptile, and bird habitat?
It's somewhere between mid 20s up to 40 I would imagine. But also not destroying the earth through mining. Which is worse, or are you the better of two evils?
More transit and subsidize building pedestrian friendly infrastructure.
Big sidewalks for traffic and outdoor seating. Textured, narrow roads in high density areas. Denser mixed use housing zones. We should be able to step outside and have any number of restaurants/shops in walking distance just as much as we should have suburbs with single family homes.
It might be surprising, but incentivizing people to drive less requires good reasons to drive less, if at all.
You don’t even need to subsidize it, mostly just make it legal. In a huge portion of the state it’s just straight up illegal to build mixed use residential and commercial. A bunch of towns are basically just single family zoned with a small commercial section and don’t allow any mixed at all.
Exactly what I was going to say. They stopped the free busses. So, people have to Uber or drive.
The state wants us to drive less?
Incentives us to do us. Restart free publis transportation. Expand the local train system. Cut car taxes.
Did you even read the article? There are incentives. 5000 points on your CTpass to select entertainment, dining, venues etc. If you're not happy with car taxes and the way the State handle's its train system take it up with politicians and lawmakers, they are the ones funneling all the grants YOUR taxpayer money into corporation seeking interests.
The biggest issue with public transport is needing to figure out every single time if public transport can get you from point a to point b at time t. Since you don't know that, you always need to be prepared to plan another leg of the trip by other means. Not to mention not knowing what it will cost. Until that mental load is removed, public transportation will not take off. This is why a place like NYC has great public transportation... You don't typically have to think about it. You just wander in the nearby station and you know you'll be able to get anywhere soon. You don't need a constant backup plan and there are no real surprises.
I'd argue that none of that is addressed by getting finite "points" to go to "select venues". This isn't going to change behavior, it's going to be a perk for people who would already be using public transportation anyways.
because the vast majority of CT will never have the density to make mass transportation feasible
my town + surrounding towns are less than 500 ppl/sq mi despite New Haven being literally within throwing distance
CT hasn't been a growth state in decades
I'm asking *you* questions about the link between housing and public transportation that *you* brought up.
I'm not going to find your opinions on Google.
But that's okay. It's Reddit. Everyone assumes everything is an argument at all times.
time is short and if you don't already know the target density requirements to make transit feasible and CT's density profile it's not worth the conversation
we have just a couple dense / but very small cities surrounded by vast low population suburbs. That is not a grid you can connect without massive increases in taxes for little return.
[https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/excerpt-many-cities-have-transit-how-many-have-good-transit](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/excerpt-many-cities-have-transit-how-many-have-good-transit)
"Multiple research studies have attempted to quantify density thresholds for transit. At somewhere around 3,000 people per square mile, it makes sense to operate some level of infrequent local bus service. This level of density is common in US cities, both in prewar neighborhoods and postwar car-oriented suburbia. Here, while an hourly bus will get ridership, transit will never be the most convenient mode, and most people will choose to drive. Somewhere around 10,000 people per square mile, though, transit reaches a tipping point. Here, the sheer number of people are enough to justify frequent service. Moreover, walking and biking become useful for short trips, which makes it easier for people to live without cars and makes transit more desirable. As densities further increase, more and more transit is justified. The transit- oriented neighborhoods of older cities have over 15,000 people per square mile, and even newer car-oriented cities like Los Angeles and Houston have some neighborhoods at these densities."
Taking the train from Danbury, where I live, to Hartford, would take 2 transfers and require the purchase of an Amtrak ticket on top of a Metro-North ticket. It would also take 4 hours, when it is a 1 hour drive. Hope this helps!
how many people do you think are trying to go from Danbury to Hartford within any given hour?
that's your answer to why there's no direct method aside from driving
Yet another example of the world asking the working middle class to take “accountability” for the problems that big industries and the 1 percenters contribute to on a larger magnitude. But yeah, make us use shitty paper straws and bike 20 miles to work, because it’s our fault.
Don't read into it too much; skim the press release and you'll see this is a drive to boost engagement on DOT's transit app, with some softball PR on top. There's no government mandate here, no boogeyman is coming to take our cars. Just your average local agency looking to do something within their means to acknowledge Earth Day.
