The Michigan Land Use Institute is pleased to submit the following comments to the TC-TALUS Board regarding the TC-TALUS Long-Range Plan.


The Michigan Land Use Institute is pleased to submit the following comments to the TC-TALUS Board regarding the TC-TALUS Long-Range Plan.
The Traverse City Area Transportation and Land Use Study (TC-TALUS), the regional transportation planning agency, wants feedback on their draft long-range plan, which recommends how local agencies should spend scarce transportation dollars. While there are many bright spots in the plan, it assumes we can build our way out of traffic problems with new and wider roads. It fails to recognize the role that demand-side strategies-like parking management, reliable transit and safe bike networks-play in reducing traffic at the busiest times of the day.
MLUI’s latest report describes how rail travel could boost tourism and development in the area; the upgrades needed to run passenger trains along the tracks; and how comparable towns around the country restored old train lines.
The Michigan Land Use Institute will release the report, “Getting Back on Track: Uncovering the Potential for Trains in Traverse City,” on July 19 at the historic train depot in Traverse City. The report will describe what it would take to have some type of train running on the 11-mile stretch of tracks between Traverse City and the Acme/Williamsburg area.

If you’re a downtown Traverse City employee, you are eligible for one of 50 free Bay Area Transportation Authority passes that will allow you to take unlimited rides on all City Loops and Village Loop routes from July through December 2014.

On Wednesday, the Senate’s Infrastructure Modernization Committee passed five bills, three of the House bills and two from the Senate, that would flow new transportation money based on the normal transportation funding formula, Act 51. The bills would ensure that all transportation agencies get a share of the funding.