Today’s New Haven Register focused on a recent federal report that saw ferries as a way to relieve traffic gridlock. A transportation bill approved by Congress appropriated $5 million for a ferry to be built in New Haven, located at the junction of I-91 and I-95. Funding was also appropriated for Stamford and Bridgeport.

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The Mayor has been stressing the importance of road alternatives, ferries, rail and barges as a way to fix our infrastructure.  This is particularly evident in a state like Connecticut, where our traffic problems lead to economic stagnation. Though ferries won’t solve all our problems, they are a part of a larger vision that leadership must adopt in order to ease the frustration felt on our highways each day. This expansion is a vital sign that even those in Washington have recognized our problems. If we could only get Governor Rell to do the same, we wouldn’t be only spending a sparse $1.3 billion over 10 years on what might be one of the most important problems we face.

I feel incredibly compelled to write about traffic today. I wanted to come into the office by 9:30 this morning, after I drop off a friend at the Bridgeport Ferry. Driving from New Haven to Bridgeport is supposed to take around 30 minutes. Today, it took me well over an hour just to get there. Not only did I get in late, but my friend missed her ferry, pushing everyone's schedule back an hour.

Now, I have to say that I am extremely fortunate that I don’t need to take this route every day. The ones I truly feel sorry for are the Connecticut commuters who are required to sit in traffic every morning because I-95 is often seen as the only option to travel between New York and Connecticut. As a result, traffic congestion on I-95 gets worse by the year while no viable alternatives are being adopted by commuters.

We need to offer Connecticut commuters a better alternative. We need to increase the popularity of commuter rails by strengthening and adding commuter lines. For example, Mayor DeStefano has consistently called for strengthening our current commuter system while adding a line that spans from New Haven to Springfield, MA connecting New Haven and Hartford to Bradley International and offering drivers a more practical alternative to driving.

Over on Connecticut Local Politics is a great discussion about transportation issues. I was planning to add my thoughts there as a comment, but it turned into a fairly long post, so I’ll put it up here.

I would like to note that these are my own thoughts and not a transportation policy statement from the Mayor. It draws a lot of things that Mayor DeStefano has spoken about, as well as discussions I’ve had, comments on the Connecticut Local Politics site, and so on. One of the things that I like about working for Mayor DeStefano’s campaign is that he understands the importance of give and take and a respectful debate in the formulation of well thought out policies.

I would like to see our transportation policies thought out better. Too much of our transportation policy, like so many other polices of the Rowland and Rell years, has been reactive. It is only dealt with when we already have a problem. We should be looking at ten-year plans.

This Earth Day, I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about the small ongoing discussions that we all face in our day to day life. People have repeatedly pointed out to me that Mayor DeStefano drives a hybrid. Driving a hybrid isn’t a big sacrifice. I drive a 2001 hybrid which is one of the best cars I’ve driven in years, and each year they get better. However, it does reflect the sort of choices that we make in our day-to-day life.

Gov. Rell has talked about improving the transportation infrastructure in Connecticut. It was a big issue in the 2nd Districit congressional race last year. Everybody knows something needs to be done. The New Haven Register reports this morning:

Construction on the next phase of the Interstate 95 rehabilitation project — just east of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge from the New Haven-East Haven line to Stiles Street — will be delayed until late summer because the state did not award the contract soon enough after bids were received.

One of the moments that made me realize how much I like Mayor DeStefano was last spring when he traded his Lincoln Navigator for a hybrid Toyota Prius. It would have been easy for him to keep his SUV: lots of politicians drive big cars, and the Mayor liked his for its size and style. But he made the switch to set an example.

Attaching the “1:NH” license plate that's reserved for the Mayor to a hybrid made visible Mayor DeStefano's commitment to the environment and to a wide range of renewable energy programs that are making New Haven's air safer to breathe. Even more than that, making the switch showed me that the Mayor could change, and that he had a sense of humor about himself—2 things that are probably even harder to find in a politician than a commitment to the environment.

I also liked that Mayor DeStefano didn't think setting an example was enough. New Haven started offering free parking to hybrid cars that registered with the city. Unlike the federal government, which shows no sign of regulating the destructive impact inefficient cars have on America's environment, New Haven decided to offer clear, reasonable, and just plain useful incentives to drivers who decided to do the right thing.