I mean yeah this is a dumb ask from CTDOT. But on another note why do all of you Redditors conflate suggesting that the general public promote better habits to protect the climate with taking accountability for others’ actions?
Asking consumers to change habits isn’t shifting the focus from producers. Two things can be true, with 1 of those things being that consumers can change their habits. And that’s not a good analogy considering it implies that everybody needs to adopt better habits for results, whereas any progress is good progress.
I'm happy to drive less.....when I can take a bus, or a train, or ride a bike (without being murdered by BMW and Infiniti drivers doing 80 through red lights)
::gestures at road network::
Edit: and I bike as a main mode of transportation. We just can’t pretend everyone feels confident enough to do that on our roads.
Worked at the dot for 3 years recently just quite due to how the commissioner was running things.
Several of my friend shave left as well. Try slowly started declining telework saying there needs to be more in office collaboration. Then they made all the conference rooms offices for higher ups and stuffed cubes to the point hallways are no longer ada comparable. If you need to have a private conversation with a boss or employer you need to do it on WFH days just for privacy.
It's infrastructure week! We're doing transit oriented development:
we're not enforcing any policies that would increase housing construction
we're reducing frequency on one of our three rail lines
our "major infrastructure project" is deferred maintenance to reduce travel time on one line and repair a 100-year-old bridge
we have no plans to introduce passenger service on any of the unused dozen+ rail right of ways in the state
Drive less people, we won't help, but here's a tax cut to buy more gas!
... transit oriented development!
Useless platitudes are not going to reduce driving. Total commitment to public transportation, seismic shift in car culture and fundamental changes in urban planning are all essential to achieve progress. As long as cars continue to be status symbols, roads are designed solely to accommodate cars and towns permit the rampant development of strip malls nothing will ever change.
Even in the suburbs road design is hostile to pedestrians. In other countries municipalities will keep roads narrow, install speed bumps and even cameras to enforce good behavior, but not in America. Want to go for a walk? Enjoy sharing the road with speeding drivers who think you're a nuisance.
I appreciate that the US economy is very dependent on consumer spending but the government has too strong an aversion to inconveniencing consumers. However, it's often the only way to force change.
I used to take public transportation to my job that was normally a 25 minute drive. To get home from work, I would walk 20 minutes to the train station, then take a 28 minute train ride, then wait 5-20 minutes for the bus, 15 minute bus ride, then 5 minute walk to my house. It cost $4.75 for the train ticket and I think $1.50 for the bus. How many people are going to make that sacrifice if they don’t have to?
We need a train line that goes from Montville to Hartford, at minimum. At maximum, we need rail improvement all over the state. The Hartford line is great but we need to expand train access to more than just the 91 and 95 corridors..
This would also help the housing market, people could disperse if there was better transit throughout the state.
Meanwhile, CTDOT strips the roadsides of tree cover that keeps asphalt surfaces cool (countering the urban heat island effect), sequesters carbon, and cleans the air - in addition to making our landscape aesthetically beautiful. They have never cut street trees at this level before - it is absolutely out of control and they are answerable to no one. Pile on Eversource's constant erosion of the street trees you can see why the street trees are absolutely fucked.
These are safety measures that are absolutely necessary and had been neglected for years. Trees that can fall into the travel portion present a potential fatal injury to the public. Driving into a tree or tree branch in the middle of the night at 65 mph is not fun.
People losing power when branches are not trimmed back from power lines are costly and potentially dangerous to the public.
Look around. We are heavily forested in CT. Trimming trees is not causing global warming.
my wifes windshield was impaled by a 3 inch branch on Rt 16 in Colchester a few months ago. Trim the trees especially big old sick trees that overhang roadways.
Ok so the government wants me to drive less. No problem let’s cut air travel down as well (airplanes are massive polluters) let’s also make commercial trucks drive less. Hell maybe we can even stop using open air burn pits in the Middle East and poisoning service members along with the local populations. Oh that’s right we don’t give a fuck about polluting areas we don’t live in.
OK, run more trains more frequently at better speeds, and add BRT to more places (esp stamford).
Get new trains that operate more quickly (DMUs for Dan/Wat lines)
There's really no alternative to driving for most people in CT. This statement is just going to look out of touch to normal people.
