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A couple of weeks ago, I bumped into David Coyte of the Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation while working on a local historic home with other community activists.

David expressed his appreciation of our efforts to save the house. I expressed my appreciation for his efforts to save the region.

While far too many of our regional leaders have resigned themselves to anachronism by simply adopting the same outdated methodology that helped create our transportation problems, David and his cohorts at CART have consistently prodded them to consider alternatives a little more forward thinking than the increased dependence on single-passenger, fossil fuel burning automobiles that threatens our economic and environmental sustainability.

His May 17 letter to the Tribune, reprinted below, does just that:

This is an open letter to the public also sent to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet:

Public perception is that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is not really interested in public input.

We at Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation or CART would like to know what traffic mitigation measures are being implemented. Since the additional congestion from this project will impact us at the most critical air quality periods we would expect that Kentucky Transportation Cabinet would implement aggressive CM measures.

Are there going to be express buses from New Albany or other western areas to help with commuter congestion?

Has KYTC considered a commuter rail service from New Albany to downtown during this period? There is available ROW to implement such. This option could significantly reduce congestion and speed commutes. Bus service helps, but still contributes to traffic and congestion.

What alternative street routes are being emphasized and how are they being marked?

What is KYTC, or KIPDA, doing to monitor traffic flows during this time to evaluate the effectiveness of these routes, our urban street capacity, emergency routing, etc.

We look forward to a reply before the public meeting.

— David Coyte, CART – Louisville

Similarly, the LEO has taken responsibility for keeping the public informed of those alternatives, while the Courier-Journal and its corporate publisher Gannett have eschewed journalistic integrity, choosing to accommodate the often hypocritical and nonsensical pronouncements of transportation officials rather than challenge them.

LEO staffer Stephen George, in particular, has single-handedly outworked the C-J, questioning local politicos’ stances on 8664, Smart Growth, and any number of planning issues that they’d just as soon not have to explain and often can’t.

Most recently, George posed a challenging question to himself: Can one live in Louisville without a car? He answered it the only way someone really could, by giving up his car for six weeks.

The results of that experiment produced a LEO cover story:

Share the Road by Stephen George, LEO

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