Mike isn’t the only one in the office with a bad commute. While Mike’s commute of 35 minutes has my 30 minute commute from Newtown beat by 5 minutes at least he has options. But while Mike has the train there is no form of mass transportation available to me.

While I listened to Gov. Rell promote her transportation plan on the radio this morning I was stuck in traffic on RT 34 – also 20 minutes late to work. Rell cited improvements in 91, 95, 84 – and rail but she didn’t mention anything that I had not heard before.

I am sure that I am preaching to the choir. I hear others complain about traffic all the time. What I don’t understand is why so many of the people that I hear complain about this very issue are sold by the Rell transportation plan that falls short of fixing our transportation system that already lags 4 years behind – and would not take effect until ’08.

Tell me, why are people willing to settle for so little??

We live in "Car" necticut where the culture is oriented to car travel. Job advertisements even for desk jobs warn applicants that they need a valid driver's license to apply meetings about public transportation are not accessible easily or at all by public transit, directions to get to them by public transit are not supplied, people who take transit all the time are seen as "losers" and we spend millions of dollars on parking garages. And do you know of anywhere in CT where there is a municipal planning vision of being able to live there without needing a car?
Lastly what ConnDOT needs, as do all State's transportation departments, are financial angels willing pay off their massive bonding debts.

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Double-Decker highways for 95 & Merritt Parkways between certain corridors where there is heavy traffic, i.e, Greenwich to Sikorsky Bridge on the Merritt. Or, we can build alternate routes. We do need better commuter public transportation, state subsidized; we are at the bottom of states when it comes to supplementing public transportion in the nation. We have a choice to make: either, we are our own state, or, we are a bedroom state to New York. I don't think any of us want to think of ourselves as second to New York, or New York only commuters. While this is a very important population/demographic to the state, we are our own state. Build double deckers; others have done it and been successful, or so I think. What do you think out there? We have an opportunity to have our voices heard by Mayor DeStefano as he formulates his views and ideas on how to move CT forward as our next Governor!

DePalma states: "But today, like almost every single time I take Metro North into work, I was 40 minutes late..."

C'mon, I thought MetroNorth was more or less always on time. Exactly how many times have you been late because of the trains? Are you really late almost every single time?

Plus I'm trying to figure out the math that you suggest in comparing CT to Texas. Do you mean CT should comparably spend $29Billion to TX's $159Billion? Or is the correct number the $29Million you stated?

I'm going to presume the number you intended was the $29Billion. (since this would be 30x the $1Billion you say that Rell is committed to spending.) Now tell me, how on Earth can you suggest that CT should have 1/5 the transportation budget that TX has, when it has only 1/50 the area?

TX-- 268,000sq miles
CT-- 5,500sq miles

But I hear you loud and clear, DeStefano would like to see 30X the transportation spending that Rell has committed to.

I have ridden MetroNorth for over 30 years and was never more than 10-15 minutes late.
However, the Mayor has a chance to develop a more transit-friendly culture as part of his campaign that is as important as how much money the State bonds for transportation. For example, if we have people in CT that brag how they have "never been on a train or bus" or if major organizations and state agencies plan events in non-transit accessed venues or if transit directions are left off publicity materials or if people living in cities need to drive to the suburbs for budget-friendly groceries, we can spend all the money we want on transportation but still have congestion and traffic accidents.

Thanks for responding to my blog. This was my first time posting one so I'm glad it started some dialogue. In response to Michael, who asked how often I'm late due to trains, this is the 4th time in in 7 weeks that I've had a delay of more than 10 minutes. During that time I've probably taken the train no more than 10 times. This is the main reason I don't take the train more often. If I have an early appointment, it's not worth the risk.