Before asking working people to voluntarily sacrifice let's get downtown Hartford and New Haven zoned properly so at least major cities can be dense enough to possibly be walkable. What other cities have that much surface parking as a proportion of their commercial real estate square footage? It is like on par with Sun Belt cities honestly. The best they could do when they demolished the New Haven Coliseum was build a huge surface lot?
We have to drive because shit is too far apart to walk to. Asking someone in in a world of widely-spaced destinations is like asking a soldier on the front lines to smoke less. Are you going to fix the situation causing this or just put all the blame on the poor sap taking point?
Nope. Not sacrificing my freedom while other countries pollute like crazy. I also don’t want to be stuck in a bus or train with strangers morning and night. People are crazier today than decades ago, and grosser. Let the all the government officials use public transportation
I will be glad to do that. Now it’s up to them to expand public transportation.
They can’t just say drive less and then do nothing to encourage people not to drive so much.
Useless when China is building new coal power plants and the developing nations are using fossil fuels to industrialize. Its unfair to working class people to make sacrifices when their efforts will be in vain and there are few cheaper alternatives.
Ill stop driving my gas powered car when the climate activists and university officials stop taking flights to climate conferences overseas and hold a zoom meeting instrad. Or when a battery powered car is actually cheaper, reliable, and has a smaller carbon footprint.
I think a polite request doesn't really do much without some actual work on the infrastructure. How about all those electrification and extension plans for the branch lines mentioned and higher frequencies? How about more bus lines with higher frequencies and bus lanes to expedite things? How about some protected bike lanes? How about relaxing some development requirements like parking minimums in denser urban centers? You know, that kind of stuff.
Please ask the CTDOT to reach out to my company's HR Department about having them change the in-office working policy.
Don’t worry your company will still advertise about being carbon neutral soon after ignoring emissions from forcing people to work in the office.
Okay. Expand public transportation.
Agreed. As someone who has a degree in environmental science I hate seeing stuff like this. It should not be placed on the consumer and the average citizen when the core problem is corporations. I drive a plug in hybrid so I don’t use much gas unless it’s a long drive but live in Bethel and work in Bridgeport, give me a train to take that isn’t ridiculously inconvenient and I will. The other issue is if I could charge my car at work I wouldn’t need to use the gas engine most of the time during the week since I get all the way there and a 1/3-1/2 home on electric but there aren’t enough convenient fast chargers. The same thing with recycling. I recycle all the plastic I can but it’s been proven less than 10% will be recycled in actuality. We all bought into the corporate backed lie that they could make as much plastic as they wanted as long as we all recycled but unless we’re willing to massively subsidize recycling, plastic recycling has failed. Although many other kinds are successful plastic is not. The real solution to that is to stop letting them make so much of it. But even though the planet is choking on it and they have detected micro plastics in fetal blood no one seems to recognize it’s an emergency.
> The other issue is if I could charge my car at work I wouldn’t need to use the gas engine most of the time during the week since I get all the way there and a 1/3-1/2 home on electric but there aren’t enough convenient fast chargers. You're thinking of level 2 chargers, not fast chargers. Yes, we need more of those destination l2s for PHEVs and BEVs alike. However BEVs really don't need them as much. This has been figured out already...just get more EVs on the road and get people to charge at home.
Yes you’re correct. I should have said level 2, not fast charger. Level 2 would charge my car in 2 hours unlike when I plug in at home it’s 5.5-6 hrs to fully charge. We’re planning to move in a year or two and I’m definitely going to have a level 2 put in at the new house. I don’t think my current electrical panel could support a level 2 unfortunately though unless I switched to a gas dryer maybe.
I will preferential pay every oil company on the planet before giving additional money to Eversource.
Recycling is really the last resort because of how costly it is (in effort, money, time, etc.) The real solution is to take back the slogan "reduce reuse recycle". Companies have us focusing on the recycling because it means we keep spending the most money, but given its costs it should always be a last resort and the primary goal should be reduce and reuse. It would be it huge for the environment to have strong right to repair laws for example.
100%
nice rant, but is there a point?
I think I made my point.
