Transportation For Pennsylvania

On the excellent Crossroads blog, Transportation For Pennsylvania partner Renew Lehigh Valley considers what it will take to make transportation a campaign issue in next year’s gubernatorial election. Here’s the meat of th piece, but be sure to click through to read the entire post:

The key for 2010 will be generating enough public and media interest so that the question that has surfaced again and again during this year’s gubernatorial race in Virginia–”What is your plan for the state’s transportation system?”–can be put into play here in Pennsylvania. Were transportation to become an issue here in 2010, a number of more Pennsylvania-specific questions for the candidates would naturally follow: What is your vision for how Pennsylvania can work with USDOT to implement an integrated rail system in the Commonwealth? (Note: PennDOT’s state rail plan will be completed by early 2010.) Will you continue the important work of the “Smart Transportation” initiative started by PennDOT Secretary Biehler? How can Pennsylvania promote transit-oriented development as an economic driver in older core communities?

At Transportation For Pennsylvania, we are working to develop a game plan to ensure that all the candidates are discussing transportation issues in their campaigns. We believe that this discussion will lead to an increased awareness among the public about the complicated issues facing our transportation systems.