October 11, 2023

Connecticut Department of Transportation

Public Comments on Proposed Service and Fare Changes

My name is Pete Harrison and I am the Director of DesegregateCT, the pro-homes coalition of 80 nonprofit and neighborhood organizations dedicated to reforming local and state land use policy to ensure a more prosperous, equitable, and sustainable Connecticut. We are also a program of the Regional Plan Association, a tri-state planning, research, and advocacy nonprofit that has been active in Connecticut for over a century.  On behalf of our coalition, I am submitting this letter to register our deep concerns with the proposed transit service and fare changes. At a time when the affordable housing crisis and climate crisis have converged, we must double down on our efforts to expand transit service and to concentrate our growth in transit oriented communities.

Our organization works to educate the public and elected officials on how current local and state land use policies – such as banning multi-family homes, requiring large lot sizes and parking minimums, and blocking density near transit – play a key role in the staggering level of economic and racial segregation in Connecticut. Policies like these also undermine transit ridership by preventing a critical mass of homes and jobs from being located near transit. These factors limit the access of historically marginalized populations to more affordable homes, better public services and amenities, and a larger labor pool. Nearly ⅓ of households in Connecticut pay 30% or more of their monthly income towards housing, and nearly the same amount pays 20% or more in transportation costs. This is an unsustainable burden for our state’s most vulnerable residents and will only continue to harm our economy and our public finances - unless we invest in transit service and transit oriented communities without raising fares significantly.

These land use policies are also a major contributor to the state’s high levels of carbon emissions and pollution. Zoning-enforced sprawl makes almost every community in Connecticut car-dependent and forces a significant amount of land and resources to be consumed by car infrastructure, particularly parking. The transportation sector alone accounts for 38% of the state’s carbon emissions and 80% of its petroleum consumption. Research suggests that the growth of working from home during the pandemic has counterintuitively increased the amount of driving in Connecticut, as people are making more short trips near home during the day. This is the opposite direction we should be going in to face the climate crisis, and the only alternative is more transit ridership.

Fare increases and service cuts will reduce ridership and make it impossible to address our state’s current economic or environmental problems caused by bad land use policies. Despite the pandemic and the rise of work-from-home, transit ridership is not in a death spiral. Bus ridership overall has nearly returned to pre-COVID numbers and in some cities has surpassed it. Rail service overall is not back to pre-COVID numbers, but it is not far off, especially at peak times. Cutting some lines, particularly Shore Line East, will continue to undermine efforts to increase ridership through land use reforms. 

With an infusion of federal money for infrastructure and transit, we can see the opportunity before us to recommit to transit and transit-oriented communities. The state has made an effort to support both, most recently in passing part of our Work Live Ride proposal in the 2023 legislative session of the Connecticut General Assembly. But we have a significant amount of work to do at the local, regional, and state level. Now is not the time to scale back the state’s commitment to transit.

Instead, it is time to think even bigger and look ahead to the future – to see the value in supporting our transit service and to plan expansion. It is our coalition’s belief that the climate crisis will trigger a great internal migration in the years and decades ahead from parts of the country more vulnerable to heat, drought, and storms, to parts that are less vulnerable. 

Connecticut will be uniquely positioned to grow significantly in this new era, despite its own vulnerabilities to climate change and the current lack of planning for it. We believe it is possible that Connecticut could grow from 3.6 million people today to over 5 million by 2050. If we plan for this type of growth now, which includes reimagining our transit system and our land use policies near transit routes, we will become an economic and cultural juggernaut in the 21st century, much like we were in the 19th century. 

We commend the reports CT DOT has generated exploring the economic potential of transit, tracking environmental metrics, and even promoting zoning changes outlined by our coalition. We understand that the department knows how central a robust transit network is to addressing economic growth, racial equity, and environmental sustainability. We also understand that the shift to work-from-home has changed commuting patterns and revenue generation for our transit system. But it is short-sighted to implement service cuts and fare increases when so much about the built environment is changing in our state and in our country. We urge the department to think creatively about how to survive this rough patch in order to lay the foundation for a triumphant future for all of us.

Sincerely,

Pete Harrison

Director, DesegregateCT