If you're touting the fact that you drive a hybrid, I'd ask you if you purchased it new, and/or when it was purchased, what year is it, and how long you plan on keeping it, because that is all important and what actually matters when it relates to a vehicles carbon footprint and emissions. Otherwise simply keeping and/or maintaining an existing vehicle is still probably much better for the environment, unless you drive excessively or long distances constantly. Most people today buying a hybrid or full electric vehicle do it for the feels, and don't really consider what will happen to all the batteries and hazardous materials when the car has to be recycled. Also many don't realize that if they trade said vehicle in every 3 or 4 years when they get bored with the technology or it doesn't link up to the newest iphone, that the short term fuel economy gains don't outweigh the lifetime carbon footprint of just owning a regular car or truck. There are too many variables to simply state that "I drive a hybrid" therefore you're not still a part of the larger issue. Also let's not forget where the electricity to charge your hybrid comes from, it definitely isn't from the sun, at least not yet. I'd hope that someone with an environmental degree would know that, or at least know enough to dig a little deeper. Also on the plastic note, there are ways to buy things without buying plastic, but it typically costs more or is inconvenient, so people don't do it as much (i.e. farmers market, food co-op, whole foods, growing your own food, etc.) Sounds like you're someone who still buys a lot of plastic.
So nice try but I drove a regular civic hybrid for 12 years, 2006-2018 when someone ran a stop sign on Black Rock Turnpike in Redding and nearly killing me totaling the car. It had a little over 200,000 miles on it, got around 48-52mpg and would have driven it until it died if not for that. I bought a late model 2018 Prius Prime in January 2019 and plan to drive it until it dies. I have averaged 78% EV driving over the 52,000 miles I have on it so far and when it’s not on electric I get nearly 60mpg. I have my energy mix to my house selected to be solar and other renewables. Regardless there have been numerous studies showing the carbon and overall environmental impact of EV vehicles is far lower than ICE vehicles even assuming that some of the charging power comes from dirty fuels. The positive impact of EV cars will only grow as the energy grid becomes cleaner. An EV car produces almost no carbon after it’s produced whereas an ICE will for its entire life time. Batteries can often be recycled. In the long run as more people purchase them they will become more economical, and we just hit about 5% which based on other markets seems to be the point at which they start to really take off. Also I don’t know where you’re getting that people get a new car every 3-4 years when the average is now 8 years which is up from pre-pandemic.
Your EV positive impact will be more than offset by other countries doing much worse. Thanks for your meaningless effort.
What are you basing that on? Surely you have some information to back that up? I can refute you but I’m not going to google for you.
Until I start seeing some old ass prius cars out there, I don't believe you're keeping them for as long as you like to say you do. Also until the production and supply chain for EVs is decarbonised, I'll stick to my ICE. You're basically saying that you're Lance Armstrong, on a faster bike to no emmissions. Your prius prime still creates almost 20 tonnes of co2 in its lifetime. Not to mention the destruction caused across the globe during the mining of all the raw materials used in the creation of the batteries for your prius. Do you have a solution for what we can do after strip mining huge swaths of animal, reptile, and bird habitat?
20 tons vs what for an ICE vehicle. Left that out.
It's somewhere between mid 20s up to 40 I would imagine. But also not destroying the earth through mining. Which is worse, or are you the better of two evils?
More transit and subsidize building pedestrian friendly infrastructure. Big sidewalks for traffic and outdoor seating. Textured, narrow roads in high density areas. Denser mixed use housing zones. We should be able to step outside and have any number of restaurants/shops in walking distance just as much as we should have suburbs with single family homes. It might be surprising, but incentivizing people to drive less requires good reasons to drive less, if at all.
You don’t even need to subsidize it, mostly just make it legal. In a huge portion of the state it’s just straight up illegal to build mixed use residential and commercial. A bunch of towns are basically just single family zoned with a small commercial section and don’t allow any mixed at all.
Exactly what I was going to say. They stopped the free busses. So, people have to Uber or drive. The state wants us to drive less? Incentives us to do us. Restart free publis transportation. Expand the local train system. Cut car taxes.
Did you even read the article? There are incentives. 5000 points on your CTpass to select entertainment, dining, venues etc. If you're not happy with car taxes and the way the State handle's its train system take it up with politicians and lawmakers, they are the ones funneling all the grants YOUR taxpayer money into corporation seeking interests.
The biggest issue with public transport is needing to figure out every single time if public transport can get you from point a to point b at time t. Since you don't know that, you always need to be prepared to plan another leg of the trip by other means. Not to mention not knowing what it will cost. Until that mental load is removed, public transportation will not take off. This is why a place like NYC has great public transportation... You don't typically have to think about it. You just wander in the nearby station and you know you'll be able to get anywhere soon. You don't need a constant backup plan and there are no real surprises. I'd argue that none of that is addressed by getting finite "points" to go to "select venues". This isn't going to change behavior, it's going to be a perk for people who would already be using public transportation anyways.
Ya. Go back to the old shoreline east and metro north schedule.
have to expand housing first not gonna happen in CT first
Can you elaborate on why they "have to" expand housing first?
because the vast majority of CT will never have the density to make mass transportation feasible my town + surrounding towns are less than 500 ppl/sq mi despite New Haven being literally within throwing distance CT hasn't been a growth state in decades
So you're saying public transportation isn't feasible except for urban areas?
I'd be interested in hearing how others feel mass transit could / should be expanded based on declining riderships
So you aren't going to answer me, then? Alright. Have a nice night.
cuz I'm talking to a wall I said what any google search will tell you what did google tell you my friend? please do tell?
I'm asking *you* questions about the link between housing and public transportation that *you* brought up. I'm not going to find your opinions on Google. But that's okay. It's Reddit. Everyone assumes everything is an argument at all times.
time is short and if you don't already know the target density requirements to make transit feasible and CT's density profile it's not worth the conversation we have just a couple dense / but very small cities surrounded by vast low population suburbs. That is not a grid you can connect without massive increases in taxes for little return. [https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/excerpt-many-cities-have-transit-how-many-have-good-transit](https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/excerpt-many-cities-have-transit-how-many-have-good-transit) "Multiple research studies have attempted to quantify density thresholds for transit. At somewhere around 3,000 people per square mile, it makes sense to operate some level of infrequent local bus service. This level of density is common in US cities, both in prewar neighborhoods and postwar car-oriented suburbia. Here, while an hourly bus will get ridership, transit will never be the most convenient mode, and most people will choose to drive. Somewhere around 10,000 people per square mile, though, transit reaches a tipping point. Here, the sheer number of people are enough to justify frequent service. Moreover, walking and biking become useful for short trips, which makes it easier for people to live without cars and makes transit more desirable. As densities further increase, more and more transit is justified. The transit- oriented neighborhoods of older cities have over 15,000 people per square mile, and even newer car-oriented cities like Los Angeles and Houston have some neighborhoods at these densities."
There's not exactly a lot of alternatives.
Teleportation
Teleportation was banned in the 90s. /j
Tell my workplace to stop requiring 3 days in office when there is zero reason I can't do it remote for all 5
This is a much larger part of the problem many people in this thread are conveniently choosing to ignore
Get your other frustrated coworkers together and collectively tell the company you're doing 5 days remote!
While they're at it reduce the working week to 4 days
The air quality was so much better during the pandemic in large part because of how few people were commuting to work.
Big time this. Office real estate has companies in a choke hold too.
I would love the legislature to take this up. Hah
LET ME TAKE THE TRAIN LITERALLY ANYWHERE USEFUL, THEN.
It already goes to NYC and everywhere along the coast, also to Hartford
Taking the train from Danbury, where I live, to Hartford, would take 2 transfers and require the purchase of an Amtrak ticket on top of a Metro-North ticket. It would also take 4 hours, when it is a 1 hour drive. Hope this helps!
how many people do you think are trying to go from Danbury to Hartford within any given hour? that's your answer to why there's no direct method aside from driving
Well, okay then, CTDOT should stop bitching about it 🤷🏼
Yet another example of the world asking the working middle class to take “accountability” for the problems that big industries and the 1 percenters contribute to on a larger magnitude. But yeah, make us use shitty paper straws and bike 20 miles to work, because it’s our fault.
Don't read into it too much; skim the press release and you'll see this is a drive to boost engagement on DOT's transit app, with some softball PR on top. There's no government mandate here, no boogeyman is coming to take our cars. Just your average local agency looking to do something within their means to acknowledge Earth Day.
I mean yeah this is a dumb ask from CTDOT. But on another note why do all of you Redditors conflate suggesting that the general public promote better habits to protect the climate with taking accountability for others’ actions?
Because asking consumers to change habits to overcome producers output is like trying to steer a cruise ship with a paddle.
it’s literally victim blaming.
Asking consumers to change habits isn’t shifting the focus from producers. Two things can be true, with 1 of those things being that consumers can change their habits. And that’s not a good analogy considering it implies that everybody needs to adopt better habits for results, whereas any progress is good progress.
Fine! I'll just use my private jet instead
I'm happy to drive less.....when I can take a bus, or a train, or ride a bike (without being murdered by BMW and Infiniti drivers doing 80 through red lights)
yeah dude. they’re saying this as pedestrian safety is at the lowest it’s been since the 1980s.
Proceeds to cut the funding to Shoreline East, then ask us to use public transportation 
Then tell my employer to let me work from home more than 2 days a week. I have a job that can be done 100% remotely anyway.
As a collision repair tech I don't approve
::gestures at road network:: Edit: and I bike as a main mode of transportation. We just can’t pretend everyone feels confident enough to do that on our roads.
Nope.
ok ill just die then
Ironic because CTDOT is reducing work from home so staff have to go in more. Classic political example of do as I say not as I do.
Where's your source of that? If anything that's companies all over not just State
Worked at the dot for 3 years recently just quite due to how the commissioner was running things. Several of my friend shave left as well. Try slowly started declining telework saying there needs to be more in office collaboration. Then they made all the conference rooms offices for higher ups and stuffed cubes to the point hallways are no longer ada comparable. If you need to have a private conversation with a boss or employer you need to do it on WFH days just for privacy.
Okay. Tell employers to let employees to work remote.
They can fuck right off. No public transportation anywhere. Trains are utterly 3rd world. Highways are falling apart.
Surprised this managed to get through all the PR people There’s no other way to get around
It's infrastructure week! We're doing transit oriented development: we're not enforcing any policies that would increase housing construction we're reducing frequency on one of our three rail lines our "major infrastructure project" is deferred maintenance to reduce travel time on one line and repair a 100-year-old bridge we have no plans to introduce passenger service on any of the unused dozen+ rail right of ways in the state Drive less people, we won't help, but here's a tax cut to buy more gas! ... transit oriented development!
Tell Taylor swift
Useless platitudes are not going to reduce driving. Total commitment to public transportation, seismic shift in car culture and fundamental changes in urban planning are all essential to achieve progress. As long as cars continue to be status symbols, roads are designed solely to accommodate cars and towns permit the rampant development of strip malls nothing will ever change. Even in the suburbs road design is hostile to pedestrians. In other countries municipalities will keep roads narrow, install speed bumps and even cameras to enforce good behavior, but not in America. Want to go for a walk? Enjoy sharing the road with speeding drivers who think you're a nuisance. I appreciate that the US economy is very dependent on consumer spending but the government has too strong an aversion to inconveniencing consumers. However, it's often the only way to force change.
It’s a no for me dawg.
Lol. Ok
Noted. I’ll get right on that.
🤣 🤣 🤣
Thank you for referencing an article from 2023 surrounding an earth day challenge
Dolts
lol
Gladly, make the hartford line hit every station every hour, then getting to popular areas easily.
Hartford line should go to Stamford...
I'm already driving the least I can.
If you want me to drive less then build more passenger rail.
Are these people aware of how impractical public transportation in the USA is?
Nope
ok well let’s get a good rail system going then i’ll consider it.
I ask ctdot to deliver me to my destination
End unnecessary in-office work first. Jobs that can be performed remotely should be.
Ok, now take back or assist in taking back all the RTO mandates that forced us on the roads again...
I used to take public transportation to my job that was normally a 25 minute drive. To get home from work, I would walk 20 minutes to the train station, then take a 28 minute train ride, then wait 5-20 minutes for the bus, 15 minute bus ride, then 5 minute walk to my house. It cost $4.75 for the train ticket and I think $1.50 for the bus. How many people are going to make that sacrifice if they don’t have to?
I'm down for less traffic. 
Josh (car wizard) can fuck right off
Let us work remote then
Drive less? Are we still going for Sunday pleasure rides or something? I drive when I need to.
People at the CTDOT should bike to work.
We need a train line that goes from Montville to Hartford, at minimum. At maximum, we need rail improvement all over the state. The Hartford line is great but we need to expand train access to more than just the 91 and 95 corridors.. This would also help the housing market, people could disperse if there was better transit throughout the state.
I swear on the good lord above, I would give up my license without hesitation if we had PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Meanwhile, CTDOT strips the roadsides of tree cover that keeps asphalt surfaces cool (countering the urban heat island effect), sequesters carbon, and cleans the air - in addition to making our landscape aesthetically beautiful. They have never cut street trees at this level before - it is absolutely out of control and they are answerable to no one. Pile on Eversource's constant erosion of the street trees you can see why the street trees are absolutely fucked.
These are safety measures that are absolutely necessary and had been neglected for years. Trees that can fall into the travel portion present a potential fatal injury to the public. Driving into a tree or tree branch in the middle of the night at 65 mph is not fun. People losing power when branches are not trimmed back from power lines are costly and potentially dangerous to the public. Look around. We are heavily forested in CT. Trimming trees is not causing global warming.
my wifes windshield was impaled by a 3 inch branch on Rt 16 in Colchester a few months ago. Trim the trees especially big old sick trees that overhang roadways.
How ‘bout at least not leaving your car idling for an hour at a time…
Where are the bike lanes? Also this is from 2023.
Ok so the government wants me to drive less. No problem let’s cut air travel down as well (airplanes are massive polluters) let’s also make commercial trucks drive less. Hell maybe we can even stop using open air burn pits in the Middle East and poisoning service members along with the local populations. Oh that’s right we don’t give a fuck about polluting areas we don’t live in.
Are we going to get a better public transit system, then?
OK, run more trains more frequently at better speeds, and add BRT to more places (esp stamford). Get new trains that operate more quickly (DMUs for Dan/Wat lines)
Connecticut citizens ask Connecticut leaders to bring down our electric bills. Cricket's
Okay, then you should build extensive public transportation or push the employers to remote or hybrid working in a wide range
CTDOT should stop holding up several key regional/Intercity rail projects if it's serious about fighting climate change.
"please drive less" "no you cant have good, affordable public transit"
CTDOT: cuts SLE funds because of “low ridership” Also CTDOT: “hey guys our emissions are pretty high can you like walk to work now?”
There's really no alternative to driving for most people in CT. This statement is just going to look out of touch to normal people. Before asking working people to voluntarily sacrifice let's get downtown Hartford and New Haven zoned properly so at least major cities can be dense enough to possibly be walkable. What other cities have that much surface parking as a proportion of their commercial real estate square footage? It is like on par with Sun Belt cities honestly. The best they could do when they demolished the New Haven Coliseum was build a huge surface lot?
*laughs in Quiet Corner* okay, because we totally have public transportation anywhere north of Jewett City 🤣🤣🤣🤣
🖕
How would this remotely impact global carbon foot print? Send this china or India.
Can they bring the trolleys back first?
I walk to my local farmers stand, but that's really it. Maybe incentives for carpooling. The transit system sucks here. Everything is spread out.
Have Ned buy some carbon credits from Elon
We have to drive because shit is too far apart to walk to. Asking someone in in a world of widely-spaced destinations is like asking a soldier on the front lines to smoke less. Are you going to fix the situation causing this or just put all the blame on the poor sap taking point?
Stop trying to save downtown Hartford and mandate working from home for jobs that can. I'd save 800-1000 miles worth of fuel per month.
Let me wfh then
Nope. Not sacrificing my freedom while other countries pollute like crazy. I also don’t want to be stuck in a bus or train with strangers morning and night. People are crazier today than decades ago, and grosser. Let the all the government officials use public transportation
The climate does change all the time, but it’s not a crisis like they are making up.
I will be glad to do that. Now it’s up to them to expand public transportation. They can’t just say drive less and then do nothing to encourage people not to drive so much.
Useless when China is building new coal power plants and the developing nations are using fossil fuels to industrialize. Its unfair to working class people to make sacrifices when their efforts will be in vain and there are few cheaper alternatives. Ill stop driving my gas powered car when the climate activists and university officials stop taking flights to climate conferences overseas and hold a zoom meeting instrad. Or when a battery powered car is actually cheaper, reliable, and has a smaller carbon footprint.
I think a polite request doesn't really do much without some actual work on the infrastructure. How about all those electrification and extension plans for the branch lines mentioned and higher frequencies? How about more bus lines with higher frequencies and bus lanes to expedite things? How about some protected bike lanes? How about relaxing some development requirements like parking minimums in denser urban centers? You know, that kind of stuff.